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Sega Goes Crazy, Sues Fox, EA Over Taxi 127
Thanks to Reuters for the news that Sega has sued Fox, EA, and developers Radical Entertainment over the similarity between EA's The Simpsons Road Rage and Sega's own Crazy Taxi. The story reveals: "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." The patent infringement suit, which asks for the recall of the game and damages for lost profits, claims The Simpsons Road Rage was designed to "deliberately copy and imitate", citing a review "...that characterized 'Road Rage' as a 'shameless incident of design burglary'."
Crazy? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Crazy? (Score:2)
You'll find newspapers do this a lot.
Re:Crazy? (Score:2)
Maybe sega ran out of money..
Grand Theft Auto (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Grand Theft Auto (Score:1)
If Road Rage were a game strictly consisting of taxi missions where you earned extra money for showing up early and performing crazy stunts, maybe they'd have a case.
But wait, why stop with Simpsons Road Rage? Burnout 2 blatantly copies Crazy Taxi's revolut
Re:Grand Theft Auto (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, you're thinking of Simpsons Hit&Run which is the GTA3/VC ripoff. Simpsons Road Rage was indeed pure Crazy Taxi action.
Re:Grand Theft Auto (Score:1)
Re:Grand Theft Auto (Score:2)
Re:Grand Theft Auto (Score:2)
crazy taxi is great fun, but it has nothing to do with the way gta3 plays.. crazy taxi is just short action burst for craaazy play(great for parties & etc, and the non-arcade missions are quite fun also.. and friggin hard, could somebody tell me how are you supposed to deliver the 4 funk dudes to the 4 rooftops in time? in ct2 iirc
Re:Grand Theft Auto (Score:1)
you can Crazy dash Crazy Dash hop crazy turn dash dash hop (you should be going diagonaly in a coundter clockwise direction only catching the corner of the middle) dash hop turn repeat.
It says there is a shortcut too, but I was able to do it with half a second left with no tricks.
Also, keep in mind that you want to be going slower into the final roof top. I would get there and run out of time before I stopped a lot.
I forge
Re:Grand Theft Auto (Score:1)
. or maybe i should go read gamefaqs.. hmm.
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah... (Score:1)
Software Patents? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Software Patents? (Score:3, Informative)
Software patents are quite legal. They manage it by calling them computer implemented business methods. Courts have ruled in favor of them, congress hasn't changed the law to prohibit them, and the p
Re:Software Patents? (Score:1)
Re:Software Patents? (Score:5, Insightful)
In this particular situation, Sega was the company creating the worthwhile game. Crazy Taxi was quite innovative, so let's give credit where credit is due. And The Simpsons Road Rage was extremely similar to Crazy Taxi, not just similar in some ways.
But when it comes to this kind of stuff we should all bow to the almighty dollar rather than customer satisfaction.
Now, was it really necessary to make a bleeding heart anti-capitalist statement like that? And what the hell does this situation have to do with customer satisfaction? This has to do with patent infringement.
Look, I don't agree with Sega about the lawsuit, mostly due to the higher probability of losing it, but this is an option available to them. Rather than looking like they're doing nothing about having their ideas ripped off, they took action. One of the companies in the suit, EA, is their largest competitor. They probably thought that it was better than sitting around twiddling their thumbs while their investors are watching.
Re:Software Patents? (Score:2)
It's a good thing some of the earliest 3d texturemapped games (wolfenstein, doom, etc) didn't get patents, or there would probably be a lot fewer 3D games today.
If we start accepting patents on new gaming styles, it will squash the possibility of opening up new genres altogether.
