Bizarre begins Geometry Wars clone wars

Company takes action against copycats; defends its decision in message board posting.

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved was the surprise hit of the Xbox 360 launch, a $5 Xbox Live Arcade title that spawned buzz alongside Perfect Dark Zero, Project Gotham Racing 3, and any of the other heavily hyped day-one titles. It also spawned a handful of copycat games that were freely distributed online.

One site hosted a Geometry Wars clone called Grid Wars until recently. The download has now been removed from the site, with the following message attributed to Geometry Wars developer Bizarre Creations in its place:

We're beginning to feel the effects of the Geometry Wars clones on our sales via Microsoft now and are beginning a process to begin to more robustly protect our copyright and intellectual property. Therefore, I'd like to ask you in an amicable fashion to stop infringing our IP and pull the game 'Grid Wars' from the Internet for download. I hope you understand and are able to do this without us having to take further steps.

A Bizarre staffer explained the company's decision to crack down on Geometry Wars clones in a posting on the studio's official forums.

"The issue that we have with the proliferation of GW:RE 'clone' games is their own lack of originality--particularly on the visual front," the post reads. "Only hardcore gamers will be aware of any differences between a clone and the original game beyond the visual level. This potentially takes sales away from our product and weakens our brand--especially if-and-when we decide to launch a version of GW:RE on a platform where a clone is already available. All too often we have seen people confused, calling our game by the name of a clone, and a clone by our name."

For more on Geometry Wars, check out GameSpot's full review.

96 Comments

  • Master__Shake

    Posted Apr 30, 2007 3:52 pm PT

    Batsgun, your posts make no sense. You spoke of geo wars like you played it then said you never played then said you owned it. and grid wars is as bad as someone remaking mario 1 using all the same graphics but making his outfit purple and green instead of red and blue. It's a total knock of just like frets of fire for pc to guitar hero.

  • batsugun

    Posted Nov 24, 2006 7:15 am PT

    To NeO10102525 I got the black hole info from http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com/grid/wars.htm.

    I did not bash Geo Wars at all as I said I had not played it. But have since, I now have a 360 I baught for gears of wars. The only bashing was done by you, calling those who downloaded Grid Wars poor ppl. Grid Wars was offered free and I didnt even know about Geo Wars till this article on gamespot. I know its long time since I replied to your post. I just read it looking for game play tips for Geo Wars. Yes I have full version of Geo Wars on my Xbox 360. And I still play Grid wars on my PC. Thank You

  • NeO10102525

    Posted Oct 28, 2006 2:37 pm PT

    uh dude batsugun the blackholes are the exact same way in geo wars.. if you let em suck up huge ammounts of enemies and calm them down with bullets every so often, once you wanna blow em up they give you 6000+ points. You shoudl inform yourself before bashing an original. Grid wars is for poor ppl wanabe's

  • batsugun

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 7:55 am PT

    I never played Geo Wars, But I do play Grid Wars and love it.

    Grid Wars represents a Fan of Geo Wars taking a good idea and improving on it.

    In grid wars power ups float around instead of powering up by points only.

    The bigest improvement over Geo Wars is the black Holes in grid wars can be used to rack up big points. You have to control them while you let them suck up enemies and destroy them at just the right time to gain massive points. This adds stratigy to the game and is a big improvement.

    So grid wars is a fans homage to the original and should not be banned.
    Just as Geo Wars is Homage to Robotron.

    Grid Wars is not an exact clone. It improves on the original.

  • batsugun

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 7:54 am PT

    I never played Geo Wars, But I do play Grid Wars and love it.

    Grid Wars represents a Fan of Geo Wars taking a good idea and improving on it.

    In grid wars power ups float around instead of powering up by points only.

    The bigest improvement over Geo Wars is the black Holes in grid wars can be used to rack up big points. You have to control them while you let them suck up enemies and destroy them at just the right time to gain massive points. This adds stratigy to the game and is a big improvement.

    So grid wars is a fans homage to the original and should not be banned.
    Just as Geo Wars is Homage to Robotron.

    Grid Wars is not an exact clone. It improves on the original.

  • hemakm3

    Posted Aug 17, 2006 3:40 pm PT

    Fight Bizarre, fight.

