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Activision box art spurs THQ suit

By Tom Magrino, GameSpotPosted Oct 27, 2008 11:23 am PT

WWE publisher seeks to halt the sale of SCORE International Baja 1000 due to cover shot similarities with Baja: Edge of Control.

It isn't often that one gaming publisher takes another to court. However, that's just what happened last week, when THQ filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard over a dispute involving the box art for their respective racing titles Baja: Edge of Control and SCORE International Baja 1000.

Baja: Edge of Control

THQ's complaint, which was filed on October 23 in the US District Court of Central California, was first spotted by Patent Arcade. According to a copy of the suit obtained by GameSpot, THQ claims that the cover art for Activision Blizzard's upcoming SCORE International Baja 1000 too closely resembles that of Baja: Edge of Control. THQ says it has spent more than $1 million on marketing since the box shot was unveiled in June.

In the art for the THQ game (pictured top), two rally cars, one red the other blue, are shown in profile in the foreground careening through a desert landscape, with another car flipping forward and one more racing to catch up. A helicopter surveys the scene in the background. Activision's box art (pictured bottom) also shows two race cars in profile in the foreground, one red and the other silver with touches of blue. However, the similarities seem to end there, as the landscape is a canyon environment, and the two front-runners are trailed by a dirt bike.

In THQ's complaint, the publisher claims that the offending art is "likely to confuse, cause mistake, or deceive the public" into thinking that Activision Blizzard's game is "sponsored or approved" by THQ and that there is an affiliation between the two companies. THQ also notes in its complaint that it contacted Activision Blizzard through both written and verbal communication, but the SCORE International Baja 1000 publisher refused to comply with a request to make changes.

SCORE International Baja 1000

"If Activision releases the Activision Game to consumers with the packaging art depicted...THQ will suffer harm for which it has no adequate remedy at law, and which is irreparable," reads THQ's complaint. The publisher is therefore seeking to bar the sale of Activision's game. Were the court to not grant this request, THQ's complaint seeks damages as determined by a jury.

A THQ representative declined to comment on the ongoing litigation. Activision Blizzard had not responded to requests for comment as of press time.

84 Comments

  • niteowl360

    Posted Jan 19, 2009 6:50 am PT

    I previously suggested that Activision was probably trying despeartely to piggy back off the excellent THQ BAJA offering, with a probable mediocre experience.

    However, if you can stomach the early bike races, the game surprisingly does get better! Even the curious 'boost' option becomes playable and certain of the events are indeed challenging. Graphics are often appealing (not always), and the game is addictive. The real fault is to title this production 'Official BAJA'. Certainly from watching TV coverage of this great event, Activision has some resemblance of the real thing, but where the game excels is in terms of FUN (slightly behind THQ IMO).

    If points is your bag, 800 you'll achieve with ease, with the final 200 a sweat in acing 4 taxing time events. Probably a weekend away, whereas THQ will keep you honest for a week.

    If I had to take one with me to a desert island, it would be THQ. But if I was on the island for longer than a week, I'd take both!

  • rkipker

    Posted Nov 8, 2008 2:34 am PT

    Art can not be patent, if I was on the jury, I would not find for the plaintiff.

    That being said, I played the EOC game on 360 and personally thought it sucked, so disappointing the old rainbow studio XL Games

  • ewmgreendawg

    Posted Nov 6, 2008 7:44 am PT

    the official slogan of activision

    "steal the best, half-ass the rest"

  • niteowl360

    Posted Nov 5, 2008 11:15 pm PT

    Following on my earlier post we can confirm why Activision saw it fit to copy the THQ box art. They did indeed need to confuse the buying public in the hope that unexpecting consumers would pull their product off the shelf instead of the superb THQ offering.

    http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/927/927115p1.html

    I realise one review can't provide any ultimate conclusion, but when the reviewer compares the 2 games (albeit briefly) and the reader has experience in one of them, it does aid in making the review credible.

  • carllfc

    Posted Nov 5, 2008 11:03 am PT

    What a bunch of babies

  • Monkeyseat

    Posted Nov 4, 2008 11:24 am PT

    @Hairy_Pirate: I agree, THQ's box art looks much better.

