The Simpsons Game Tweaks Gaming Companies

While some companies have embraced their games' parodies (like SOE and NeverQuest), others are less pleased by the sincerest form of flattery. Specifically, some of the folks at Rockstar were less than pleased by the 'Grand Theft Scratchy: Blood Island' portion of the game. "'I was always under the impression that when you do parody, it's a sign of respect... If we make fun of Grand Theft Auto, we're not going to hurt the sales of Grand Theft Auto... But yeah, we've definitely had some reactions - we've had to pull stuff from the game', The Simpsons lead designer Greg Rizzer revealed to us in an interview earlier this week. 'But that's cool to me', Rizzer continued. 'It's cool to still know, I feel, that the industry's been waiting for a game like this to come along. It's been too long since we really had one, and of course [there's] The Simpsons being the perfect vehicle to poke fun at the games industry.'"

Comments

Typical

[MyLongNickName]

The folks who scream the most about their "art" being protected by the First Amendment are the first to scream when someone uses that First Amendment to make fun of them.

Re:Typical

[moderatorrater]

I can think of five other games off the top of my head that stole their gameplay and storylines from GTA, and that's without trying. Since there have been other games that Rockstar hasn't made a fuss about, it looks like the parody is what they can't stand.

Re:Simpsons: Hit And Run

[wpegden]

Perhaps the issue is that The Simpsons: Hit And Run already ripped off the core GTA gameplay and satirized it, and Rockstar think it's time for The Simpsons to do something different.

Sure. Except that the whole point of the freedom of speech is that other people don't get to decide for you what you should be saying.