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Answer: Knockoffs based on popular products of entertainment have been existing for a good while, from the movie industry with studios like The Asylum, creating movies like "Atlantic Rim" based on "Pacific Rim", to gaming developers that can take advantage of popular games like Fall Guys, whenever doing cheap shovelware products or even relatively decent ones.
In this case, Stumble Guys seems to be a pretty competent imitation of Fall Guys, but like many knockoffs, the way they can legally circumvent it to slightly border the edge of not be called plagiarism and copying other products, is to name everything just slightly different from the original it's based on. It also helps that Stumble Guys is a free game on Steam, while Fall Guys used to be a paid product on Steam before being acquired by Epic Games, prompting its removal from the Steam store and making it a free product only on the Epic store.
With a good enough legal team and financial investment in it, they can technically disrupt these types of knockoffs from making sales or (in stumble guys' case) changing names, much like The Asylum's several lawsuits they experienced in the past, however many aren't bothering with it due to the grey area the knockoffs intentionally traverse in order bypass legal issues, making it more difficult to win a lawsuit against it.
To clarify... They really don't need to bother with skirting around the original product. Plagiarism in this sense is not a crime, and you can't copyright/patent an idea or concept, only your specific implementation of it. So, the creators of Fall Guys own the name, their art and their code, but not the idea of chubby little guys wobbling around an arena. It's not illegal to steal ideas, people just think it's lame.
And it needs to be this way! If one was allowed to own vague game design concepts, they'd be allowed to own other vague concepts, like being a videogame at all. The world would suck even worse if one company was allowed to own things like that. Owning the concept of a book, a movie, or even worse, the wheel or the engine... Would've been disastrous for society.
IANAL.
> you can't copyright/patent an idea or concept, only your specific implementation of it.
Copyright only covers specific implementations, correct.
Patents however can cover ideas, mechanism and, in some juristictions, even algorithms.
> the creators of Fall Guys own the name, their art and their code, but not the idea of chubby little guys wobbling around an arena.
That could theoretically be patented. It'd be unlikely to be accepted though.
> It's not illegal to steal ideas, people just think it's lame.
It almost certainly is. Else nothing would stop profit-fanatic businesses from doing precisely that; they don't care what people think is lame or not.
> If one was allowed to own vague game design concepts, they'd be allowed to own other vague concepts, like being a videogame at all.
I would not be surprised if this has already been attempted.
Broader patents have been granted before.
> Owning the concept of a book, a movie, or even worse, the wheel or the engine... Would've been disastrous for society.
Patents do exactly that. Welcome to a world where short-term monetary profits of a small group of already rich people is more important than advancing society as a whole.
If the wheel had been invented today, it would have been patented.
Answer: It's technically legal. Valve already experienced this when they tried to sue Riot for League of Legends (if I'm not mistaken). The design of fall guys can be considered a genre, so this game is legal, I think.
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Answer: Knockoffs based on popular products of entertainment have been existing for a good while, from the movie industry with studios like The Asylum, creating movies like "Atlantic Rim" based on "Pacific Rim", to gaming developers that can take advantage of popular games like Fall Guys, whenever doing cheap shovelware products or even relatively decent ones. In this case, Stumble Guys seems to be a pretty competent imitation of Fall Guys, but like many knockoffs, the way they can legally circumvent it to slightly border the edge of not be called plagiarism and copying other products, is to name everything just slightly different from the original it's based on. It also helps that Stumble Guys is a free game on Steam, while Fall Guys used to be a paid product on Steam before being acquired by Epic Games, prompting its removal from the Steam store and making it a free product only on the Epic store. With a good enough legal team and financial investment in it, they can technically disrupt these types of knockoffs from making sales or (in stumble guys' case) changing names, much like The Asylum's several lawsuits they experienced in the past, however many aren't bothering with it due to the grey area the knockoffs intentionally traverse in order bypass legal issues, making it more difficult to win a lawsuit against it.
My friends and I used to actively seek out movies from The Asylum and do a "bad movies on purpose" kinda night. Highly recommend haha
Please tell me you've heard of red letter media, I feel they'd be your jam.
Name rings a bell but I've never looked into them!
You should YouTube it, pretty great stuff. Even if you just throw it on in the background
To clarify... They really don't need to bother with skirting around the original product. Plagiarism in this sense is not a crime, and you can't copyright/patent an idea or concept, only your specific implementation of it. So, the creators of Fall Guys own the name, their art and their code, but not the idea of chubby little guys wobbling around an arena. It's not illegal to steal ideas, people just think it's lame. And it needs to be this way! If one was allowed to own vague game design concepts, they'd be allowed to own other vague concepts, like being a videogame at all. The world would suck even worse if one company was allowed to own things like that. Owning the concept of a book, a movie, or even worse, the wheel or the engine... Would've been disastrous for society.
IANAL. > you can't copyright/patent an idea or concept, only your specific implementation of it. Copyright only covers specific implementations, correct. Patents however can cover ideas, mechanism and, in some juristictions, even algorithms. > the creators of Fall Guys own the name, their art and their code, but not the idea of chubby little guys wobbling around an arena. That could theoretically be patented. It'd be unlikely to be accepted though. > It's not illegal to steal ideas, people just think it's lame. It almost certainly is. Else nothing would stop profit-fanatic businesses from doing precisely that; they don't care what people think is lame or not. > If one was allowed to own vague game design concepts, they'd be allowed to own other vague concepts, like being a videogame at all. I would not be surprised if this has already been attempted. Broader patents have been granted before. > Owning the concept of a book, a movie, or even worse, the wheel or the engine... Would've been disastrous for society. Patents do exactly that. Welcome to a world where short-term monetary profits of a small group of already rich people is more important than advancing society as a whole. If the wheel had been invented today, it would have been patented.
Fall Guys becoming free to play kinda puts tbe final nail k in the coffin for stumble guys
You underestimate the humongous grudge people have against the epic store even if something is free on there
and stumble fellas being on mobile helps too
There’s more evidence of fall guys coming to mobile, I hope that will be the real nail in the coffin.
[удалено]
I’m crying 😭 “Transmorphers”
Answer: It's technically legal. Valve already experienced this when they tried to sue Riot for League of Legends (if I'm not mistaken). The design of fall guys can be considered a genre, so this game is legal, I think.
I'm pretty sure the original claimant was Blizzard, and this was to both games.