LBP costume designers calling shenanigans
- Posted November 18th, 2008 at 14:15 EDT by
- 39 Comments
Remember way back when Media Molecule and Sony were running that whole "Design a Sackboy" contest? Apparently a couple of the entrants to this contest believe that Sony/Media Molecule may have stolen their ideas without proper credit. There has been a thread started at the official European forums that you can find here.
Several entrants within this thread have posted their contest entries side-by-side costumes that Sony released last week as paid downloadable content. Some of the entries seem to be strikingly similar. While the opinion seems to teeter between it being alright or coincidence, check out the link and decide for yourself.
A Sony representative had this to say regarding the issue.
"This was always going to be a possibility when we ran the costumer competition - releasing new costumes which are similar in theme to ones that were entered. Here's the fact of the matter, the art team who are responsible for designing new original (ie unlicensed) costumes were involved at the very final stage of judging, by which time the number of entries had been whittled down to 10 from each batch of entries (Europe, Japan, USA). If at any time we take inspiration from a costume competition entry that didn't win overall we will contact the creator directly."
It sounds plausible and very reasonable that out of the thousands upon thousands of entrants there is bound to be a duplicate of one the design team had already thought of. Let us know what you guys think below.
Comments
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XSpike_SpiegelC |
XSpike_SpiegelC- 2:27pm GMT - November 18th, 2008
- 2
That seems almost exactly the same....I dont think it could be coincedence....
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SamuraiClarke
- 2:32pm GMT - November 18th, 2008
- 4
Definitely not coincidental. I just checked out the link that PSU provided and they are shockingly similar. It's really obvious Sony or Media Molecule got their influence from the cotumes.
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tristan88888888 |
Tristan88888888- 2:59pm GMT - November 18th, 2008
- 6
didnt sony say that they would not be giving users royalties for user generated content.
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CSUPSU
- 3:01pm GMT - November 18th, 2008
- 7
Purely coincedental...this is just reaching on the part of some very disappointed sore losers, and it's quite pathetic..."OMG, t3h MotorStoRm coztoom luks JUsT LIK MIN3!!!!"; even tho Motorstorm was out long before this contest was thought of...doesn't that make HIM the fraud?...
Like dude said...none of these were original ideas...ever think that maybe you lost because they already had that design in stock?...
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darksora |
Rav_M- 3:27pm GMT - November 18th, 2008
- 8
I agree completely with CSUPSU (7).
I dont see any blood soaked sackboy with a shark biting the whole face? The available shark outfit is designed to look like a costume like the other animal related costumes available. Besides they're not exactly unique designs now are they?
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mixpix7212 |
Rav_M- 4:09pm GMT - November 18th, 2008
- 9
ok yeah i just checked the link and seriously people are complaining about this. the only one i see as being similar is the penguin but come on how many different ways can you make a penguin so yeah it is gonna kinda look the same. the guy who started the thread is an idiot ok he has a shark biting off a sackboys head and MM has a shark hat type thing. stop whining. WOW. I am with sony, i have an idea one day and there are billions of people in the world so there is someone out there with the same idea on that same day.
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Blaze463 |
Blaze463- 4:18pm GMT - November 18th, 2008
- 10
I think it's funny that these people seriously think they are the only people in the world who can think of a penguin/shark costume lol. A penguin would've been my entry if I had entered, because they are my favorite animal. And that "motorstorm" entry isn't even a motorstorm costume. This is rediculous.
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DaRealDaMist
- 4:23pm GMT - November 18th, 2008
- 11
It doesnt matter if they were inspired by the ones that were submitted, on the T & C it is explained that ocne you submit an artwork, you give you all rights to it and it becomes theirs. So this is pretty much legit, they can sell it now if they want without even mentioning where the inspiration came from. Sorry guys, if you're one of the people that submitted any of those, it's in the ffine print.
