Sony has come under fire for allegedly copying Sackboy costume designs from non-winning entries to a design competition held before the game was released.
Posters on the official PS forums pointed out uncanny similarities between their own submitted Sackboy designs and the new Sackboy costumes recently released for download.
According to a Sony community man, it's all just a coincidence: "this was always going to be a possibility when we ran the costumer competition - releasing new costumes which are similar in theme to ones that were entered," said the rep under the alias Sam_Protagonist.
"Here's the fact of the matter," he went on: "The art team who are responsible for designing new original (ie unlicensed) costumes were involved at the very final stage of judging, by which time the number of entries had been whittled down to 10 from each batch of entries (Europe, Japan, USA).
"If at any time we take inspiration from a costume competition entry that didn't win overall we will contact the creator directly.
Of course they're not going to admit it, but I agree that they are way too similar for it to be just coincidence.
I'm sure the original designer wouldn't be kicking up quite so much of a fuss if they'd even been mentioned as the inspiration. And yes, the white one was The Stig, but the one in-game isn't.
I know that by entering they sign away any rights of ownership, but the decent thing to do would be admit where the original idea came from.
3 costumes? one of them looks more like a Stig from Top Gear rip off than anything else.
It IS the Stig - a further post from the designer of it states as much.
However, I agree, 3 costumes. Hardly the end of the world. Surely by entering the competition they basically gave MM/Sony the rights to that costume to do with as they please anyway. Bet if they read the terms and conditions they would see as much.
It's a bit underhanded, but I doubt the people have any recourse at all.
The costumes are similar i'll grant you but apparently the penguin one was shown in trailers before the compo and the motorstorm one was a given anyway really.
The guy with the shark one is moaning about copyright and such but his is the least like the one in the game anyway. If MM were doing a theme of animal DLC costumes then it is practically guaranteed they are going to produce something similar to an idea someone submitted for the compo
The first one seems way too coincidental to me, making me agree with the outcry of theft. The second one looks nothing like the one from sony though and the third I think is coincidence.
I have to admit that they are very similar. a coincidence is unlikely though. More likely that the designers saw some of the entries and they rubbed off on them. Or it could be a matter of great minds think alike.
Oh, the cheeky buggers! That's so very very out of order and I hope they step up and sort that out.
Given that they're saying that picture B is not the same as picture A, I'm assuming that they'd not object if I started selling knitted dolls based on picture A. They'd not sue me, or send me a cease and desist, right?
No, the Motorstorm costume wasn't given away, - it costs a pound and a half!...
Nah, I meant that it was obvious that sony would release costumes based on current IPs.
But, raises an interesting question, why would people pay for these costumes so soon after release when there are quite a number of unique costumes that come on the disk?
Oh, the cheeky buggers! That's so very very out of order and I hope they step up and sort that out.
Given that they're saying that picture B is not the same as picture A, I'm assuming that they'd not object if I started selling knitted dolls based on picture A. They'd not sue me, or send me a cease and desist, right?
The whole thing about being able to create whatever you want in this game, seems to be going down the drain. With all these copy right issues coming up, by this time next year you will not be aloud to create a thing because of all the levels that would have been created by then.
Oh, the cheeky buggers! That's so very very out of order and I hope they step up and sort that out.
Given that they're saying that picture B is not the same as picture A, I'm assuming that they'd not object if I started selling knitted dolls based on picture A. They'd not sue me, or send me a cease and desist, right?
they send you the book 'Knitting for Dummies'.
I'm sure thats the most read book in your collection
Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, UK BA1 2BW England and Wales company registration number 2008885
one of them looks more like a Stig from Top Gear rip off than anything else.
