Prey for the Gods Gets New Name Following Bethesda Dispute - Sensationalist Headlines

[quote]The upcoming Shadow of the Colossus-inspired survival game Prey for the Gods has changed its name to Praey for the Gods following a trademark dispute with Bethesda, according to the developer. Developer No Matter Studios revealed in a recent newsletter that, after some consideration, it decided it "had" to change the game's name, as shortly after applying for trademarks for Prey for the Gods, Bethesda parent company Zenimax allegedly chose to oppose No Matter Studios' mark. According to No Matter, Zenimax believes the original title is too similar to its trademark for Prey, which it acquired from Id Software in 2009.[/quote] [quote]A Bethesda representative provided the following statement to IGN regarding the name change: [quote]"We really didn’t have much of a choice. If we don’t oppose the mark, we risk losing our Prey trademark and that isn’t acceptable. Unfortunately, that’s how trademark law works."[/quote][/quote] [url=http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/05/03/prey-for-the-gods-gets-new-name-following-bethesda-dispute]IGN[/url]

"PRAEY"? so like "Præy"? or could it even be shortened to "Präy"?

[QUOTE=Joazzz;52185005]"PRAEY"? so like "Præy"? or could it even be shortened to "Präy"?[/QUOTE] They stated that it's meant to be/was originally Præy, but that's a pain in the ass to search for.

It's baffling to me that you can trademark a single common English word and oppose people who use that word in their title. Reminds me of the "Scrolls" BS.

Dumb trademark shit aside, that's a pretty badass title for a sequel.

Oh fuck off, Bethesda. There's protecting your IP from confusing titles and there's being a market hoarder.

Makes sense, just like with Scrolls there's a need to make sure that people do not get confused near the release of a new title or a tentative one. Prey is going to be searched for again and again, so it has to be said that having multiple games named the same could lead to issues for Zenimax's Prey title. It's disappointing, but Zenimax likes to strike people that get anywhere close to their trademarks. It makes sense and they're fully allowed to do so. Some companies do not do so for example: "World of Final Fantasy" was not battled by Blizzard over the fact that most connotate "World of" to World of Warcraft. Then again Blizzard have only been trigger happy about protecting their properties when it comes to emulation servers. Rockstar have been trigger happy about anyone emulating the GTA 5 online experience until recently with the whole GTA 5 RP stuff and or recreating their properties in a newer engine. But yeah, litigation against trademarks are one of those "Eh why bother". It happens if the similarity is way too close to the trademarks. But Zenimax takes it a little bit further and it seems a waste for the dev team in this case to battle in a "David vs Goliath" court case to just get development funds completely thrown to waste for legal fees. Funnily enough Bethesda Softworks have multiple in development mods that use trademarks for their Elder Scrolls and they're seemingly all fine and good to go. So I guess Bethesda Softworks' image of being mod friendly is a negotiated part or just known to be so bad PR that they should let it go untouched.

I think this has more to do with it making it difficult to search for info for "prey" if another popular game comes out with that in the title. Like how it's hard for me to find Info on the original ue boom as googling it only comes up with results for ue boom 2. Also the first thing I thought of when I skimmed the title was the game Prey, even before seeing Bethesda mentioned.

If I ever get around to making a game I'll name it "Game of the Year" and sue anyone who tries to incorporate that name in their title.

Just like the good old days. [t]https://i.ytimg.com/vi/XV6E1W-2KkI/maxresdefault.jpg[/t]

this sort of stuff creeps me out. If I call my game Hunger In Shade will I get a lawsuit from Lionsgate?

Yes because if I wanted to look up gameplay/reviews/trailers for Pr(a)ey for the Gods, I'd just type "Prey" into the search bar. Search engines aren't that stupid, guys.

[QUOTE=RenegadeCop;52185249]If anything, the community will end up shorthanding it as "PftG"[/QUOTE] Or people will just refer to it as Praey, like how that particular e is left out in Pokemon

Reminder: this is Bethesda the publisher's doing. Not Bethesda the devoloper.

[QUOTE=myng;52185352]Reminder: this is Bethesda the publisher's doing. Not Bethesda the devoloper.[/QUOTE] Which parent company is Zenimax, just remember it folks.

[QUOTE=myng;52185352]Reminder: this is Bethesda the publisher's doing. Not Bethesda the devoloper.[/QUOTE] Bethesda (the developer) isn't even involved with it, it's developed by Arkane Studios.

[QUOTE=chemo;52185715]Bethesda (the developer) isn't even involved with it, it's developed by Arkane Studios.[/QUOTE] But Arkane Studios Austin is owned by Zenimax which is the parent company of Bethesda Softworks.