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Denali2 |
NEJI64- 4:25pm GMT - November 18th, 2008
- 12
with the shark custome they have no proof showing that there custome was jacked. most likely they had this custome made up way before that contest and before the game came out. and the off road custome that look like the motorstorm custume they can toss that out the window. mainly because they have a custome thats coming out that look like all there video game charcaters like MGS4'S OLD SNAKE, THE DUDE FROM FINAL FANTASY, KILLZONE 2 AND WHO EVERS NEXT.
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svtschmidt
- 4:37pm GMT - November 18th, 2008
- 13
@11 I'm not commenting on these costumes in particular, but just because they indicate they can steal your ideas without compensating you doesn't make it right.
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edward_moffet |
edd- 4:46pm GMT - November 18th, 2008
- 14
yeah seriously they could have even thought up a costume on their own but were actually inspired subliminally by something they had seen, i know this happens to me all the time when im playing guitar i'll just be messing around and i'll play something that sounds familiar even though i can't ever recall hearing it and then i'll actually hear it on the radio or something, and besides why would they get angry? imitation is the highest form of flattery
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Yuk-Yuk |
Yuk-Yuk- 5:29pm GMT - November 18th, 2008
- 17
The costumes could look similar but the sony rep was right. The possibility was there. Even if they were taken theres no copyright over the artwork he created and if he entered it in the contest it becomes sonys rights for distribution and everything else. I don't think he read the fine print when he entered them.
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Alpha2
- 6:35pm GMT - November 18th, 2008
- 19
The sharks that were submitted byt different people dont look enough like the one that come out to be justified. They're more similar to each other than they are to the Official one because they are clearly different concepts ("Ow, a tiny shark ate my head" vs "hey, I'm wearing a shark as a hat") The only one I'd even be remotely concerned about is the Penguin.
Heck great minds think alike there's a guy who has almost the exact same Red Sackboy that I've got right now and you dont see me complaining. Granted no one's making any money from it, but it's not costing any either.
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Bigdoggy |
Gypscrew- 6:44pm GMT - November 18th, 2008
- 20
Well who cares anyway. The person that made it wasn't going to get any money out of it anyways, so whats the point. Something that is so small as putting your name on it to credit the person or whatever else? just a small thing being made into a big deal. Now, if the person was going to get royalties from it to some extent, then i could see a problem.
It's a game plane and simple with a community that shares. I am surprised the copyright thing went through.
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GunTeng
- 6:49pm GMT - November 18th, 2008
- 22
Of course its possible, but SONY shoul dhave realised the harm a situation like this might cause. The competition was held far too early and should have been held off until MM made what they could. TBH, I think MM & SONY should stick to official & well known themed costumes, buying the right to use them from the proper sources & then selling to the gamers. Lets face it...there is no way SONY are letting gamers use or create copyright content.
Its a silly situation really. But who can say what the truth is? Because of this, there will always be doubts over the game, which is very sad.
It could be corrected however.....allow these entrants credit for their work & allow them as a free download. Otherwise, they will have to either suffer the scandal, or compensate the entrants (thats if they are actualy entries into the competition).
Then again, that would be unfair to SONY & MM for their work.
Not an issue for me, but I do feel for the competition entrants in question.
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terminator12259 |
tacitassassin25- 7:23pm GMT - November 18th, 2008
- 23
what did people really expect, did MM ever say that they would acknowledge them, i dont recall it. they should be happy that MM used their sackboys
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selfish
- 8:08pm GMT - November 18th, 2008
- 25
This is the reason why I stay away from competitions such as these because a major comapnay can easily say (or not say) that you're a winner and VIOLA, a design sharing slight similarities pops up and someone complains. The problem is that you can't because guess what? You signed your design over the minute you hit the submit button and I think some people don't fully understand that.
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darthrazorback
- 8:51pm GMT - November 18th, 2008
- 26
I see no reason to believe that they did this maliciously.
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mrwonderr
- 8:53pm GMT - November 18th, 2008
- 27
I'm not seeing it. Yes, they're both Sharks. So sue Sony for stealing sharks. It's not like sharks are an original idea. As with the penguin (I think it looks like the penguin avatar sony has anyways).
And once he started referencing the Motorstorm costume, I stopped reading.