  • deadlychicken22

    Posted Aug 17, 2006 7:58 am PT

    Saying that it is okay because Nintendo or Marvel would do the same thing if they were in Bizarres position doesn't really mean much. SquareEnix also shutdown the Chrono Resurrection project ( http://www.opcoder.com/projects/chrono/ ). Game companies aren't generally nice to homebrew coders/gamemakers. However, Nintendo seems to be better than most companies, as they haven't done anything about Zelda Classic (http://www.zeldaclassic.com/) which is basically an exact remake of zelda along with tons of fan-made versions. These things don't hurt the industry, they help it.

    As for grid wars being an exact clone, read the article I linked to earlier and try them out yourself. I'm sure that if you play it for any period of time you will soon realize that they are quite different. The scoring system is different, which leads to different styles of playing.

  • Rezlow

    Posted Aug 17, 2006 7:30 am PT

    I hope the guys who created Smash TV don't sue Bizarre... Or the Asteroid guys!!!

    Copyright wars could soon begin!

  • bulldog7

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 3:32 pm PT

    anschutz00, i agree, people feel they have a right to certain things. Get over yourselves! It's theft, plain and simple. but about the xmen rip off, it's worse, it's taking all the characters and KEEPING the same story, but just calling it "Xmenn" or "exmen". anyway, get over yourselves, it's just stealing, plain and simple.

  • anschutz00

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 3:22 pm PT

    It's amazing what people feel that they have a "right" to do. I'm sorry if you don't want to buy a 360, or can't afford to buy a 360, but when a company decides to release something to only one console, you cannot take their work and put it somewhere they did not intend for it to be. I've got a challenge for someone. Take the original Sper Mario Brothers, recode it from scratch. CAll it Super Guido Bros and make the main character a construction worker. We all know what it looks like and make it a free downloadable game that will play on the PSP. See how fast you have a lawyer from Nintendo knocking on your door.

  • DontEatCream

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 2:16 pm PT

    Maybe Bizzare shouldn't have publicly announced this whole anti-Grid Wars thing because they have just essentially provided all the Geo Wars clones out there with loads of free advertising. Take me for example: I always loved Geo Wars, but could never enjoy the game to the fullest because I did not own a 360. But now, thanks to this new development, I have finally learned of the existence of these Geo Wars clones and downloaded Grid Wars 2. Best 3 megs I ever downloaded.

    Thanks, Bizzare, for helping all the gamers out where who needed a place for their Geo Wars fix but don't have a 360 for which to do so.

  • qlcoffeecup

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 1:46 pm PT

    This is obviously an infringement on Bizarre's IP, and shouldn't even be up for debate. One glance at a screenshot is all that's needed to see that every enemy (right down to the glow of the lines) has been lifted from Geometry Wars.

    A poster below tried to make a comparison to a production of Hamlet. That's comparing apples to oranges, because Hamlet is public domain, not private. I think a better analogy would be if someone started drawing and producing X-Men ripoff comics. Every character is included, and new storylines are introduced. Some of you may argue that that's the root of "fan fiction", but fan fiction is tolerated by the owners of the IP, and not protected by any constitutional amendment. Now imagine that someone took this x-men rippoff and made a game out of it, then started selling it (or distributing it for free, even.) Do you think they would get sued by Marvel? Without question.

    Anyone arguing that Bizarre is being ruthless by shutting down a PC clone of the game is missing the obvious fact that they'd like to release the game on the PC one day. And make money. This is obvious, and is not evil. And that's also the point of protecting intellectual property. It's yours, which means that you're untitled to prevent other people from giving it away for free. Anyone who questions the value of IP might want to stop for a minute and ask themselves this question: What does a software company own, if not IP? What do they have to sell, other than their Intellectual Property?

    The creator of the clone could easily have changed the look-and-feel of the game, included original enemies and an original ship design, and modified the gameplay. In this case, Bizarre would have had no cause for complaint. He didn't, though, because he knew that emulating Geo Wars was the easiest way to advertise his free software. He's drawn a lot of attention to himself and his web site, has built a reputation for himself, and can flip that for a profit with an original title. In other words, he's profited from Bizarre's IP.

