Silly Wild Games Studio, Trying to Censor the Internet

via @TheDailyDot.

What happens when a video game studio attempts to take down TotalBiscuit, a popular video game critic's, Youtube video? The Internet takes up arms against the studio, of course.

According to The Daily Dot, Wild Games Studio, creator of Day One: Garry's Incident, claimed that the reason why they filed to take down TotalBiscuit's video was because "Total Biscuit has no right to make advertising revenues with our license."

I don't know about you, but this sounds like crap! Fair Use, anyone? Section 17 U.S.C. 107,  contains a list of various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered fair, such as CRITICISM, COMMENT, news reporting...." TotalBiscuit's video would probably be classified as criticism, and even may fall into the comment category.

According to Kotaku, Wild Games, has since, withdrawn its complaint from Youtube.

Here is TotalBiscuit's original video:



And for those of you who are curious about Wild Games Studio's "Day One: Garry's Incident":

Alec Baldwin Could Have Been in GTA V!

via @Gamespot.

For those of you who do not know what GTA V, or Grand Theft Auto Five, is, it Take-Two's wildly successful video game that was recently released. This game was the first entertainment to reach sales of a billion dollars within three days!

According to Gamespot, who reported it from IndieWire, Baldwin stated in his character would have been a cop-killer and "And I turned them down because [the character] was a cop killer... And I didn't want to get near that [because] of my reputation; I have enough problems with the press as it is. I said no." I think it's pretty interesting that Baldwin believes in the power and reach of this video game- enough to believe that the game would affect his reputation.

I wonder if Baldwin is having regrets based on the explosive success of this game now, with what could have been a lucrative contract with possibly royalties. Baldwin could have joined the ranks of celebrities such as Samuel Jackson.

Do you think he missed out?

Square Enix Files for Trademark in Japan

via @ Siliconera.

Square Enix, the parent company of the wildly successful final fantasy franchise has filed for a trademark "ロスとクルセイド(rosuto kuruseido)," or "Lost Crusade."

Wonder what it will be, some are speculating that Lost Crusade may be a mobile game.

More news to come!

Kingdom Hearts 2.5 Remix out 2014

Kingdom Hearts 2.5 has been unveiled by Square Enix due in 2014 for PS3.

This game will include Kingdom Hearts II, Birth by Sleep, and Kingdom Hearts Re: Coded (cinema only).

Who would want to take on Floyd Mayweather Jr.?

Apparently Dash does. Who is Dash? Dash is a composer that composed a piece called "Tony Gunz Beat" (TGB), allegedly in 2005. In 2008, Mayweather's manager provided Mayweather with a CD containing a song called "Yep." Mayweather was informed that Mayweather owned all the rights to the song, however Dash claimed that "Yep" combined lyrics from his music, TGB.

While Dash claimed he created TGB in 2005, he did not file a copyright application until 2009.

The district court held that Dash was not entitled to claim profit damages or actual damages because there was no evidence establishing the connection between the alleged infringement and the claimed revenues. In order to recover actual damages, Dash must demonstrate an actual value to Dash's TGB. In addition, Mayweather's attorney was able to prove that Dash could not claim profit damages because TGB was not making any profit, it was not even claimed on his tax returns!

What do you think of the claim? I can't seem to find Dash's TGB song, but here is Mayweather's. 

 

When your "likeness" is used in a video game

[caption id="attachment_363" align="aligncenter" width="300"] "Ellie" from The Last of Us (left), Ellen Page (center), Ashley Johnson (right)[/caption]

via @Forbes, @Kotaku, and @GameInformer.

When I first stumbled across the game, "The Last of Us" I was surprised at how familiar the character "Ellie" was. That's when I realized that Ellie looked a lot like Ellen Page.

What makes this an even more weird scenario is the fact that Page is the star of Quantic Dream's "Beyond two Souls."

Page was asked about her likeness to Ellie on Reddit's "Ask Me Anything" session in which a fan asked "Have you seen any footage of 'The Last of Us' and would you have taken the role as Ellie if approached?" and in which she responded "I guess I should be flattered that they ripped off my likeness, but I am actually acting in a video game called Beyond Two Souls, so it was not appreciated." Talk about awkward!

Naughty Dog's creative director Neil Druckmann, responded to such speculation by merely pointing out that Ellie was not played by Page, but by an Actress named Ashley Johnson.

While starMedia, reports that Ellen page was suing Naughty Dog for using her image in the video game, I could not find any evidence of the lawsuit.

This is definitely an interesting scenario. Can celebrities sue video game companies for using their image? What would it take for the suit to succeed?

Curious, indeed.

Will the Success of Video Games End the Box Office?

via @Bloomberg.

With the recent explosive success of Grand Theft Auto V, which took in over $1 billion easily within the first week, many may be wondering if the success of the video game industry equates to the death of Hollywood. I mean, logically speaking, if the video game industry is taking a bigger profit from consumers, this extra money must be taken from a different industry, right?

Video games are no longer associated with the middle-aged person playing in their parents' garage. In fact, playing video games may now be the "cool" thing to do! While this is an interesting development, I personally do not think video games will be replacing the movie industry, even though it has become a pretty common occurrence to see users merge all the cutscenes to a video game as a "movie" and upload it to youtube.

I personally am guilty of watching cutscenes as movies because sometimes I just want to see how the story of the video game plays out, without spending hours and hours and hours playing the video game... (plus, I'm pretty terrible at first-person shooter games...).

It will be interesting to see how these two industries are affected, whether the increase in profits for the video game industry will lead to a decrease in profits for the movie industry.