October 29, 2007
Is there a simmering feud in Game Developer Land?GamePolitics readers may recall the dust-up between EA and Rockstar at the recent Leipzig Game Convention. Rockstar objected to satirical GTA references in the upcoming The Simpsons game (see: Rockstar Bullies EA Over Parody).
Specifically, a poster for Grand Theft Scratchy, a GTA parody which appears in The Simpsons, drew Rockstar's ire.
A trio of writers on the game have fired back at Rockstar on Geoff Keighley's Game Head program. Matt Selman (left) explained the controversy:
The game begins with Bart wanting to play a game called Grand Theft Scratchy. Of course this is a parody of Grand Theft Auto. And Marge immediately takes it away from him. She tries to clean up the town and stop the game from being distributed in Springfield because Marge is against video game violence. She uses horrific violence to stop video game violence... in a video game.
Thats called irony... The people who make Grand Theft Auto, they spazzed out like little babies.
Writer Matt Warburton (right) chimed in:
They're supposed to be rockstars... That's not a big Rockstar move, to be afraid of The Simpsons making fun of their game.
Selman also dinged Rockstar a bit for the delayed release of GTA 4:
We couldn't get our game out in time, so we're afraid that the gamers -- who are not morons -- are going to get confused by an Itchy and Scratchy poster of Grand Theft Scratchy - they're going to think that's the same thing as Grand Theft Auto...
EA lawyers are afraid to use the name Grand Theft Scratchy in promoting the game... [Rockstar's] games are full of satire, lame attempts at parody... basically putting the words sixty-nine in wherever they can find it...
Selman eventually paid homage to GTA, but couldn't resist a parting shot:
Their games are amazing. Trust me, I'll be the first person in line to play Grand Theft Auto 4... in five years when it comes out.
Comments
/yaqn. Can't you come up with any new material? Honestly.
but its their IP and they can be bitchy about it if they want to.
Yeah, they can bitch about it, but I'm not to fond of all that legal action. Isn't parody protected?
The simpson show has been unfunny for years now.
but they can't end the fucking series. The sad fact that they need to rip something off Oh I mean parody A good franchise is sad.
fuck the simpsons. fuck you all to fucking hell.
It is true though that the Simpsons has sucked for years. Just let it die already.
i see your point, but satire comedy shows that have adverts including clips of their satire, would surely be guilty of the same?
using bits of a game to advertise it is (imo) hardly 'not right', and if the bits of the game include sattire, then so what?
the simpson's show does it all the time, with satire being in loads of their adverts.
You seem to have some deep rooted issues with The Simpsons. Did they abuse you when you were little? Point on the Krusty doll where The Simpsons touched you.
If you were ranting against Family guy I could understand, but geez! The movie that just came out wasn't bad. It really gave the series a shot in the arm so I think it has a few good years left.
I think this was a battle between lawyers, not so much between the developers themselves.
I'm not. A spastics a spastic and no amount of nannying is going to make call them anything but what they are: Spazzes.
Hooah!
Failing that, sic Madden on them.
It deos seem like Rockstar went a bit too far on this one, though.
So why this one?
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
Purely because it is competing against it from a rival firm on the same media type. When it was a film/tv spoof it is fine. When it is a game that competes for money and sales, that's another thing.
As for Simpsons Hit and Run, they probably weren't bothered because it was a complete bag of s***e. This new game might actually be half decent?
If it is a genuine stance being held by the company at large...grow the hell up, guys. You've made your name on controversy and parody. First mission of GTAIV ring a bell?
Also, someone give pen gun a tranq. What the hell is up with that, dude?
If you ask me the EA guys are being worse than Rockstar in any event. Sure Rockstar's crying foul over something that seems trivial, but going on TV and calling them babies (who the hell still calls people babies? What are they 10?) and taking shots at the game series they want to parody? Yeah, that's a real good way to get them to see your side of things.
Yet EA have been around since 1982 and haven't made a single game worthy of sniffing R*'s shit. Maybe once EA decides to actually let their developers make a good game instead of rushing a shitty one out in a matter of months, then sticking a licence on it and hope no one will notice the game is not a faithful recreation of their favourite movie/TV show but is in fact dogshit, then maybe I'll give two shits about what EA have to say.
Film at eleven.
/Yeah, I went there.
Nah man groening wanted to end the simpsons a while back but he's legaly bound the let fox ride the shows corpse all the way down the murderhorn (woot simpsons reference). Its kinda sad that other shows from the simpsons staff stable like futurama and the critic die out in their prime, its like the simpsons is feeding on the life of the other shows like some prime-time vampire.
And as for family guy i quite like it though i find its jokes are VERY hit and miss and most of em are done better in robot chicken.
Who exactly on the R* team is bitching about this?
s/their/there/
It's probably derived from the medical condition where someone suffers spasms or seizures, which has led to many PC hounds trying to keep people from using the term "spaz".
Anyway. It was rather lame of Rockstar, BUT only EA would actually instantly kowtow to Rockstar's insistence, so there are two parts to this idiocy.
Scary movie. That's one.
Ah, R*, you keep the freefalling in people's esteem up, will you?
EA is only concerned with in-game advertising and gathering data off your computer to support more targetted advertising. They don't care about the games, just milking them for as much as they can. That's the nature of business, of course, but they've got to be one of the worst. How many other companies have class-action lawsuits filed against them by their own employees?
No, that was last year's EA. This year, they're actually pulling out some decent shit.