[QUOTE=FezianEmperor;52185747]But Arkane Studios Austin is owned by Zenimax which is the parent company of Bethesda Softworks.[/QUOTE] There's a difference between Bethesda Softworks (the publisher) and Bethesda Game Studios (the developer) Game Studios develops games like Fallout and TES, Bethesda Softworks is a publisher with several studios (which in turn are owned by Zenimax) that they own including Arkane and BGS. Arkane and BGS are merely sister studios who do little (if any) work on each other's projects

[QUOTE=chemo;52185760]There's a difference between Bethesda Softworks (the publisher) and Bethesda Game Studios (the developer) Game Studios develops games like Fallout and TES, Bethesda Softworks is a publisher with several studios that they own including Arkane and BGS. Arkane and BGS are merely sister studios who do little (if any) work on each other's projects[/QUOTE] True, however Zenimax are the ones who own the studios as they're the parent company. They also own Bethesda Softworks which is the publishing brand for all Zenimax owned studios as Bethesdas' name carries weight in the Video Game Industry and Zenimax do not.

[QUOTE=Coyoteze;52185061]Oh fuck off, Bethesda. There's protecting your IP from confusing titles and there's being a market hoarder.[/QUOTE] Their legal team gotta justify their pay somehow!

I can sort of understand where they're coming from. Searching Prey on google automatically lists Prey for the Gods as one of the autofill options, just because it automatically wants to fill in new words. On the other hand though, you have to draw the line somewhere. Prey for the Gods doesn't seem related to Prey other than just the word prey. [editline]4th May 2017[/editline] Thinking about it more, I don't think this has reached that line though. If they let this pass, they do risk losing the trademark.

[QUOTE=joost1120;52186116]Thinking about it more, I don't think this has reached that line though. If they let this pass, they do risk losing the trademark.[/QUOTE] Which begs the question, why are companies allowed to trademark single common words in the first place?

[QUOTE=_Axel;52186241]Which begs the question, why are companies allowed to trademark single common words in the first place?[/QUOTE] Outdated copyright laws

[QUOTE=_Axel;52186241]Which begs the question, why are companies allowed to trademark single common words in the first place?[/QUOTE] Because it's the name of their game/series? I'm pretty sure this is the same for other games, like Dirt, Burnout, DEFCON, Metro or Portal. They're all single common words too.

[QUOTE=joost1120;52186378]Because it's the name of their game/series? I'm pretty sure this is the same for other games, like Dirt, Burnout, DEFCON, Metro or Portal. They're all single common words too.[/QUOTE] Preventing other companies from using the same name for similar games is one thing, preventing companies who develop completely different games from using said common word as [I]one of the words[/I] of their title is another thing entirely. Shit, even using the exact same title should be authorized in certain cases. Why shouldn't I be able to name my underground train simulator "Metro" when that title is way more relevant to my game than to a post apocalyptic FPS, and consists of a single common word? If the point of copyright laws is to prevent plagiarism and counterfeit, why should it apply to cases that can't possibly be construed as either?

Because by taking the exact same name, you can literally hide the other's game by marketing your own game better.

[QUOTE=joost1120;52186459]Because by taking the exact same name, you can literally hide the other's game by marketing your own game better.[/QUOTE] How does it hide it when it's not even the same type of game? Any person with a brain could tell the difference. That's the entire point. Using the same name shouldn't be an issue when the two games are clearly distinguishable from one another.

This is one of the reasons why I'm upset over Bethesda for reusing the Prey name for this game. Not only did they decode to duck over Human Head studios but the only reason this game is even called Prey is so Bethesda can sit on the IP.

[QUOTE=_Axel;52186727]How does it hide it when it's not even the same type of game? Any person with a brain could tell the difference. That's the entire point. Using the same name shouldn't be an issue when the two games are clearly distinguishable from one another.[/QUOTE] Considering that just googling Prey only shows this new game, I do think it's an issue. A title is supposed to be something catchy/unique about the game. If you have to describe the game when googling it, the whole point of a title goes to waste. If EA would make a new game called Rising Storm, about some alien invasion or whatever, no one would be able to find the actual Rising Storm by Tripwire Interactive. Sure, the game is vastly different, but with enough marketing by EA, you'd have to search multiple google pages to get to the original.

[QUOTE=joost1120;52186935]Considering that just googling Prey only shows this new game, I do think it's an issue. A title is supposed to be something catchy/unique about the game. If you have to describe the game when googling it, the whole point of a title goes to waste. If EA would make a new game called Rising Storm, about some alien invasion or whatever, no one would be able to find the actual Rising Storm by Tripwire Interactive. Sure, the game is vastly different, but with enough marketing by EA, you'd have to search multiple google pages to get to the original.[/QUOTE] The difference is that the game's name is actually Rising Storm, not just Rising or something. imo US law needs a major overhaul because capitalism and economics shouldn't be determining factors in a court of law to the point where you can't feasibly fight a large corporation in court without being rich as fuck or having Peter Thiel as your sugar daddy.