Icarian Forcefully Renamed

[bean19]

Over the Top games is being forced to rename their downloadable Wii game entitled "Icarian" due to a trademark disagreement with an unknown game developer.

As Nintendo is the owner of Kid Icarus, many gamers are speculating that Nintendo is responsible for muscling out the indy developer.

There will be a new version of the game with the new name in the next days. That's the only change. It has to do with a trademark claim by another videogame company. We are a small indie developer and could not fight for our rights.

Source: Edge (http://www.edge-online.com/news/over-the-top-games-forced-to-rename-icarian-kindred-spirits) via Kotaku (http://kotaku.com/5302290/kid-icarus-clone-changes-its-name-to-something-less-icarian).

[LilBunnyFuFu]

So, Nintendo has right to Greek mythology now?

[Zander]

Sure They Do.™

[bean19]

So, Nintendo has right to Greek mythology now?
To be fair, the little indy developer that can't afford a lawsuit has most pointedly NOT pointed at Nintendo.

But, you know, who else has even a shadow of a claim on Icarus. Obviously, Greek mythology is absolutely unclaimable intellectual property, but this little developer can't afford the cost of WINNING a lawsuit (or, if Nintendo is the jerk muscling them out) to piss off the only console they are releasing their game on.

[surj0]

Isn't the whole game basically, in generic terms, a kid icarus clone though? I mean, if you call it Icarian and your game resembles a modern Kid Icarus that pretty much means you're trying to milk it.

edit: so i guess it has nothing to do with nintendo?

http://twitter.com/OverTheTopGames/status/2310780868

[drakkarim]

who gives a shit what its called? it'll either suck or it won't, the name won't make a difference.

quit your bitching and finish the game.

but hey, good marketing move on their part.

[Jiguryo]

In fact, it's probably because of this online game: http://www.ikariam.com.

[Chimpbot]

To be fair, the little indy developer that can't afford a lawsuit has most pointedly NOT pointed at Nintendo.

But, you know, who else has even a shadow of a claim on Icarus.

A company called Gameforge has a brower game called Ikariam (http://ikariam.org/). Phonetically, Icarian sounds almost exactly the same and the two titles could easily get mixed up. Granted, one is a brower game while the other is a WiiWare exclusive...but that's irrelevant.

Nintendo went to the trouble of not only authorizing, but actually releasing the game when it was titled Icarian; why would they, all of a sudden, demand that the game be retitled this late in the game? Any demands from them of this sort would have come much, much earlier in the process.


I hate you, Jiguryo, for beating me by one lousy minute.

[bean19]

In fact, it's probably because of this online game: http://www.ikariam.com.
Yep. You're right that this is probably it. Thanks.

Chimpboy - you're right too. . . just late by a minute. :)