Did Ubisoft steal Assassin’s Creed’s Animus idea?

18 April 2012

Did you ever feel a sense of déjà vu while playing Assassin’s Creed, and wonder if perhaps you had an assassin ancestor and were reliving his memories through an Animus simulation designed to look like a video game? Or maybe it’s because you read John Beiswenger’s novel, Link, published in 2003.

(Or maybe not.)

Beiswenger is suing Ubisoft, alleging that they “have directly copied, and directly and contributorily infringed on the whole of [his] copyrighted work”.

According to the lawsuit application, his book featured “the conception and creation of a device and process whereby ancestral memories can be accessed, recalled, relived, and re-experienced by the user”, so obviously that’s exactly the same thing as Assassin’s Creed.

Pretty sure the whole concept of ancestral memories even being a thing was originally Carl Jung’s, but whatever.

The evidence presented includes the fact that, in both Link and Assassin’s Creed, characters speak in the first person while experiencing an ancestor’s memories. Damning stuff indeed.

Source: Kotaku

 

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  1. Robert Crous
    18.04.2012 at 13:24

    Hahaha

    So everyone who has made a chair should be sued by the man who made the first chair?

    This is disapointing

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