Does anyone else agree that this article is scare-mongering?

[MechaGS]

I've just been to IGN (the sess-pit of game journalism) and they've got this article on their homepage with what they claim is Keiji Inafune having said he has thought Capcom would sue him over Mighty No. 9.



Not to be a downer but these sorts of articles lead to people taking their money from projects. People don't like giving money away for free and whilst most people do understand that Kickstarters can fail even when funded (as in you never get your money back), there are people out there who will see this and not want to pledge out of that fear.



What do you guys think? I myself think the article is ludicrous and completely baseless.

[NinjablazerZero]

The media is not interested in rational thought or speaking truth in any measure at all. All they want is reactions from the people, and money. Not surprising someone is taking advantage of the situation and the gullible, uneducated masses to get a rise from people. Not only that, but they like doing this for popular topics, all because those are the easiest target.



It'll probably hurt the project, but with the amount of traction it has now, chances are it won't do much damage aside from us not being able to reach certain goals.



But yeah, that article is baseless and dumb, and fails to include a lot of important details. But they are doing that on purpose. Media organizations like that, after all, are just professional trolls.

[astarisborn94]

Wouldn't be surprised if IGN did this for hits. Seriously, when Keiji Inafune has said there are people at Capcom secretly backing the project and no contact from Capcom themselves in regards to the project, that's not a sign that Inafune will get sued.



I heavily doubt Capcom is going to sue. Considering that they have only $152 million in the bank, suing would prove disastrous and result in their death quicker than expected.

[MechaGS]

It's amazing how low they'll go for views these days. It's no wonder I have no faith in reviewers or any journalists opinions.

[TheRaven]

Ign pretty much sucks and will write about anything to gain an audience it seems like. Crapcom is definitely in no state to try and sue anyone, especially if they were to lose the case they wouldn't be able to pay the fees.

[Mighty No. 9]

Having the gift of the gab doesn't mean having the gift of the mind.  :becksmile sadly this is the case with many people, if we had more of the mind and less of the gab the world would be a better place.  :beckwink

[Demon_skeith]

It's been talked about long before IGN made this article, actually if you think a little it's obvious that capcom might sue. But even if they did they can't stop no 9 project.

[MechaGS]

The only real thing they could sue over though is the designs. They don't own the rights to any of the gameplay elements so I don't think they'd win out in terms of genre or mechanics.



I think the characters look different enough to not warrant an Intellectual Property war. I just don't see how Capcom would get anything out of such a move.

[NinjablazerZero]

Ign pretty much sucks and will write about anything to gain an audience it seems like. Crapcom is definitely in no state to try and sue anyone, especially if they were to lose the case they wouldn't be able to pay the fees.

Actually, Capcom is in the exact state necessary to push them to sue. However, considering that Capcom has no ground at all to sue on, they'd lose.



I don't think it's a matter of if they will sue, but rather how long till they do? And when they do, no doubt they are going to lose anyways, so it's not even that big a deal. Absolutely nothing to worry about.



But, chances are, they won't sue. Crapcom may be too busy ruining themselves to take the time to even try.

[MechaGS]

I guess we could say that if they did dare to sue, they'd need one hell of a compelling argument. Since they can't even persuade gamers to buy their games these days, I doublt they'll be able to persuade a court room.

[Demon_skeith]

The only real thing they could sue over though is the designs. They don't own the rights to any of the gameplay elements so I don't think they'd win out in terms of genre or mechanics.



I think the characters look different enough to not warrant an Intellectual Property war. I just don't see how Capcom would get anything out of such a move.

there is no way they could make a lawsuit on that ground, considering the megaman creator is doing this game he can just say it's how he draws and it's why there is similarities. .

[MechaGS]

The only real thing they could sue over though is the designs. They don't own the rights to any of the gameplay elements so I don't think they'd win out in terms of genre or mechanics.



I think the characters look different enough to not warrant an Intellectual Property war. I just don't see how Capcom would get anything out of such a move.

there is no way they could make a lawsuit on that ground, considering the megaman creator is doing this game he can just say it's how he draws and it's why there is similarities. .

Inafune-san could say that, but the Mega Man art style is actually a trademark of Capcom no matter how we look at it. They could try to pull a nasty reason like that out of their goodybag.



Not saying they will of course. I think Capcom are probably happy to let it live on, especially with how many at Capcom want it to actually succeed.

[NinjablazerZero]

They art style is definitely not a trademark of Capcom. Capcom only has the rights to the specific characters and their designs. They cannot trademark a style of drawing. They can only own the character designs. And even then, they can't own specific parts of the designs, or even the name. They can only own the whole combination of design, character, and name. For example, Megaman is blue, but they can't own the color blue. His name is Megaman, but technically, they can't own the name Megaman itself. They can, however, own Megaman's design, which includes blue and the name Megaman. As for the name, they can't own it totally, but they can own it as far as using it to name games. Even another character could be named Megaman, as long as that's not the name of the game, and that other character looked completely different from the Blue Bomber.



If that was the case, anime wouldn't be as big as it is in Japan, because nearly every anime out there has a similar artstyle, So people would be afraid of getting sued and not make any. That also applies to a ton of things.



So yeah, Capcom tried to pull that, they'd fail horribly, miserably, and put themselves in not only a bad financial position, but they'd make themselves an even bigger laughing stock than they already are now.



So yeah, legal nuiances to this kind of stuff are really so small and subtle, the full details are usually not so obvious. They can try to sue, but they really have no ground.

[MechaGS]

Sorry, I meant character style, not art style. Just my bad posting early in the morning.



I still agree though. They wouldn't do it out of fear it would ruin their business.

[Weejus]

Speaking of Capcom, anyone else heard about the employee abuse allegations surrounding them? They're pretty shocking, and make Capcom execs look like slave owners.