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jphuff |
jhuff- 9:43pm GMT - November 18th, 2008
- 28
This is soooo stupid. Oh look! I thought of making a sackboy look like a Penguin as soon as I saw trailers of LBP and saw how you could customize how they looked! Sony and/or MM ripped me off! Jeez...people. Out of the millions of minds out there, you really think the chances are slim that people have the same ideas? Look on the internet, look at writing, look at songs...there's a lot that's similar.
Heck, I thought of a GAME similar to LBP long ago...did they rip ME off? I don't think so. Now if people are saying this because of the GENERIC costumes offered so far (e.g. Gecko, Penguin, Shark hat, Ape) I think it's just ridiculous. Maybe if they copied that purple, one eyed, goatee sporting, 16 armed martian design you submitted off that cover art for your own comic book, you'd have a claim. Not so with these items...sorry.
Keep going...you dummies. Pretty soon we won't HAVE games like LBP that you can enjoy because everyone will be too scared of being sued for "taking" someone else's idea, even if those folks never did anything with those ideas, let alone copyrighted them. Makes me ill........can you tell? :)
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lurkingshadow89 |
DEATH555666- 11:08pm GMT - November 18th, 2008
- 29
so? #3 let me try to explain it to u if u give a company the bluprint to something to look at and they make it for free thats fine but when they r turninig a profit with it the one who created it should be given at lest a miner portion of the frofit. if u made a design someone used and made 5 million on it wouldn't u want some of the pie back? think about it.
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masta_js |
masta_js- 11:33pm GMT - November 18th, 2008
- 30
How do we now that these people didn't copy sony and pretend to have done the custume before Sony. Like how can you trust this people just becuase they show a photo. Is that the evidence, please. I created my self a custume of Julius Ceaser and entered the competition and I really don't mind if Sony decide to use it or anybody else comes up with the same idea. This is BS!
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jphuff |
jhuff- 1:01am GMT - November 19th, 2008
- 31
#29. One point. If you look at the terms and conditions people accepted when entering the contest, it clearly states that whether used or not, they gave up all rights to their designs, etc. So, even IF MM took the design or modified a design they got because they liked the idea, the people had agreed to GIVE the designs to MM. It's the way most of these contests work. So they don't have any real legs to stand on in any case.
Bottom line, I still think it's just ridiculous for people to claim this, especially for such common designs. I mean, a penguin, a gecko...stuff like that? Do we really think there probably weren't even multiple people SUBMITTING these same ideas? Or that the MM people PAID to think of this stuff wouldn't have hit on the same common ideas? Also, especially in the case of the MotorStorm outfit it's crazy. Motorstorm is owned by Sony so basically the guy who supposedly came up with the idea of THAT costume is ripping of a property Sony owns! MM had also already stated (and acted on) the idea of making Sackboy costumes from other PS3 games, so the idea that they "stole" the Motorstorm costume from some contest entrance is even more ludicrous.
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xBSGeorge |
xBSGeorge- 3:28am GMT - November 19th, 2008
- 33
The shark in game compaired to his 2 drawings are completly different. For one, his shark is biting the head off the sackboy, where the LBP shark is more like a hat. The DLC one is a shark costume meaning hes wearing the shark, the drawing is an attacking shark, ie not a costume, but an attacking animal. There is no lower jaw in the drawings either. The drawns would show the shark coming from the top angle down, almost straight in line with the sackboy body. However the DLC shark is perpendicular or running the opposite way of the sackboy.
As for the helmit and penguin...give me a break, there is nothinga bout them simular at all other then one is a helmet and the other is a penguin. Just look close. Helmet, no gogles, suit is different. Penguin, the beaks are not even close.
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bilbo_bobbins |
bilbo_bobbins- 4:54am GMT - November 19th, 2008
- 34
sorry but they seem to similar, not being funny but the shark one is too alike. Out of all the animals in the world, who would of thought exactly the same idea?
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Stef Nighthawk
- 5:44am GMT - November 19th, 2008
- 36
Wasn't there a rule in the contest indicating that all entries would become property of Sony/Media Molecule regardless who won?
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