  • tevic

    Posted Oct 31, 2008 5:11 pm PT

    @ Harless: that's the problem actually, because the name of both games is the same: BAJA.

  • Hairy_Pirate

    Posted Oct 30, 2008 2:28 am PT

    THQ should stop crying, their cover art looks much better. If I had to choose one or the other without prior information on either game, and based only on the cover art, THQ wins. Anyone agree?

  • cooldude03

    Posted Oct 29, 2008 9:58 am PT

    My big question is why is Activision/Blizzard putting out games like this when they got rid of games like Ghostbusters, Riddick 2, and other must own titles. I think we should all sue Activision for losing faith in good games. Granted I haven't played this Baja game but all I'm saying is they let go of awesome games in order to put out lesser known games.

  • TehUndeadHorror

    Posted Oct 29, 2008 12:20 am PT

    Lol...

  • harless

    Posted Oct 28, 2008 10:06 pm PT

    I'm sorry but who cares about the art? I mean a game is bought by NAME, not "Oh hey, that picture looks like the game I want to buy." THAT'S WHY WE'RE TAUGHT TO READ PEOPLE.

  • evilorder

    Posted Oct 28, 2008 9:29 pm PT

    It looks like Activision just tried to do more of a cgi version of Thq's art. The carbon copy of concepts, positioning and such are so blatent. Even the lettering of the titles are reasonably close. There is no way they didn't see Thq's art and gameplay. It's their competition, of course they did. How very unimaginative indeed.

  • Petri87

    Posted Oct 28, 2008 3:50 pm PT

    What about Rock Band and Rock Revolution?

  • tudyniuz

    Posted Oct 28, 2008 10:27 am PT

    they do look almost the same

  • Get_Shorty

    Posted Oct 28, 2008 10:26 am PT

    Well how many different ways can you best make cover art for a Baja type game. It's just a coincidence. Activision would have the same problem THQ would and they aren't worried about it.

  • majere613

    Posted Oct 28, 2008 4:02 am PT

    The two pictures are certainly way too similar for comfort- they look a lot like two pieces by the same artist where someone has done a few drafts to get the composition right. At it's most innocent, it's just possible that the designers for the two covers were trained in the same way and that the composition is based on a design checklist- if you look at some books on the subject the guidelines on how to place what and at what angle are suprisingly detailed- but I'd say ActiBlizz are looking at a new cover, unless they hire OJ's lawyer or something

  • niteowl360

    Posted Oct 28, 2008 12:51 am PT

    To my mind the cover in question is 'to a reasonable man' too close to the THQ Title to warrant this law suit.

    One needs to look at the intention of Activision as clearly there are a wealth of other screenshots / designs that could make this title appealing to its intended market.

    For example why not have a cover including Bikes which would be an immediate plus if comparing the two games. No doubt if the game lives up to Activision expectations, there would be a myriad of in game content that would be ideally suitable to produce a compelling Cover.

    BAJA from THQ has probably been my best racing title with the engine so far ahead of that used by other 'rally' developers eg Codemasters in DIRT.

    Good luck to THQ and I'll happily continue with their title till this mess gets sorted out which in my opinion is worthy 'mud' slinging from THQ's perspective. Activision should fire their Marketing Team responsible and compensate their audience for the delay!

  • KBABZ

    Posted Oct 27, 2008 10:00 pm PT

    I'll list the similarities:

    - Same colours for primary cars
    - Red car has light-set-thing on the top
    - Red car also has two people visible in the front - Left guy has his hand out and pointing to the right
    - Similar car positions, especially since the blue one is in the air at the same relative position to the red car
    - Camera angle is similar

  • Royas

    Posted Oct 27, 2008 9:53 pm PT

    There aren't too many images available to represent Baja racing, I'd think pretty much all the covers would have similarities like this. I don't really see a problem. They seem different enough.

  • kos1085

    Posted Oct 27, 2008 6:10 pm PT

    Looks very close to me so THQ may have a good case.

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