Re:Software Patents? (Score:1)
Re:Software Patents? (Score:1)
Considering that most of the 3D games available today use technology licensed from the developers of those games, your point is a bit weaker than it should be. We'd be missing ummm Unreal and the crap that Monolith spews out every once in a while, and Deus Ex. Not to mention that there's prior art when it comes to Wolf3D and Doom (for instance, Ul
Re:Software Patents? (Score:2)
<br><br>
<i>Adobe Systems Incorporated, the leader in network publishing, today announced that it has received a favorable jury verdict in its intellectual property case against Macromedia, Inc. in the U.S. District Court of Delaware, finding willful infringement of U.S. Patent No. 5,546,528. The patent at issue covers Adobe's reconfigurable tabbed palette patent, which is Adobe's method of displaying and w
Re:Software Patents? (Score:1)
No, I don't think so. Sega are arguing that Simpsons RR was blatantly stealing the 'Crazy Taxi' market, meaning that they worry that people will buy Simpsons RR instead of Crazy Taxi... GTA3 DOES have a taxi mini game, but essentially they're not directly 'stealing' any customers off Sega as they're selling a totally different game type and
Checker Cab (Score:2)
patenting a plot? (Score:5, Insightful)
perhaps an overly similar videogame would be a derived work under copyright law or perhaps a trademark violation, but a _patent_???
next you'll be able to patent the plots of e-books, so that if anyone creates another with a similar plot, you can sue. imagine the proceeds Tolkien would have on fantasy!
Re:patenting a plot? (Score:1)
Tolkien is dead. I'd like to think that his undead corpse would be polite enough not to care about legions of patent-violating halflings [itworld.com].
Re:patenting a plot? (Score:1)
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."
fits alot of games. I remember a game called Taxi on the commodore 64 which of course looked totally different but just did this. Not to mention Ugh for the pc, which wasn't a real taxi but it followed the same lines. And it would have
Re:patenting a plot? (Score:4, Informative)
I obviously can't comment on the validity of their claim, but I can say that Road Rage was intended from the ground up to be a ripoff of Crazy Taxi. I suspect that if Sega can demonstrate damages - specifically that Road Rage took sales away from Crazy Taxi and its sequels - they can probably win their case...of course, there's every possibility that EA, et. al. will settle out of court with Sega since a) they have incredibly deep pockets and b) I don't know that anyone in the video game industry, including Sega, would benefit from this kind of precedent.
Re:patenting a plot? (Score:1)
Having read this, I'll repeat the parent poster's sentiments: how can you obtain a patent on characters diving away from cars, or a large floating arrow? This is ridiculous. Game designers would make more money simply patenting "pixelated red brick" than by making an actual game.
If the games are so similar (and I'm quite sure they are), there must be anoth
Re:patenting a plot? (Score:1)
Precedent (Score:4, Informative)
Scroll down this page for details:
Odyssey II page [dadgum.com]
From this, I'd say that Sega may have a case, provided they really can demonstrate that there is no prior art.
However, I'm hoping they don't get the game removed from shelves. That's what happened with K. C. Munchkin fortunately after I had already purchased it.
Re:patenting a plot? (Score:2)
What the fuck?! Midtown Madness had these things. I can't be bothered to do any research as to which was first, but if it was Crazy Taxi wouldn't they be trying to sue Microsoft too?
I hate companies that have to resort to bullshit to make money, they can't just do the hard work and put out d
Re:patenting a plot? (Score:2)
I for one like seeing this. Maybe now companies will stop ripping shit off and slapping a license on it to make some quick bucks.
Re:patenting a plot? (Score:2)
Consider how this would work. Can there be no side-scrollers because Nintendo patented "a game that scrolls from left to right or vice versa with a main character that hops on enemies to destroy them"? Or no more FPS games because iD patents "a game whose perspective is in the first-person who is armed with a gun"? Before you say "That's rid
Re:patenting a plot? (Score:2)
Road Rage really takes copying a game's mechanics to a ridiculous extreme. It doesn't even add anything to the game style other than the Si
Already happened (Score:2)
Taxi Mode in GTA3? (Score:3, Funny)
I have done that in GTA3.
1. Pick up passenger
2. Drive down the wrong side of the road , over people, down grass inclines, etc.. (does that qualify as "outrageous"?)
3. Dropped off passenger
Of course, I'll add a few extra steps:
4. Beat down exiting passenger with the baseball bat and steal their bling-bling.
5. Enter cheat code to get unlimited ammo
6. Enter cheat code to get infinite health
7. Enter cheat code for tank.
8. DESTROY! DESTROY! DESTROY!
Oh come on.. (Score:5, Insightful)
I can't believe that Sega would do this. I thought that the Crazy Taxi series was doing well.
There are plenty of games that imitate other ones. Successfull game concepts will always come up again and again.
