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David Jaffe and SCEA sued: God of War story was stolen?

Posted Sep 17, 2008 at 6:08AM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: PS3 Tags: David Jaffe, Kratos, mythology, SCEA, Sony

God of War Copyright Infringement - Image 1

It seems God of War may have looked to more than just Greek Mythology for inspiration. Sony and game designer David Jaffe have been sued for copyright infringement.

The suit claims that story elements of God of War were stolen from a pre-existing works of fiction submitted to Sony in 2002. Now here's how it goes:

The works of fiction were submitted to Sony in 2002
The first game was released in 2005
Jaffe once said that the game took three years to develop

Coinkidink? Well, the plaintiffs don't seem to think so. The plaintiffs, Jonathan Bissoon-Dath and Jennifer Barrette-Herzog, cited several examples to how the game stole from their work. Examples of these are:

Plaintiff's works tell the original story of how a champion saves Athens from destruction by the invading Spartan army that has been sent by Ares... [GoW]... is the story of how a champion chosen by Zeus and Athens saves Athen from destruction by an invading army sent by Ares...
In plaintiff's original work and God of War, the Champion's family is hacked to death in a one-room building in a small peaceful village. In both stories the Champion feels partially responsible even though he is not really to blame...
In exchange for Kratos' pledge, Ares gives him... the Blades of Chaos... two massive, glowing, sword-like blades fastened to chains fused to Kratos's wrists... These Blade of Chaos are taken directly from a scene in Bissoon-Dath's work... "As Zeus strides forward... his hands MORPH into two massive swords that glow like light sabers..."
...Owen must cross the Bottomless Valley over a long, sagging suspension bridge, shown on Barrette-Herzog's map... in God of War Kratos must cross the Bottomless Chasm on a long, sagging suspension bridge...

SCEA and Jaffe both deny copyright infringement (of course), pointing out that Greek mythology is public domain. They claim that the accusations made by the plaintiffs were "inaccurate, incomplete, abstracted, and/or misleading."

So did they, or didn't they? Personally, I just hope it doesn't get in the way of God of War III.

Via GamePolitics

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This reminds me of the whole "JK Rowling ripped off Harry Potter from Neil Gaiman's Books of Magic" controversy before.

Let's see if I can find that quote of his... ah there! This is Gaiman explaining that he's ok with the whole thing:

"...no, I certainly *didn't* believe that Rowling had ripped off Books of Magic, that I doubted she'd read it and that it wouldn't matter if she had: I wasn't the first writer to create a young magician with potential, nor was Rowling the first to send one to school. It's not the ideas, it's what you do with them that matters.

"Genre fiction, as Terry Pratchett has pointed out, is a stew. You take stuff out of the pot, you put stuff back. The stew bubbles on."

The same thing could be said here in the God of War thing.

# i hope GoW 3 will kick some serious [profane] — roddollente 2008-09-17 09:17

"Plaintiff's works tell the original story of how a champion saves Athens from destruction by the invading Spartan army that has been sent by Ares... "

i can read the word original. and if GoW has the same story, it's too big a coincidence. i mean, a champion saving Athens against an army sent by Ares. i know that it could be Hercules or what-not. but it's just too big for a coincidence. really. i mean, Greek mythology and its stories are ENORMOUS, and to think that both stories tie-in with the same events...errr....

# bingo — hush404 2008-09-17 09:52

Not a word of this all along. Did they just not notice that the story was around all along? It took 3 games (with the 4th being worked on) for them to say "OMG THATS OURS!!"

TOTAL BS.

# George Lucas — NeilR 2008-09-17 11:09

Maybe George Lucas should sue for the reference to "light sabers"..

# Can you say... Weetodd?! — Daistaar 2008-09-17 11:51

Are you kidding me? Do you have any idea how long it takes for litigation to come to light and court. Not to mention one of this magnitude. This suit has probably been around since GOW's inception, if not shortly after the initial release.

A suit like this takes time and has probably ongoing with one side, really preparing and trying to prove their case with extensive evidence and the Sony side either trying to disuade, or prevent the other from pursuing the suit. This wasn't like they woke up on Monday and said, "Lemme sue Sony for stealing the story I presented almost 7 years ago." This has probably been ongoing for awhile and was finally announced in hopes of support from the public. Sony is already a giant machine and releasing the litigation to the public is one of few wrenches they could throw in those huge treads.

Gibson suing Activision and Harmonix for the guitar game idea, weak... but this sounds ligitimate in my opinion. It's a bit light on info at this time, but I wouldn't go on writing them off... litigiation is a VERYYYY lengthy process.

# Yeah — RommelTJ 2008-09-17 12:25

I love lit how everyone here jumps to conclusions based on the very SMALL amount of evidence presented in this BLOG POST.

But I agree with Daistaar, this looks legit.

Anyway, can you spell S-E-T-T-L-E-M-E-N-T?

# vvvmmmmmmmmtttt t — trigger 2008-09-17 12:29

LOL

nice one

# NeilR — Kaneco 2008-09-17 14:48

just like Gino D. said It's not the ideas, it's what you do with them that matters.

Light sabers don't have to be hilts with flashing laser beam coming out of it.

Good joke though. XD

# wow. epic fail. — NarooN 2008-09-17 15:32

They just pull stuff out of their ass to try to get money.

# Mmmmmm. — John Davids 2008-09-18 01:06

That's brother, stole the words out of my mouth.

# this is a tough one... — rpgpro001 2008-09-18 02:44

for anyone here to judge, we would have to see a lot more proof of script/story.

as far as time, an ex colleague of mine was in a lawsuit, went public around march/april of last year, for a game that came out 4 years in advance. for proof, look up crawford v midway

# even f — PS3 OUTSIDER 2008-09-18 03:46

even if sony has stole the story from these people the reality is it proberly will never even go to court more likely that sony will pay them a settlement fee out of court.

# WOW -- — SolidXnake 2008-09-18 14:23

PPL do anything to get some camera and money. OK Then I think CoD should be sued- they took it from the WWI, WWII history. Oh wait there is more - Sam Fisher, and Gabe are copies or Snake. Castlevania is taken from Dracula - hence Transylvania. Mega Man from Astroboy and the list goes on and on - these ppl just saw that the game is a big hit and it's gonna be bigger when it gets to PS3. PPL like that should thrown in jail.

# NeilR — ginious 2008-09-18 15:45

hahahahaha lol nice

lol this made crack up...

(yes i can easily be made to laugh)

but this was pretty funny

# LMAO — The Frenchman 2008-09-30 13:49

His hands morph into two gigantic glowing light sabers...

Anyone who takes them seriously is seriously mentally deficient. I mean, the Blades of Chaos aren't even glowing.

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David Jaffe and SCEA sued: God of War story was stolen?

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