EA steals from Games Workshop

[Evil Alpaca]

They took an Ork bonecruncha and painted it green and yellow. Why? The red ones go faster.


Seriously though, that is some lazy design work right there. The designer who did this needs to be fired. What is kinda worrisome is that they didn't even bother to edit the small details to even try to hide the theft. Did a designer think they could create a carbon copy with a new paint scheme and no one would notice?

However, if you look on the C&C Alliances website, you won't find the images. Hopefully that means EA came down hard on this.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-04-12-ea-accused-of-copying-warhammer-40k-tanks-for-command-and-conquer-tiberium-alliances

It's not even funny about how they're almost the exact same thing.

So tell me how do you know that EA stole these tank designs. How do you know that they did not duno ask games workshop about it first? Oh wait thats right you dont your just jumping to conclusions.

GW is VERY protective of their IP properties. Just look at what happened to Damnatus, a fan made film.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damnatus

 

[AnkaraTheFallen]

snipp...

If they were being lazy, there is a fairly popular mod on tiberian wars that adds the forgotten as a faction and gives them a short campaign as well. They could have just asked the mods creator if they could use their models, they already look great and are really balanced with the other races. If they'd done that most of the design for the forgotten would be done, they'd only need a few new units and things to keep them in line with GDI and Nod.

 

[GoaThief]

At least on the bright side the Baneblade is an awesome tank. I wonder if they're gonna copy the Leman Russ next?

The leman Russ is an almost identical copy of a WW1 tank, the name of which escapes me at the moment. Games Workshop are pretty well known for "borrowing" ideas and the like, what goes around comes around really - there are only so many different types of tank you can design.

Live and let live.

 

[Meight08]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-04-12-ea-accused-of-copying-warhammer-40k-tanks-for-command-and-conquer-tiberium-alliances

It's not even funny about how they're almost the exact same thing.

So tell me how do you know that EA stole these tank designs. How do you know that they did not duno ask games workshop about it first? Oh wait thats right you dont your just jumping to conclusions.

GW is VERY protective of their IP properties. Just look at what happened to Damnatus, a fan made film.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damnatus

They first allowed it but when german copyright laws said they would lose the ip if it released GW had no choice.
Its like wanting to let a charity use your house and then hear if you do that you will lose your house.

 

[Iwata]

There may be something more behind this blattant theft...

Anyone remember what happened years ago with a little game called "Chaos League" by Cyanide Studios? They wanted to do a Blood Bowl game but couldn't afford the license, so they pretty much stole everything from it and made a game that was Blood Bowl in everything but name. Games Workshop, of course, took notice and sued them.

Now, when the time came for GW to actually do a Blood Bowl game years later, who did they go for to develop it..? Cyanide Studios, of course, who eventualy released the awesome Blood Bowl video game adaptation that came out a couple of years ago. So, by copying the license without permission and doing a good game based on it, they effectively proved themselves capable of doing a GW game themselves. And it worked!

Now, we all know that THQ, the holders of the Warhammer 40K license for video games, is in trouble, right? Could this be EA trying to make itself noticed by GW in a deliberate attempt to replicate for 40K what Cyanide Studios did for Blood Bowl?

 

[DoPo]

They took an Ork bonecruncha and painted it green and yellow. Why? The red ones go faster.

Yes, but "Green iz bezt". I think it's more orky, too. And yellow is for more dakka. It doesn't need to go fast if it's the best shooting tank there is.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

At least on the bright side the Baneblade is an awesome tank. I wonder if they're gonna copy the Leman Russ next?

The leman Russ is an almost identical copy of a WW1 tank, the name of which escapes me at the moment. Games Workshop are pretty well known for "borrowing" ideas and the like, what goes around comes around really - there are only so many different types of tank you can design.

Live and let live.

The Leman Russ is a WW1 Tank with a turret on top. The Baneblade is an oversized Main Battle Tank Chassis with far too many guns and sponsons.

 

[Leftnt Sharpe]

The Blood Ravens would be proud of this, 'gift', EA.

 

[TimeLord]

Wow, that's nuts. Unless gw allowed it, that's copyright infringement there =D

GW is rediculously strict with their IPs. I doubt this was all above board.

OT: LET THE GALAXY EA BURN!

