Nintendo Warns MMO Company Over Trademark Issues

Gamasutra.com (news now registration free) has word that MMOG developer Webzen has received a friendly letter from Nintendo discussing the similarities screenshots of their upcoming game have with The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. The developer states that this is a coincidence resulting from the cell shades style of their game, and the particular hair and clothes show in published media. From the article: "a spokesperson from developer Webzen claims that the hero of the game does not have any fixed image, and is created by the player to be their avatar in the game world." Heads up courtesy your friendly neighborhood simoniker.

Re:Wiki

[NanoGator]

"But here's the real question: Can any user edit the game?"

Doesn't matter. They can't advertise the game looking like WW. For the purposes of marketing/advertising, they cannot infringe.

Conflicting points of view?

[Moryath]

--On the one hand, as the designers point out, that is merely an early screenshot. The real avatar may look like that, or may look entirely different.

--We also have to consider that if you make a cel-shaded farmland scene, it will probably look like a cel-shaded farmland scene in another game. Just like how a red-haired chibi-anime girl looks a hell of a lot like every other red-haired chibi-anime girl.

--The *NAME* of the game is Wiki. No, the puff of air will not stay right there the entire game. It's a promo shot, so they stuffed the game's title into the scene... and since they wouldn't want to override any of the aesthetics, the bottom-right corner was the best spot for it. Coincidence of design, not an attempt at deception.

--That being said, Webzen could very well have done their avatar with some other design options, and shifted the scene camera around to put their logo into another spot.

Yeah, it's a screenshot that looks similar. Deal with it. I think this is an instance of an overzealous lawyer (What, an overzealous lawyer from Nintendo? That'd be like Apple suing their fans for discussing gossip... wait... right.)

Yeah. It's kind of like that.

Re:Conflicting points of view?

[NanoGator]

"--On the one hand, as the designers point out, that is merely an early screenshot. The real avatar may look like that, or may look entirely different."

On the other hand, maybe they should release screenshots that don't look like they belong to Wind Waker. Then they wouldn't be infringing on trademarks or confusing people into thinking it's Wind Waker instead of Wiki.

"Yeah, it's a screenshot that looks similar. Deal with it."

They are. They sent a letter instead of a lawsuit.

" I think this is an instance of an overzealous lawyer"

I think this is an isntance of an overzealous attempt to assume lawyers only represent evil intentions.

Re:Wow!

[merdark]

I looked at screens from both games. So what, Nintendo has patented cell shaded characters with white skin and yellow hair?

I don't think the Big N has any point here. Really. Hair is different, cloaths are different, no green zelda outfit. Have you ever seen Link in anything but green?

Sorry, last I checked nintendo did not have a trademark on all cell shaded wasp characters.

Nintendo afraid of MMORPGs

[Sim9]

At least from my perspective, Nintendo has always been afraid of Zelda MMORPGs. While it can be understandable to send cease and desist letters at fan games, Nintendo generally lets singleplayer ones slide, while being aggressive against multiplayer ones.

Nintendo fought against Graal, who was at the time making a very Zelda-esque MMORPG (clearly derivative). And yet, Zelda classic (Single player, and also clearly derivative) is alive and thriving...