  • anschutz00

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 1:25 pm PT

    I'm sorry, but Grid Wars is a very blatent clone of Geometry Wars. Even the name is meant to draw comparasons between the games. Here is something for you to try. Take the Harry Potter movies, hire a bunch of people who looks earily similar to the current movie casts and reshoot the movies onto Blu-ray DVD. You can rename the main character to Mary Botter and make it a girl but pretty much keep all the other details the same. See how your arguments of it being on a different format that it isn't available on right now hold up in court.

  • bulldog7

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 12:39 pm PT

    Irises, regardless of what impact it has on the industry, and it obviously does, it's stealing!!! So talk all you want about how you'd still buy some systems and legit games even though you can get them pirated. it doesn't change the fact that this is illegal.
    And for those others: Stealing from the rich is not justified because they are rich. There's nothing noble about stealing a freakn video game. Stop you're whining! (and again, you have no idea what amounts to a clone if you're comparing sonic and mario, pong and table tennis, you're completely out of your element; you obviously haven't seen grid wars.)
    Protect the IP, all of them. artists and creators have a right to protect their creations, yes, even rich ones.

  • deadlychicken22

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 12:12 pm PT

    I think that the problem with this discussion is that most people respond "emotionally" without thinking the matter through both legally and ethically. Most people just support whichever developer/publisher/company/system/game they like better and don't really give the issue much thought. Most of you probably don't understand what goes into making a game, or even how to program in BASIC.

    The truth of the matter is, the game industry is full of copies, and rightfully so. You see, when people come up with great ideas, other people tend to use those ideas also. This isn't a bad thing. The only way the market evolves is by people trying new things and other people building off of those things and perfecting them.

    What geometry wars did was put vector graphics and robotron gameplay into the same game. We already had vector graphics in games, and we already had robotron and robotron-like games. Geometry wars creators saw this as a great game combination, and it was.

    So, the grid wars developer decided he liked this gameplay, but wanted to have it on the pc. From what I understand, he coded the entire thing from scrath, stealing 0 bits of code from geometry wars. He added vector graphics similar to geometry wars and his own scoring system, menu, options, and controls, and he decided to release it for free online. And he has every right to do so.

    What was copied from geometry wars was the gameplay, and the graphics. The gameplay in geometry wars is just a modern version of robotron, and the graphics are just colorful vector graphics. Geometry wars wasn't the first to use these graphics. The scoring system was changed, the menus were changed, the system it runs on was changed, the entire code is original, and besides that it isn't being released commercially. How can a company own the rights to making a game with colorful vector graphics and robotron-like gameplay? They can't.

    If you played both grid wars and geometry wars for any period of time, you would realize that while they appear the same, they have some major differences (http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com/grid/wars.htm). Perhaps grid wars is better than geometry wars, that's what the author of this article believes.

    The final determinant is whether or not grid wars actually stole anything original from geometry wars, and it obviously didn't. Its designed after geometry wars, but the graphics aren't exactly the same (ripped from the "real" game), the system isn't the same, and the code is completely original. The game logic has also been altered.

    Yes, you xbox360 fanboys will cuss at me and everyone who agrees with me, but when you look at the issue logically, you really don't have any argument. I like the xbox360, but I'm not going to compromise my logic to make my "team" win.

  • FallenOneX

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 12:01 pm PT

    While it's not right to infringe on someone else's work, companies need to quit f'ing around with this crap. You know when your game's popular. Instead of trying to milk all of the 360 owners before going after other markets, start sooner. Bizarre knows they can't count on a win in court to recoup their "losses". Oh, yeah they'll win the case. But 9 out 10 times the person they're suing is someone sitting at home 5 months ago that played GW and said to him/herself "hey, I could do that!"

  • DiscGuru101

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 11:40 am PT

    Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight.

    =D

  • Yuck_Too

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 10:09 am PT

    Dune 2 for the Sega...that RTS on a console could still stand up by today's standards!...in fact I might go fire it up now

  • BigD

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 10:05 am PT

    Its not like Geometry Wars isn't just a clone of Robotron. Maybe they guys that did Robotron X could sue Bizarre for updating the Robotron just like they did.

  • megasnake

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 9:25 am PT

    http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com/grid/gw2.jpg
    that is a screenshot of Grid Wars
    and this is geometry wars
    http://i.i.com.com/cnet.g2/images/2005/325/930851_20051122_screen004.jpg

    I hope this opens some peoples eyes about why Bizzare went to them, it looks, sounds and plays exactly the same and has a very similar name..., if your gonna rip it off , change the look at the VERY LEAST and bizzare wouldnt have come after them.