 

[TimeLord]

Boy, the sheeple sure do enjoy finding reasons to "hate" EA. Which is funny, because they'll all still buy their products. It's cute how people on the internet throw around words at the slightest provocation, chuck a little tantrum, rant for a week and and then open their wallets and make new releases push sales records sky high.

Wonder what it'll be cool to hate next...

How is that image even remotely connected to anything in this thread? Even someone who has no experiance with 40K can see that the 1995 models and the EA tanks are exactly the same. They haven't even tried to hide the fact that they are blatant copies. If that's not copyright infringement then I don't know what is. Unless there was some secret deal with GW and EA (which I doubt).

 

[Undead Dragon King]

At least Blizzard had the courtesy to make SOME alterations to GW's IP when they made both Warcraft AND Starcraft.

Yes indeed, captcha, EA has to "face the music". But, frankly, I feel no inflated indignation on behalf of GW. They lost my loyalty a long time ago when they murdered my wallet via a slow, hemhorraging agent called INFLATED PRICES.

 

[Bostur]

At least on the bright side the Baneblade is an awesome tank. I wonder if they're gonna copy the Leman Russ next?

The leman Russ is an almost identical copy of a WW1 tank, the name of which escapes me at the moment. Games Workshop are pretty well known for "borrowing" ideas and the like, what goes around comes around really - there are only so many different types of tank you can design.

Live and let live.

The Leman Russ is a WW1 Tank with a turret on top. The Baneblade is an oversized Main Battle Tank Chassis with far too many guns and sponsons.

Just clarifying a bit, not correcting.

The Leman Russ is a Land Raider with a turret. In turn the Land Raider is inspired by some british WWI tanks. Especially the track and the side sponsons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:British_Mark_V_%28male%29_tank.jpg

The Baneblade is far too fantastic to be a working tank. It looks like GW mixed and matched a lot of different historical tank components, probably by looking at pictures.

 

[Vivi22]

I really don't see what the issue is, sure it's pretty lazy of EA, but Games Workshop can hardly lay claim to such things. If you honestly think they should be sued, then you're out of your mind. How about if every car company sued each other because every car looks about the same?

You do know what a copyright is don't you? Because GW would absolutely have the copyright to those original designs, and the models there are not so different that they don't clearly infringe on their IP. They're nearly identical for Thor's sake.

Now, I'm sure no one will get sued, but that's only because the game isn't out and the models will undoubtedly be changed. But if EA released the game as is, GW would be well within their rights to sue them. And whoever created those models absolutely should be fired for them. It's lazy work, actual theft, and would have left EA open to a pretty big lawsuit had those made it all the way to the final game before being released. Honestly, I don't think the person who made them even deserves to work in the industry at all.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

At least on the bright side the Baneblade is an awesome tank. I wonder if they're gonna copy the Leman Russ next?

The leman Russ is an almost identical copy of a WW1 tank, the name of which escapes me at the moment. Games Workshop are pretty well known for "borrowing" ideas and the like, what goes around comes around really - there are only so many different types of tank you can design.

Live and let live.

The Leman Russ is a WW1 Tank with a turret on top. The Baneblade is an oversized Main Battle Tank Chassis with far too many guns and sponsons.

Just clarifying a bit, not correcting.

The Leman Russ is a Land Raider with a turret. In turn the Land Raider is inspired by some british WWI tanks. Especially the track and the side sponsons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:British_Mark_V_%28male%29_tank.jpg

The Baneblade is far too fantastic to be a working tank. It looks like GW mixed and matched a lot of different historical tank components, probably by looking at pictures.

The Land Raider is a mark V driving backwards. My point about the Baneblade chassis still stands, but there are so many guns on the thing I can't imagine where they'd stuff an engine and crew compartment.

 

[illas]

This is EA though, so im interested in seeing how they will go about making this worse. You know they will find a way to make an even bigger mess of this, they always do. I wonder what will happen.

My money is on EA suing Games Workshop for (retroactive) copyright infringement.

 

[Bradeck]

This reminds me how my greatest wish is for GW to make a IG mission, in the same exact vein as the Tales of Valour mission, where it focuses on the lives of the crew of a King Tiger Tank. Imagine a game based around being the crew of a Baneblade. Awesomesauce much?!?