GTA Parody Elements Pulled From Simpsons Game

The Grand Theft Auto section of the game is still there, but 1up is reporting that EA's The Simpsons game won't have any overt themes from the Rockstar title. That section is now labeled 'Mob Rules'. "Lead designer Greg Rizzer commented that 'if we make fun of Grand Theft Auto, we're not going to hurt the sales of Grand Theft Auto... But yeah, we've definitely had some reactions -- we've had to pull stuff from the game.' Otherwise, the trailer looks untouched, so it seems that the title was the major problem and not the parody game content itself ... Rockstar does have a point -- it's not as if they've ever used an existing work as inspiration for satire. Oh wait."

Re:Knee-jerk

[PrescriptionWarning]

The only problem I have with it, is that Grand Theft Auto was an actual term wayyy before the game came out. Its similar in case to that one Guitar Hero-like game that had the name Rockstar in it... Rockstar is just a word, so when that crappy rock singer says "I wanna be a rockstar", it has NOTHING to do with the company that created a series of games named after an official phrase for when someone goes on a car stealing spree.

Simpsons Hit and Run

[hansamurai]

Interesting decision considering the game Simpsons Hit and Run was basically a complete parody/ripoff of Grand Theft Auto set in the Simpsons universe.

Re:Parody is protected free speech

[crankyspice]

I thought "grand theft auto" was a very standard English word with a lot of history prior to Rockstar's usage, can they REALLY claim trademark on it?

It's a descriptive term ordinarily, yes, but within the specific context of electronic gaming it's acquired (at least arguably) sufficient 'secondary meaning' to be a 'source identifier' for Rockstar's series, and can therefore be protected by trademark.