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Reports coming from Nintendo officials in Korea indicate that the company is concerned about an upcoming MMOG (massively multiplayer online game) that will be released there next year called Wiki. Wiki is being developed by a company called Webzen, Inc. (which you may remember for announcing an online game by the creator of Grand Theft Auto a short time ago).
Apparently, some characters used in official screens for Wiki (one of them shown below) look a lot like characters in Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker for GameCube. Also, the graphical style of the game obviously bears a strong resemblance to TWW. One could say that that's mainly because both games are cel-shaded, but they really look a lot alike. The game's logo in the bottom right even has wind in it!
Regarding the character similarities, a spokesperson for Webzen says that the game's hero (who you play as) is not meant to look a certain way:
"The number of variables [for hairstyles, clothes and facial features] are in the tens of thousands," according to Webzen's spokesperson Choi Hyun-woo in an interview with Korean newspaper JoongAng Daily.
Like any other online game with lots of character customization options, there will always be players who choose to make their character as much like another well-known character as possible. It's not the company's fault. If Webzen had given the main character an unchangeable appearance, and he looked like, say, Link, then sure, that would be trademark infringement. That's not the case here. However, releasing screens showing a customized character who does indeed look a lot like Link probably wasn't the smartest move for Webzen.
Nintendo says it is taking 'natural steps' to protect its intellectual rights and will 'seek appropriate measures at the appropriate time.'
Closed testing for Wiki is scheduled to begin in December. It should be interesting to see if Webzen makes any changes to the game's design.
So, who's at fault here? Nintendo? Webzen? No one? Post your comments below and let us know what you think.
Source: Gamasutra and gamesarefun.com
Apparently, some characters used in official screens for Wiki (one of them shown below) look a lot like characters in Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker for GameCube. Also, the graphical style of the game obviously bears a strong resemblance to TWW. One could say that that's mainly because both games are cel-shaded, but they really look a lot alike. The game's logo in the bottom right even has wind in it!
Regarding the character similarities, a spokesperson for Webzen says that the game's hero (who you play as) is not meant to look a certain way:
"The number of variables [for hairstyles, clothes and facial features] are in the tens of thousands," according to Webzen's spokesperson Choi Hyun-woo in an interview with Korean newspaper JoongAng Daily.
Like any other online game with lots of character customization options, there will always be players who choose to make their character as much like another well-known character as possible. It's not the company's fault. If Webzen had given the main character an unchangeable appearance, and he looked like, say, Link, then sure, that would be trademark infringement. That's not the case here. However, releasing screens showing a customized character who does indeed look a lot like Link probably wasn't the smartest move for Webzen.
Nintendo says it is taking 'natural steps' to protect its intellectual rights and will 'seek appropriate measures at the appropriate time.'
Closed testing for Wiki is scheduled to begin in December. It should be interesting to see if Webzen makes any changes to the game's design.
So, who's at fault here? Nintendo? Webzen? No one? Post your comments below and let us know what you think.
Source: Gamasutra and gamesarefun.com
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