The Nintendo DS. The hand held system has sold over 30 million units in North America alone with three major revisions since its winter 2004 release (Source: http://www.vgchartz.com/). The DS is a big deal – much more so than even the colossal Wii (24 sold million in North America). So when, an established series on both Nintendo consoles suddenly finds its competition trying to elbow in on some of the ever flowing green it is easy to push the “lawsuit” button and call it a day.
Not Majesco. The Japanese/American video game publisher has become famous for cutting spending and creating profitable budget titles. Cooking Mama is a title wherein users stir, fry, saute and boil their way through mini-games designed to simulate actual cooking. Think Operation without the dying patient.
Activision/Blizzard recently stole the title from Electronic Arts (EA) as the largest video game publisher in the known universe. The two companies are known for publishing hits for both consoles and PC such as the Tony Hawk Skateboarding series, World of Warcraft and now the Guitar Hero series. So when, Activision announced Science Papa the other day there were more than a few people crying foul. Not only does the game share a similar title, but the description of the game sounds identical.
“With Science Papa, we’re taking real-world elements of science and giving players the chance to interact with them in safe and creative ways,” said David Oxford, Activision Publishing. “While the focus here is clearly family fun, the game can stimulate interest and discussion about science.”
- Promotional illustration for the upcoming “Science Papa” game.
What’s the best way to respond to such a blatant IP infringement? Write PR in the voice of your titular hero “Cooking Mama” ’splaining the history between your character and your competition. Yep, twisted creative PR releases will earn brownie points (maybe Cooking Mama whipped some up?). So what exactly did the release say?
“So you want some dirt on “Science Papa” to splash on your site? I’ll shovel it. We dated briefly (when he had much better hair). And now he clearly wants a piece of the best-selling pie by associating himself with an incredibly successful, and I’ll emphasize, happily married, woman. Frankly, he never appreciated my cooking and I grew weary of his tedious “experiments.” You want real mind-bending science, go figure out how to make Toulouse Cassoulet for your next dinner party of 20 and let me know how it goes, Papa.
Mama’s still got some spunk left in her. The lesson learned here is that when your competition attempts to drive sales through similarity take the moral high road and explain how they were and always have been the whore. Works like a charm.
Source: Cooking Mama Dishes Dirt on Science Papa and Activision Introduces Science Papa, No Relation
Tonight I found out that a “friend” buddy of mine from UNC won Sony’s Playstation Tester reality show. The contestant, Cyrus, or Will Powers went from being a waiter to now a video game tester after a series of events that have little to do with any kind of real skills or abilities a video game tester needs.