Re:Oh come on.. (Score:2)
Re:Oh come on.. (Score:2)
feck, maybe the guys there thought that fuck, we're paying these lawyers by the hour and there's these dupers saturating the market with cheap clones of our (patented) games!
.
i'm friggin surprised though that they have a PATENT on it.. well not that surprised.. but that 's whats protecting it from duping.. heck.. maybe they should change the pa
Re:Oh come on.. (Score:1)
You know... (Score:1)
Now if I remember correctly Simpsons Road Rage takes place in Springfield and is obviousely based off the Simpson's cartoon series. Crazy Taxi is more of a futuristic taxi like game.
Wait... (Score:1)
Look out Rockstar (Score:1)
--Stephen
Maybe their parents won't let them play it.
This is more crazy talk than Crazy Taxi . . . (Score:3, Insightful)
"Another object of the present invention is to provide a moving direction indication method which can make direction indications which are easy to be understood by operators freely moved in the virtual space, such as a city or others, and a game apparatus.
Further another object of the present invention is to provide a game display method and a game apparatus which can make displays which are easily understandable for an operator who gets, in a virtual space, such as a city or others, a specific object and carries the object to a destination.
Further another object of the present invention is to provide a drive simulation method which can provide real driving feeling. "
Oh dear lord, am I glad I'm not a patent attorney!
Re:This is more crazy talk than Crazy Taxi . . . (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:This is more crazy talk than Crazy Taxi . . . (Score:2)
A shame. I respected Sega until this. Now they are just nickel-and-dimers.
Re:This is more crazy talk than Crazy Taxi . . . (Score:1)
Really? I stopped respecting them when they came out with the 32x/ 32xcd which they clearly intended to stop supporting as soon as saturn came out, and then did exactly that. Doesn't mean that I haven't bought any of their products (I have a dreamcast with some sega games, including crazy taxi, and the monkey ball games for gc), but I wouldn't say I respect them overall.
Re:This is more crazy talk than Crazy Taxi . . . (Score:2)
You've got to be kidding me. Crazy taxi doesn't even pretend to have a real driving feeling. Yor car can steer in the air, partially climb walls, and jump!
I love Sega and all, but seriously.. (Score:4, Interesting)
It reminds me of Sega being sued [slashdot.org] by a lady who claims that Sega used her likeness (instead of Apollo Smile [dragoncon.org], who did the voice work on the NA releases) in Space Channel 5. There's no reason for this frivolous lawsuit.
Re:I love Sega and all, but seriously.. (Score:2)
In my opinion, Ulala certainly looks a good deal like the singer from Dee-Lite in both fashion and attitude.
I'd care more if Dee-Lite actually made good music and if SC5 was actually a fun game.
Re:I love Sega and all, but seriously.. (Score:2)
Deee-lite's stuff is pretty good. I think "Groove is in the Heart" is the best dancesong ever, it generally heads up every party mix I make.
This is US Patent # 6200138 (Score:2, Insightful)
Copyright (Score:2)
Patent 6,200,138 (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Patent 6,200,138 (Score:1)
For a patent to be valid, it would necessarily have to be proven to stand up against all possible challenges, and that's simply not possible. So it's either invalid, or not invalid; never valid.
Re:Patent 6,200,138 (Score:2)
Re:Patent 6,200,138 (Score:2)
in a world with butterflies and fairies... (Score:1, Interesting)
There's a previous art (Score:2, Informative)
Re:There's a previous art (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:There's a previous art (Score:2, Informative)
Here's link to its review: http://www.dosgamesarchive.com/download/game/87
Great game!
Re:There's a previous art (Score:1, Informative)
Re:There's a previous art (Score:1)
=)
Re:There's a previous art (Score:2)
They can probably make a case (Score:2)
Re:They can probably make a case (Score:2)
prior art (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/review/
review from gamefaqs.
Re:prior art (Score:2, Informative)
I remember this game. It was about running all over a post-apocolyptic city, picking up and dropping off fares with a time limit, mowing down other pedestrians, jumping the taxi over things, and purchasing weapons.
Previous Lawsuit (Score:5, Informative)
I've never played either Crazy Taxi or Simpson's Road Rage, but Fighter's History was practically a palette shift of Street Fighter 2. Capcom took DataEast to court, and lost. The judge felt that while there were definitaly similarities, Fighter's History was a different game of the same genre.
