Producer sues game developer over zombies

Biting chunks off each over in copyright squabble

27 February 2008 10:54 GMT / By Katie Scott

A game developer and movie producer are baring their fangs at each other over the rights to the cult gore feast, Dawn of the Dead.

An independent movie producer with rights to the horror movie George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead has sued video game maker Capcom in the latest bout in a long-running copyright dispute.

The producer is a member of MKR Group and is alleging that Capcom's Dead Rising game was essentially a computer game version of its "Dawn of the Dead" movies.

This latest legal bid follows Capcom's filing of a case against MKR in a California federal court.

It was seeking a declaration that the game did not infringe on MKR's intellectual property rights. It also sought an injunction to prevent MKR from suing the company.

MKR told Reuters that it has filed its complaint after talks with Capcom over the dispute failed.

"Both works are dark comedies", the complaint filed in US District Court in New York on Monday reads. "In both, the recreational activities of the zombies and absurdly grotesque 'kill scenes' provide unexpected comedic relief."

"Both works provided thoughtful social commentary on the 'mall culture' zeitgeist, in addition to serving up a sizable portion of sensationalistic violence", it said.

A spokesman for Capcom, Chris Kramer, declined to comment on the lawsuit when approached by the news service.

He did say, however, that Dead Rising, which was released in August 2006 for the XBox 360, had shipped more than a million units by the end of that year but that it is no longer being produced.

Full tags

Biz, Gaming, Xbox 360, Microsoft