EA beats Dillinger in Godfather case

By Robert Purchese Published 20 June, 2011

Judge refuses offer.

EA has won its court case against the estate of bank robber and gangster John Dillinger.

EA was sued for calling a Thompson submachine gun clone "The Dillinger". The Dillinger estate claimed ownership of the name and said EA hadn't asked permission - meanie.

The Dillinger estate wanted the courts to retroactively grant 1996's right-to-publicity for Dillinger's name and possessions.

But the judge, Jane Magnus-Stinson of US District Court in Southern Indiana, said no. She ruled that the statute does not apply to personalities who died before it became law.

Furthermore, the association of Dillinger with the Thompson submachine gun she said came about because of popular culture. EA naming a similar gun "The Dillinger", then, was free speech, and that's covered by the First Amendment.

EA made two Godfather games, but neither was great. Eurogamer's Godfather review turned up 6/10. Eurogamer's Godfather 2 review turned up 4/10.

So it was unsurprising when, in 2009, EA said there won't be any more games based on The Godfather IP.

The Godfather 2.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (16) Latest comment 11 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Cassock #1 11 months ago

    I quite enjoyed the Godfather games, Not because of the story lines, the films were enough but the mechanics were nice.

    Offering protection to shops taking out other gangs and the stealth missions were fun. It was a serious saints row for me.

    Hopefully some one will make a similar style game with a new IP or they should make a new San Andreas style GTA.

  • schnide #2 11 months ago

    Guess they made EA an offer that they could refuse.

  • the_dudefather #3 11 months ago

    The wii version of Godfather has the best motion controlled strangling I have ever seen in a game

  • vegard #4 11 months ago

    Next up the estate is suing The Dillinger Escape Plan

  • metalangel #5 11 months ago

    I'm off to copyright the names of some other criminals and murderers. I've got Raoul Moat, Kate McCann and Fred West. Unfortunately, the Coca-Cola company has beaten me to Harold Shipman (Dr Shipman, what's the worst that could happen?)

    Any other marketable ones that I've missed? Maybe a war criminal or two...

  • schnide #6 11 months ago

    @metalangel

    Hilarious of course, but just out of respect for someone who will never read this, Kate McCann has never been charged and found guilty of a single offence to Madeline McCann. So under the possibility that this woman actually did have her child stolen, never for her to see her again, maybe she shouldn't be included in that list of yours, or indeed in anything similar in the future.

  • the_dudefather #7 11 months ago

    @metalangel

    You already missed the boat for a Raoul Moat game

    http://www.mcvuk.com/news/40106/Daily-St...

  • Whitster #8 11 months ago

    @metalangel

    Point and click Noir style adventure were you play a Portugese detective desperatly trying to find a missing child, while convinced that the family are hiding something and hidering your investigation at every turn?

  • VibratingDonkey #9 11 months ago

    Looks like the Dillinger estate....got robbed.

  • metalangel #10 11 months ago

    @the_dudefather: That wasn't real, though. A shame, the badger-skinning-then-wearing-as-hat minigame looked excellent.

    @schnide: Have you bought her latest book?

  • schnide #11 11 months ago

    @metalangel

    Absolutely not. But joking about a child killer, or a mother who had her child stolen from her seems a little bit beyond worthy of making randoms on the internet laugh about. Point being nothing's been proven either way - so either way, it's a bit harsh on your part.

  • darc #12 11 months ago

    "EA ... bank robber and gangster John Dillinger."

    Judge must have thought he was seeing double. :o

  • dudefella #13 11 months ago

    "Looks like the Dillinger estate....got robbed."

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mznsEcZlM2I

  • metalangel #14 11 months ago

    @schnide: were it not for the child neglect and endangerment factors, I'd agree. If anything, I feel worse making a joke about Raoul Moat.

  • digitalash #15 11 months ago

    Ha! A robber ('s estate) complaining he's been robbed. You can't be a pimp and a prostitute too.

  • schnide #16 11 months ago

    Assuming the possibility she's still innocent, she may have very stupidly left her child alone but that doesn't justify that child being taken and never seeing them again. And the Raoul Moat thing is pretty bad too - the guy blinded a policeman who'll never be able to see again, and thousands of people say he's a legend on Facebook. It really makes me feel sad for the human race - that probably sounds melodramatic but it's true.