  • veridiac

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 9:18 am PT

    This is ridiculous, unless they patented their gameplay (which they couldn't even if they wanted to for numerous reasons such as prior art) they have no case. Grid wars isn't a *copy* of Geometry Wars, nor can you compare it to plagiarism or anything else like that.

    The author never took a single line of the source code of Geometry Wars, only built something from scratch that had the same gameplay.

    Its the same as one artist painting a house and selling those paintings for lots of money, and then sueing some other artist that saw how popular the paintings were and started making them for free.

    I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure they'd have no case - thing is, for a small freeware game dev it doesn't matter, a frivolous unwinnable lawsuit is still too expensive to risk.

    And to those of you that think this would be GOOD for the game industry - think again. Imagine if all RTS developers everywhere had to pay the original developer of Dune 2 just to make an RTS? Think about it - almost every game released today, including many GREAT games, is nothing but a n evolutionary improvement on some previous game. Now, you may argue that gridwars made no improvement, some might disagree, though the issue is irrelevant - Gameplay is not something protected by copyright, and more importantly IT SHOULDNT BE.

    The games we would have if it were would pale in comparison to what has been developed because its not - why do you think you have to sign an NDA to play beta games? Everyone knows that any cool new idea in that game will be added to every game out there that can benefit from it, incidently this benefits us as consumers tremendously, not only by improving other games but by forcing developers to keep thinking and improving their games to stay on top.

  • ashuncc2

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 9:05 am PT

    Good for Bizarre. They should protect their properties from an exact replica.

    I have not played Grid Wars. If the game is similar but enhanced; I don't think the actions taken by Bizarre are right. But, if the game is an exact clone; then, Bizarre should protect their Intellectual Property.

  • nytrospawn

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 8:44 am PT

    Er, maybe Geometry Wars sales are going down because almost everyone already has it....

  • rubberducknl77

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 8:19 am PT

    @Irises

    So by your logic every First Person Shooter after Wolfenstein 3D (or was it Doom, dunno whatever the first FPS is) shouold be made available for free, because they all offer basically the same (or similar) gameplay and are all inspired (in some way) by these early shooters. FPS games are some of the least original and unimaginative titles available, yet if I were to release a game called 'Quarterlife' with a protagonist called Gordon Fryman, I think you would agree that that is somewhat different than releasing just another FPS. A lot of games are inspired on other games, but 'Grid Wars', or 'Trigonomitry Wars' are nothing more than Blatent Carbon copies of Geomitry Wars, in an attempt to avoid having to buy a 360 to play them, thus diverting potential sales away from MS.

    Oh, and your 'noble' attempt at explaining your 'legal' way of pirating games doesn't make the slightest bit of sense. So you pirate a game, until it finds its way to the bargain bin and you pick it up for a few bucks, and then HOW doesn't that damage sales income???

  • comthitnuong

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 8:06 am PT

    so this means more legal stuff huh

  • limpbizkit818

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 7:45 am PT

    yboucher - If you had even read the artical you would of seen that they are talking about the visual's of the clone game, not the gameplay.

  • yboucher

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 7:18 am PT

    I can't read everyone's comments, but the fact that Geometry Wars in itself is VERY much "inspired" by some old Atari arcade classics (notably Asteroids and Space Duel) REMAINS pertinent. I still find that extremely ironic.

  • kittencrusher

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 6:46 am PT

    I can't believe you goomba's are even debating this. Bizarre has every right to defend their Intellectual Property. If I can just go download some exact clone for free on the PC, why the hell would I buy it on the Xbox Live Marketplace?? Man, everybody wants something for free. They don't care as long as it doesn't affect them. I'm a small time game dev as a hobby. If someone took all my freeware projects, cloned them, and slapped their name across them, I'd be stark raving PISSED. You guys have to respect the devs and see it from their viewpoint. If you can't, then you're pretty immature.

    Yes, my projects are FREEWARE, but Copyright law STILL protects them, and I'd still be pretty ticked if someone stole them.