Uncanny Simularities" [angelfire.com]
Quick Summation Half way down [gamespy.com]
I'm surprised, I remember the entire thing so vividly, but I just can't find more resources about it on the web....
Sangloth
I'd appreciate any comment with a logical basis...it doesn't even have to agree with me.
Re:Previous Lawsuit (Score:2)
Anyway, SEGA is stupid to do this as Data East has TWO similar precedents -- when they tried to sue (and lost) Epyx for copying their look and feel; and when Capcom sued them (and lost!) for Data East copying Street Fighter. I like SEGA and all, but I hope they get laughed out of the court-room for this.
Re: Different (Score:1, Insightful)
This is different in that it's patent related. Now we all know there are ridiculous software patents out there, but the outcome of this suit just isn't as clear.
The SCO Principle (Score:4, Funny)
Ideas (Score:1)
This reminds me of when I was a kid (Score:1)
OT Final Fantasy (Score:1)
Re:This reminds me of when I was a kid (Score:2)
Sega, NOOOOOO!!!!! (Score:1)
Congress needs to start holding hearings... (Score:2)
Prior art? (Score:2)
Prior Art (Score:2)
Patent application... (Score:2, Funny)
"A game display method for displaying a game in which a movable object is moved in a virtual space, comprising the steps of: "
"a caution area is set around the dangerous area, and when a character enters the caution area, the character is caused to pause. "
Actually, if you ever want your writing to sound like it was written by a lawyer, just translate it from english to german to french then back to english.
Wow (Score:2)
Street Figher and Figther's History.
Can someone tell me what's the difference?
Worst. Video Game. Ever! (Score:1)
I actually think that I can name *several* games which are much worse ( those godawful "pacman world" games come to mind ), Road Rage is neither the best nor worst PS2 game I own. I'm just happy that it's a game my two-year-old can play without any 'actual' violence ( although you can run over the characters, they go flying and aren't hurt ). That and probably several other differences exist between the two games in this lawsu
Re:Worst. Video Game. Ever! (Score:2)
Just like in real life!
Re:Worst. Video Game. Ever! (Score:2)
Simpsons Road Rage isn't a bad little game. And I dig the 70s cop show music that starts playing when the man is trying to chase you down.
Prior art - C64 Space Taxi (Score:2)
Getting Impatient (Score:2)
Of course, this would create the unusual circumstance of copying ideas which never happened in this universe, but did happen in others. Offworld imports like this could revolutionize profits for lawyers. Imagine Sega of America:Earth2677B suing Sega Nort
Re:Getting Impatient (Score:2)
Re:Getting Impatient (Score:2)
Prior Art (Score:1)
1) an algorithm to get pedestrians to leap out of the way of the player's car
2) a directional arrow pointing to the player's destination.
1) The original Driver game for playstation had pedestrians leap out of the way of cars: it was impossible to hit them (believe me I tried
2) The original GTA (which came out a year before Crazy Taxi) for play
Re:Prior Art (Score:2)
i saw it coming (Score:1)
what about gta? (Score:1)
Maybe ID Software should do the same thing! (Score:1)
Sega is nuts. Like they're so original? All games are derivative!
Thanks again, SCO!
Having played both games.. (Score:2)
Still, most games are nearly identical to something else, having just a few improvements/innovations. And so are most movies. And most songs. And most books.
Re:Having played both games.. (Score:2)
(And for the record, the Simpsons version is worse. Crazy Taxi has bigger levels and ti
Probable Prior Art (Score:2)
Between late 1994 and early 1995, I pitched a game idea to Disney (while I was an employee at WDI VR Studio) called "Wild Taxi," which was further developed for consideration as a new VR ride/game for DisneyQuest. That idea was fundamentally the same as Crazy Taxi, which I don't personally recall seeing as an arcade or console game for a few more years circa 1997 or 1998. I could have missed it, so ple
Sega are being ridiculous! (Score:1)
Run along in multiple levels that increase in challenge/complexity
Jump over/on enemies
Avoid obstacles
Defeat bosses at the end of each world/zone/stage/whatever
Rescue someone (Mario rescues the Princess