King, creators of the super successful Candy Crush Saga, have gone on the warpath after successfully claiming trademarks on words the words “candy” and “saga”.
According to Reuters, King says that they want to protect their game title from imitators who also use the word “candy”. Their trademark with European Union will apply not only to computer games, but also to clothes and footwear.
That almost sounds reasonable when you pause to think about the number of game clones littering various app stores, but then when you realise they are taking on anyone with the word “candy” or “saga” in their game title, it quickly becomes apparent how unfair and ridiculous this is.
For example, they are taking on “All Candy Casino Slots – Jewels Craze Connect: Big Blast Mania Land” because its icon on the app store simply says “Candy Slots”, as reported by NeoSeeker.
Things have just become ugly over in the US, as spotted by Kotaku. King’s sharks lawyers are reportedly taking on Stoic Studio, creators of the recently launched and successful The Banner Saga. They don’t want money (how nice of them) but they want a word removed.
To put things in perspective, Stoic is an independent studio founded in 2012 in Texas by three developers, and The Banner Saga is their first offering.
King is a social gaming giant founded in 2003, and the largest games developer on Facebook with over 150 games. The company has over 400 employees in offices around the globe, including Mumbai, Spain, Romania, Germany, UK, Sweden, and the US (to name a few). The company has received over $47 million in venture capital.
The full notice of opposition can be read here, but the short version is that King wants Stoic to remove the word “saga” from its title because people will confuse “Candy Crush Saga” and “The Banner Saga”.
The claims include ludicrous assertions that their businesses will overlap due to the goods being promoted in similar channels, people will likely assume The Banner Saga is made by King as developer of Candy Crush Saga, and somehow because gamers are a bunch of easily-confused feeble-minded dolts, this misunderstanding will somehow harm King.
Well, let me clear this up right now.
Candy Crush Saga is a shitty, unimaginative, mindless match-three social/mobile platform game churned out by corporate robo-devs, while The Banner Saga is a gorgeously roto-scoped story-driven strategic combat game that reflects a labour of love by passionate independent developers.
Still confused, King?
So, apparently the corporate gaming giants can now just lay claim to words and prevent anyone else using them. This reminds me of the similarly ridiculous Bethesda Elder Scrolls versus Mojang Scrolls debacle.
Where does this madness end? If everyone keeps laying claim to words in their game titles, soon the entire English language will be off limits.
What do you think of this fiasco? Let us know in the comments below.
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And worse still, some companies have tried to lay claim to shapes.