  • DuckyofAlarcon2

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 5:54 am PT

    I made a geometry wars clone lol
    http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/308796
    Although mine is a lot different. Same style of gameplay though. So sue me. No wait. Don't.

  • Irises

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 5:52 am PT

    But enzima, you didn't really read my posts then, I actually said everything to the contrary of what you are implying: I emphasised that despite the fact that I have easy access to pirated software I regularly buy legal software, not only for PC, but also for consoles. I know many people who do the same thing. I didn't deny that piracy has an effect on lower sales of software but I also pointed out that the industry uses piracy as an easy excuse and doesn't bother to look for other reasons and, effecticvelly prevents any survey that would determine just to what extent piracy really hurts the industry. I for one know that if not for the easy access to pirated software, I wouldn't have purchased many pieces of legal software.

    Yes, Bizarre 'protected' its IP by effectivelly preventing a person who made a free game and never made it commercially available, for another platform, to share it with other people. Doesn't this sound like an absurd situation, particularly knowing that Geometry Wars itself is far from being innovative or original? This is quite symptomatic of the way of thinking that managed to give birth to DMCA and various DRM technologies that all support the idea that if there is theoretical potential that copyright might be infringed, this is grounds for legal action, regardless of whether any infrinement was ever attampted.

    My comparison between reactions of the games industry against copyright infringement and actions of 'certain' administraions against some states was used to emphasise the simlarity in thiking: both use assumptions as exclusive grounds for action, both bypass the regularly established legal mechanisms for determining whether there actually is danger and what is its extent.

  • enzima

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 5:50 am PT

    Thats exactly my point CLDragonCL, if you let exclusive games be cloned on other platforms, they´re not exclusive anymore, aren´t they? So if own a PC and i can find free clones of all the games of XBOX LIVE on the net, why would i want a 360 anyway? There is nothing exclusive there, so.....

  • CLDragonCL

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 5:41 am PT

    IMO it's a bad move for MS/Bizarre. Geometry Wars is for the Xbox 360 and the clone was for the PC. Until Bizarre makes a port to the PC, those who does not have a Xbox 360 will not know what the game is like without the PC clone version.

    This is your typical loosing sales arguement of game companies... I bet a good portion of those people who downloaded the PC clone version does not even own a Xbox 360 and just wanted to see what the hype is all about.

  • bdhoff

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 5:40 am PT

    It is in Bizarre Creations' rights to request that someone not distribute a blantant copy of their game. And at ths point all they've done is request. Nobody actually has to comply. If someone feels strongly enough that their game isn't a copy of one of Bizarre's games, then they can go to court to fight it. That's how it works.

  • LosDaddie

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 5:37 am PT

    They have the right to protect their property.

  • spidey008

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 5:29 am PT

    Geometry Wars is a fun game. I hope to see more XBL games that are entertaining at a good price. I don't have much to say about the cloning. It happens all of the time.

  • enzima

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 5:14 am PT

    I was really shocked from peoples reaction (read: pc owners only, they LIVE on piracy!) to this news: Bizarre people only made sure (in a friendly way) that their rights were respected. Lets not use dialectics to hide the truth: GRID WARS is a clone of GEOMETRY WARS. Why denying the obvious truth? Bizarre have ALL the rights to defend their creations from a FREE CLONE DISTRIBUTED ONLINE.
    IRISES are you completely out of your mind? i live too in one of THOSE countries, and you really have the courage fo saying out loud that piracy doesnt hurt the industry? And you dare to compare the politics behind the game industry with the politics of wars? I guess it must have made you feel intelligent. If it makes you happy...

  • SnuffDaddyNZ

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 3:47 am PT

    Oh boy...

    Just wait, Eugene Jarvis will see this and sue the hell out of the Geometry Wars guys for ripping off Robotron.

    I HOPE that's what he does anyway.

    EDIT: HEY I JUST THOUGHT OF ANOTHER ONE.... CLONING CLYDE!!!! An OBVIOUS rip-off of Abe's Oddysee, so I wonder how long before the creators of Clyde get served?

    EDIT #2: YET ANOTHER ONE..... Geometry Wars, besides being a clone of Robotron, is actually very similar to a game called Sentinel in my opinion (another MIDWAY game).

