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X-Fan
12-05-2003, 12:40 AM
Video game publisher Sega of America on Thursday sued a division of Fox Entertainment and industry leader Electronic Arts Inc., saying a game based on Fox's well-known "Simpsons" characters infringes a Sega patent.

The suit, filed in San Francisco federal court, named as defendants Fox Filmed Entertainment, a unit of Fox Entertainment Group Inc. (FOX); Fox Interactive, Fox's former games unit that is now controlled by the video game arm of Vivendi Universal; the game's developer Radical Games Ltd.; and Electronic Arts.

Sega of America, a division of Japan's Sega Corp., claims the 2001 video game "Simpsons Road Rage," developed by Radical and Fox Interactive and published by EA, was designed to "deliberately copy and imitate" the Sega game "Crazy Taxi," according to court documents.

Sega holds a U.S. patent, known as the '138 patent, on "Crazy Taxi," in which players take the role of a taxi driver who has to accomplish outrageous driving stunts to pick up passengers and quickly deliver them to their destinations.

Sega cited reviews by video game publications of "Simpsons Road Rage" that said the game was very similar to "Crazy Taxi," including one that characterized "Road Rage" as a "shameless incident of design burglary."

The suit asks the court to stop the sale or import of "Simpsons Road Rage," which has sold more than 1 million copies to date, as well as for damages for lost profits and a recall of any copies of the game available at retail.

source (http://www.teamxbox.com/news.php?id=5197)

DocHoliday78
12-05-2003, 12:58 AM
Well i dont understand the big deal. That is how things work in life. Someone takes an old idea and spices it up a bit to release a new product. This benefits us the consumers and i dont think sega is gonna win this one.

X-Fan
12-05-2003, 01:02 AM
i think what u said is true but still i like the fact that my favorite sports games company sued the company that i totally despise.

DocHoliday78
12-05-2003, 01:09 AM
Originally posted by X-Fan
i think what u said is true but still i like the fact that my favorite sports games company sued the company that i totally despise.

Of course, **** EA, ESPN football rapes Madden. Word life:cheers:

Hero
12-05-2003, 01:55 AM
i will have to agree with sega on this one.

Hard Boiled Cop
12-05-2003, 03:52 AM
You know what, I hate both sega and EA. EA just sucks and Sega is saying that they're not going to put Outrun 2 on the xbox. So really I don't really care who sues who.

Variation-XBA
12-05-2003, 03:52 AM
Stupid reason to sue, but since its against EA... DOWN WITH EA! :D

Flood
12-05-2003, 05:51 AM
i think sega's reasoning for it to be pulled of the shelf is wrong, it shouldnt be allowed to be sold cause its SUCH A HORRIBLE GAME!

MikeMan91389
12-05-2003, 05:53 AM
haha... thats like sueing all the football game companies because they copy how the QB hikes the ball

CarGuy
12-05-2003, 06:42 AM
In other news: Pepsi sues Coca-Cola....

StudioAlex
12-05-2003, 11:57 AM
Road Rage is a blatant rip off, and a horrible one at that. I don't think Sega will win, but I'm surprised they waited so long to initiate the lawsuit. Maybe rockstar will follow suit if Sega prevails. In a perfect world, Fox would've approached Hitmaker to develop Road Rage. We would've had a kickass game that was funny to boot.

Penfold
12-05-2003, 12:09 PM
Whats next? Maybe Sega will sue Rockstar because in the GTA 3 and VC, you can do taxi missions. Sega will lose in court, IMHO.

Yankeez
12-05-2003, 12:40 PM
though the simpsons game is coo they did kinda copy crazytaxi and i guess we get revenge since we already hate EA somewhat... :cheers:

mattgame
12-05-2003, 01:25 PM
Sega sounds like they are pulling a Benzino........,

StudioAlex
12-05-2003, 01:43 PM
I just remembered there is precedence for this. Capcom successfully sued another company for ripping off Street Fighter. Can't remember who it was, though.

