Electronic Arts' upcoming The Simpsons Game is generating a little controversy even before it's release. The title in which members of the Simpson Clan are dropped into parodies of famous games, including Medal of Homer and Neverquest, has not been well received by some of the publishers whose properties are being satirized.
CVG spoke to Simpsons Game designer Greg Rizzer about the game and he revealed that changes had to be made after GTA creator Rockstar complained about the Grand Theft Scratchy level.
Quote:
"I was always under the impression that when you do parody, it's a sign of respect... If we make fun of Grand Theft Auto, we're not going to hurt the sales of Grand Theft Auto... But yeah, we've definitely had some reactions - we've had to pull stuff from the game", The Simpsons lead designer Greg Rizzer revealed to us in an interview earlier this week.
Seriously? Rockstar is upset over someone parodying their product? What would the GTA series be if other IP owners, maybe including the owners of The Godfather, Goodfellas, Scarface, Boys N Tha Hood and Menace 2 Society, did the same to them? Their entire property is based on satirical riffs on other, existing products.
However, some other studios apparently have more of a sense of humor when it comes to their games
Quote:
I don't know if you've seen Sitar Hero? We did Apu playing this 60-button controller and songs like Pour Some Curry On Me - we made this wonderful parody poster and the guys from Harmonix loved it and we sent them 20 copies of the poster. They just loved it so much."
Although it should be noted that Harmonix no longer makes Guitar Hero, so their reaction may not be a good barometer.
"I don't know who specifically at Rockstar", Rizzer said. "I'm guessing probably more than anyone it was a lawyer. The people who work on that product, I doubt they were like, 'Stop that!'".
...it was probably a lawyer. Why do we have those people again? They don't seem to be good at anything but fucking up good things. At least, that has been my experience.
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Didn't GTA San Andreas take a few cheap shots at driv3r with billboards on the train level, if it's ok for them to do it should be ok the other way round. This sounds like sour grapes and not very impressive.
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Ugh, that's such a pet peeve of mine. "People in quotes must be respected and right, because a quote of someone who's dead or famous must mean something." - Some other guy getting quoted.o.O
Didn't GTA San Andreas take a few cheap shots at driv3r with billboards on the train level, if it's ok for them to do it should be ok the other way round. This sounds like sour grapes and not very impressive.
They both took shots at each other. In Driver 3, you could find Tommy Vercetti running aroudn with a pair of water wings on.
What a horrible way to turn what could have been free PR into bad PR. Did they just hire someone from the big S? I kid, I kid.
This just got added to my watch list.
Real lawers correct me when I'm wrong but if GTA is the subject of their parody Rockstar has absolutly no leg to stand on. Sataire is protected speech. (ok, link above beat me to it)
I've seen a video clip from the Simpsons game where Scratchy was walking around in a pimp outfit - I thought it looked great, but that seems like the GTA parody part, so it's probably cut. Shame.
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Keep an ear out - I have heard that some retailers will have posters avialable for preorders on the game. Different retailers will have different posters, so look and see if the parody that you want is coming to EB or Gamestop or whoever.
Except that it was more likely a Trademark concern. Trademarks are nasty, unruly beasts that require active defense to preserve. People are almost obligated to file complaints like that if they care about the mark. Allowing a reproduction of essentially 75% of their mark to go unopposed by a direct competitor, even in a parody/satire, could well weaken the strength of their mark.
Theoretically.
It's really up to each individual lawyer to make a judgement call on things like that (whether it's worth taking action over). But lawyers like to get paid and take all the blame if playing fast and lose winds up ruining their chances of stopping real abuse.