  • Irises

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 3:34 am PT

    Moreover, there are people arguing that Grid Wars was building on the foundaton that Geometry Wars had set rather than just aping it which is I guess one more argument against that way of thinking:

    http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com/grid/wars.htm

  • Irises

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 2:59 am PT

    I'd like to politely disagree. In the first place, Bizarre have hardly invented a markedly new gameplay mechanic that hasn't been seen before. They have taken and polished something that has existed for decades (Robotron), given it a visual overhaul and used a very friendly distribution method (XBLA) and an opportune time (X360 launch window, not enough AAA titles and a lot of hardcore crowd starving to be entertained on their shiny new boxes) to have a sucessful selling streak. So, hence my comparison with Shakespear's Hamlet. So, protecting IP/ copyright is all well and good but this is a very bad example. There are tons of free/ shareware etc. games with similar mechanics floating around the Internet that have been around before Geometry Wars and yet Bizarre are acting as if they invented something new just because they went out and trademarked it. Yes, the clones are piggybackriding their commercial success but so has Bizarre taken an existing gameplay design mechanic and created a successful commercial franchise. The clones are doing it for free, Bizarre chooses to ask for money for their creaton even though in essence they both do the same thing.

    Rubberduck, I never said I have 'the right to (X360's) exclusive titles'. I downloaded a similar game that was provided for free for another platform. Tell me, if I wasn't buying X-Men comics but decided to read a free Internet comic that was aping X-Men to some extent in graphics and plot (but not using the same names, visuals and text and therefore not infringing on copyright/ trademarks) would Marvel Comics Group concievably have the right to send a cease and desist note to the author/ host of this comic?

    Because, you see, there is a problem here that has been present for ages in the industry and that is acting on the assumption rather than on knowledge. In normal life this shouldn't work, yet the games industry still seems to be in the state of primordial soup. The assumption that the sole existence and availability of Grid Wars has actually prevented me from buying a X360 and Geometry Wars is about as legally grounded as is the notion of preemptive strikes against what certain administrations label 'renegade states'. OK, I should probably stay out of politics here... But the analogy is there: Bizarre is threatening lawsuit against someone who merely made a game that resembles their game (that in turn resembles other commercially released games) and made it available. So, this person made no attempt to profit from this game, made no attempt to advertise it commercialy, and having it posted on their personal website for download is practically the same as saying to your friends: "here, I made this game, want to try it?" Yet, the company, although in no way able to prove that a game with a different name for a different platform not distributed commercially, claims this affects their sales and threatens legal action. To exaggerate greatly but logically, how is this different from you making your own Geometry Wars clone, sharing it with your friends and neighbours and Bizarre comes knocking on your door tomorrow and says 'Stop giving your game to your friends next door or we will sue!!!'? Because this is essentially what happens here.

    Moreover, the whole idea of Geometry Wars was not to invent new gameplay in the frist place. The way I understand it, the appeal is in the tried and tested gameplay AND the ability to brag about your score/ achievements as facilitated by Live service which none of the clones can provide. Hence the attack on clones is, at least to me, completely off tangent, wrong and silly.

    And to end on a positive note: the assumption that piracy/ copyright infringement in general is the sole reason of declining game sales is just that - an assumption. Sure it affects sales but is by no means the only factor, yet game companies always cite piracy/ CI as the only thing. And yet take me, for example, I live in one of THOSE countries where you basically can get any game for free or next to nothing. I have literally hundreds of pirated games for various platforms at home. And yet I regularly buy games that I already played in their pirated form because I have tried them, tested them and know I like them enough to get the whole package. And I am not even interested in online play - I don't buy tem so I can go online, I buy them because I want to own the whole package and support the developers. Just yesterday I purchased Total War Eras (the only copy in the shop, arrived just that morning) even though I already have pirated copies of these games. So there...

  • boocreepyfootdr

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 2:49 am PT

    Would robotron, smash tv, and the dozen other double-analog games like that be considered clones?

  • rubberducknl77

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 2:19 am PT

    Bizarre have all the rights to protect a their IP from blatant copies. The fact that it is only released for 360 doesn't change that one bit. Every good exclusive (be they full-fledged triple A titles, or cheap but hyperaddictive arcade games) help sell a system (XBLA has done a lot for the sales numbers of 360). So releasing it on other platforms wouldn't always be the smart thing to do. If however you have no inclination to buy a 360, but feel that you somehow have the right to its exclusive titles, then I think you're wrong...Gaming is a bussiness, not a charity...I miss out on Super Mario because I don't have a nintendo, and if I need to buy a nintendo to play these games, then so be it...that is the whole point of exclusive titles...