Whoops, just googled it. Apparently Capcom was unsuccesful in suing Data East over Fighter's History. I could've sworn they won that one.

'Data East learned a lesson as well. In 1993 it released Fighter's History, hoping to capitalize on the red-hot versus fighting game trend sparked by Capcom's seminal 1991 release, Street Fighter II. The game must have seemed a bit too similar, though, because in 1994 Capcom -- you guessed it -- slapped a copyright infringement suit on Data East. It reasoned that "potential video-game players will be confused about the source of Fighter's History [games], ... and will believe that they are CAPCOM Street Fighter games." Capcom's counsel must have been feeling saucy that day because it even tried to lay claim to "the distinctive appearance of the Street Fighter II cabinet, including, but not limited to, the physical layout of the two eight-position joysticks and six-button control panels. ..." '

Kronicle
12-05-2003, 02:59 PM
Next thing you'll here is Pacman suing Kirby for stealing his ideas...:argue1:

Trento52
12-05-2003, 04:04 PM
i don't think that crazy taxi is doing as good as it use to be but they won't win. This sounds kinda stupid but i want ea to lose something because i wasted 70 bucks on a crap ass game of theres.

FuNkY mOnK
12-05-2003, 05:06 PM
I'll have to start buying a boat load of simpson road rage and sell them on ebay as last time collectables.$Cha-Ching$

xbox genius
12-05-2003, 05:35 PM
lol haha thats funny, go sega, EA you suck.

but i still think its kinda stupid.... people copying people... blah blah blah, sue here , sue there. America is just a place of people sueing each other.... sheesh thats one of the bad characteristics i'm not proud of as an american

DocHoliday78
12-05-2003, 06:31 PM
Flood thats a nice way of putting it.:cheers:

X-Fan
12-06-2003, 10:59 AM
man i also think sega willl lose but at least it will cause them some mental damage and i think thats worth it.

DDR2theEXTREME
12-06-2003, 11:04 AM
Simpsons r never goin down. Sega's prolly just poor and needs money

Ford Mustang
12-06-2003, 11:15 AM
I hope EA loses just because I hate them. :cheers:

tamim
12-06-2003, 04:08 PM
Whats next? Rockstar sueing makers of Mafia, The Gateaway, True Crime etc.. for copying GTA? Or the makers of the first FPS game sueing the all latest FPSs?

LTM360
12-07-2003, 08:15 PM
Originally posted by Hero
i will have to agree with sega on this one.

I agree with Sega too. I am a huge fan of Crazy Taxi, and found Road Rage a plain rip-off just with a lil more humor. But maybe we can get lucky and EA could go out of buisness ;)


Originally posted by tamim
Whats next? Rockstar sueing makers of Mafia, The Gateaway, True Crime etc.. for copying GTA? Or the makers of the first FPS game sueing the all latest FPSs?

I honestly think Rockstar should've done that...because other than Mafia, The others suck, and she be sued for making a crappy game just for $$$.

Koopa
12-08-2003, 08:10 AM
i feel they're justified in suing....

i mean, isn't road rage just crazy taxi with simpson characters?

StudioAlex
12-08-2003, 11:38 AM
Road Rage is a comeplete rip off, but that isn't enough. Sega will have to show damages for this to bear fruit. If sega can prove that EA aped the game to the point that people mistook Road Rage as another installment Crazy Taxi, then they will win. The only problem is I have no idea how they'll do that...

Spiff
12-08-2003, 01:50 PM
Agree with you, StudioAlex. Road Rage is basically the exact same as Crazy Taxi, but with Simpson characters.

I do not know of anyone who thinks Simpson's Road Rage was another installment of Crazy Taxi. The game just sucks too much.

Sega will have a tough time, though I think they are correct.

Simpson's Road Rage could of been a much better game than it was. I was hopping for much more from that game...

HellHawk
12-08-2003, 06:28 PM
Man, how cheesy, cheap *******s, other people copy off games too!