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Monday, 29th October 2007 at 2:49 pm

Simpsons dev lashes out at Rockstar

by Ben Parfitt | Email a friend | Print

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Claims studio “spazzed out like little babies” concerning GTA parody in The Simpsons Game

Following its previous admission that parts of its upcoming The Simpsons Game had to be cut following complaints from rival Rockstar, some of the development team from EA’s title have lashed out at the developer.

Gamepolitics reports that speaking on the US Game Head programme, The Simpson Game’s executive producer Matt Selman stated: “The game begins with Bart wanting to play a game called Grand Theft Scratchy. Of course this is a parody of Grand Theft Auto. And Marge immediately takes it away from him.

“She tries to clean up the town and stop the game from being distributed in Springfield because Marge is against video game violence. She uses horrific violence to stop video game violence – in a video game.

“Thats called irony. The people who make Grand Theft Auto, they spazzed out like little babies.”

Selman went on to attack Rockstar’s delay to its upcoming Grand Theft Auto 4:

Article continues below

Koch

“EA lawyers are afraid to use the name Grand Theft Scratchy in promoting the game. Rockstar’s games are full of satire, lame attempts at parody, basically putting the words sixty-nine in wherever they can find it.

“Still, their games are amazing. Trust me, I’ll be the first person in line to play Grand Theft Auto 4 – in five years when it comes out.”

Tags: grand theft scratchy, simpsons game cuts, simpsons grand theft auto parody, simpsons gta parody

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how pathetic

posted by OTWarrior Oct 29, 2007 at 4:00 pm

That is in the same vein as Issac Hayes getting made at south park when they took the **** out of scientology, but thinks it is ok to rip every other religion.

Why couldn't Rockstar just let it go, it would have done no harm to their games or their rep (especially after the debuckle that was manhunt2).

....such a shame to see a major studio throw a tantrum like this.

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Re: how pathetic

posted by Jim Charne Oct 29, 2007 at 4:26 pm

Use of parody is protected against claims of copyright infringement in the copyright statrute itself. For an interesting read on the topic, check Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, the 2 Live Crew suit that had to do with their use of the Roy Orbison song, Pretty Woman in a pretty raunchy rap. The U.S. Supreme Court said a parody of the original material is not an actionable copyright infringement.