There can only be one!

Project Tank done gone f*cked up. Wargaming, the developer behind the popular online game World of Tanks, is suing Changyou.com Limited and Beijing Gamease Age Digital Technology Co., Ltd for copyright infringement. The game in questions is Project Tank, which operated under the name Tanks Ground War, and plans to operate under the name Ground War Tanks – all which leave a lot to be desired.

The suit alleges that Project Tank is “an unoriginal and disturbingly similar game directly based on the World of Tanks,” and once you learn some of the details, you'll probably agree. According to the suit, Project Tank “copied the plot, theme, dialogue, mood, setting, pace, and character of World of Tanks, in addition to copying specific features, items, tanks, and artwork.”

The most entertaining of the claims – which has supporting evidence – is that the developers of Project Tank copied tank models and textures from World of Tanks. The complaint reads:

Copying is evidenced by the fact that the designers of Project Tank copied historical inaccuracies found in WoT, each of which does not affect game play, but which was included in WoT to simplify the tank modeling and rendering process. Copying is further evidenced by the fact that the designers of Project Tank copied tanks from WoT that never existed in real life, and which included features original in WoT.

Some other things that were copied from World of Tanks are viewing tanks in a garage with similar UI layouts; similar depots, stores, service screen, tech trees and vehicle research screens; and one of World of Tanks' patents, US8425330, for “dynamic battle session matchmaking in a multiplayer game.”

Changeyou, the Project Tank team, responded on the Gamebox site:

Wargaming.net LLP has recently launched a series of underhand actions against Project Tank, including using their connections to shut down our facebook page, over PT's purported “infringement” of their intellectual property rights.

Continuously sabotaged by Wargaming, Project Tank and Gamebox have never intended to pose a threat or compete at any platform with World of Tanks. The graphics used in Project Tank are our efforts to reconstruct WWII battle scenes. We feel truly shocked and bulling by Wargaming, a giant company of the gaming industry who is apparently “threatened” by a closed beta phase browser game aiming to provide a cheaper, fairer, and more accessible war game to players around the world.

Really? Take a look at screenshots of Project Tank and you'll see that they copied World of Tanks. Even the logo is similar. I guess they're just embarrassed that hundreds of Chinese companies copy successful ones, but they're the ones that get punished.

The Chinese game Project Tank is still in closed beta on Facebook, so there's still time to steal other ideas from Wargaming before it launches.

You can follow Senior Editor Lance Liebl on Twitter @Lance_GZ. He likes talking sports, video games, movies, and the stupidity of celebrities. Email at LLiebl@GameZone.com

[Gamebox via Polygon]