  • recalcitrant1

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 1:46 am PT

    Congratulations on shooting the entire industry in the foot. If companies don't get IP protection for their games cross-platform then they won't make games at all. Especailly games they spent years and oodles of cash creating. IP rights are a concession to developers and innovators allowing them to exploit their creations over a number of years before the games go public domain. IT is essential that IP works like it does to encourage such development.

    Your example is also completely off base.

    Many people will own both a console and a PC, though this is beside the point.

  • Irises

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 1:12 am PT

    I don't usually comment on this stuff, but this piece of news actually made my blood pressure go through the roof and now I feel like punching someone... So I don't own a XBox360 and probably won't own it in a while if ever. So I read about Geometry Wars and thought to myself 'too bad this is not being realised for PC, sounds like a hell of a game'. So then I run into Grid Wars that is made available FOR FREE on a platform that the original Geometry Wars is NOT AVAILABLE for. So I download it and it gives me great pleasure over months. And then some smart person from Bizarre decides that the reason their game is not selling as much as he thinks it should is that there is a free clone of that game for another platform. And they take legal action to prevent it from being distributed. All of it in an industry where copycating and cloning is the way things work anyway... This is so idiotic, unfair and bullish that it actually makes my blood boil... I mean, imagine that Holywood makes a high-production, expensive film based on Shakespear's 'Hamlet'. It hits the theatres/ DVD racks. Then a bunch of friends from high school get a digital camera and shoot their version of Hamlet using roughly the same angles and scene durations. Then they post it for free on youtube. And then Holywood decides that this is hampering their ticket/ DVD sales and they take legal action to force these people to take their video down. This is the same situation....

  • Commando-JIMBOB

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 12:49 am PT

    Its up to a company (Bizarre in this case) to protect there IP, they have a right to do so , and they have chosen to do it.

    Classics like pac-man and Mario have been ripped off, but they established themselves - so whats the point of the legal hassle. It would have been different if Sega ripped of Mario - think about that.

    In Bizarres case, its not an established game else where , so it needs to protect its markets

  • bulldog7

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 12:17 am PT

    one more thing: most of you don't know what you're talking about. the clone in question is not some game that builds off of geormetry wars, it's the SAME GAME with a different name. it is a complete ripoff. so those of you who talk about how table tennis is a rip off of pong (which is a terrible example to begin with), you really ought to be at least minimally informed before you make completely irrelevant comparisions.

  • bulldog7

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 11:56 pm PT

    come up with any argument you want, nothing is going to change the fact that it's a form of stealing. I say protect your IP, and if you really have problems with that, maybe you ought to create something yourself have see if you're ok with people ripping it off and making money with it. and even if you are OK with it, it doesn't mean Bizarre has to be OK with IP theft.

  • Public_loser

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 11:11 pm PT

    um... anthony basic.... crystal quest is uber old... i used to play that on my mac.... like... 12 years ago... and it was old then....

  • YukoAsho

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 10:46 pm PT

    Found me a copy and BOY is this blatent. I agree with Trigun1 on this: Protect your IP, Bizarre!

  • Pierce_Sparrow

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 10:09 pm PT

    Hmmm, seems a bit stingy to me. Clones of games are made all the time...so what? It's a $5 game. Not everyone has an Xbox 360, much less Xbox Live, and so, it is not accessible to people. And no one is going to run out and purchase a 360 just to play some stupid $5 game. If they were smart, they would release it on multiple platforms, or at the very least, the PC. That would certainly make the prevention of clones easier. As it stands now, however, they are only making themselves look bad by policing independent game makers. Somehow, I get the impression that even if whoever made Grid Wars changed the look of the game, they would probably still get a nice little letter from the company telling them to stop the game.

  • PSdual_wielder

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 9:59 pm PT

    "All too often we have seen people confused, calling our game by the name of a clone, and a clone by our name."

    This would be the most frustrating point to them. I would be mad if my original works is called the rip-off instead of the real rip-off.

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