Sony and Jaffe Sued Over God Of War

[The 1 2 P]

Well I guess if you don't have a handy dandy patent to sit on until a video game company makes a similar device, you can always just sue a video game for their sourch material. THIS.....IS......LAWSUITS: http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/09/...t-infringement

So do you want the good news or bad news first? We'll go with the bad. The basis of this lawsuit stems from the authors submitting screenplays to Sony Pictures and agents who worked with SCEA. One of the screenplays was based in Greek Mythology(which apparently features similarities with God of War) and was submitted in 2002--several years before God of War came out.

The good news is that you really can't "patent" Greek Mythology. Although I read the examples in the story about similarities between their work and the finished God of War game, they are going to need alot more than that to win this suit. I just can't wait to see what David Jaffe puts in his blog after this lawsuit is over

[j_factor]

This suit is going nowhere.

[kedawa]

Frank Dux should sue Capcom...

[Clownzilla]

I wonder if any of those story details that the screenplay authors claimed were infringed upon were actually derivatives of Greek mythology. If so, the authors have no chance. The authors had to get the screenplay inspiration from somewhere, even if the story is different.

[neuropolitique]

If they can prove their timeline they prob have a case.

[Bojay1997]

If they can prove their timeline they prob have a case.

Very unlikely. Not only is God of War derivative of mythology which is in the public domain, but I would argue there have been similar themed games for literally years now on the PC and consoles. One claim they are making is that their story contained a bridge over a bottomless chasm. Like that hasn't been done a million times before in fantasy novels and movies. Give me a break. This is just an example of a frivolous lawsuit which got some unwarranted press attention.

[Stark]

So from what I gather they submitted a screenplay to Sony Pictures for a movie. Sony made a video game after this screenplay was turned in but in no way copies that screenplay nor any other movie. Sure it can be argued that it has some common themes seen in movies, books and maybe other Greek material. These guys are just looking for either attention or probably a quick and painless settlement. It will probably cost them millions to sue big bad Sony though.

[SpaceHarrier]

I couldn't even justify it if Tecmo had sued Sony for copying Rygar (PS2). This kind of B.S. has a chilling effect on the industry, stifling creativity and stealing profit from companies that could be reinvesting it in more games or original IPs. I definitely agree that God of War is not the most creative or original of stories OR games, but this hardly seems warranted..