Burnout cover is a coincidence

By Ellie Gibson Published 18 January, 2008

Not copied off album, says EA.

Electronic Arts has told Eurogamer any similarity between the Burnout Paradise box and the cover of an album by US band Karate is "pure coincidence".

As reported by Joystiq earlier this week, the album was released in 2000. It shows a car coloured with red, black, blue and yellow tones on a white background.

Burnout Paradise is due out later this month for PS3 and Xbox 360. The game's cover shows a car coloured with red, black, blue and yellow tones on a white background.

However, an EA spokesperson today dismissed suggestions the similarities between the images were anything more than a fluke. "It is pure coincidence," he stated.

Burnout Paradise will hit the shops on 25th January.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (33) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • kissthestick #1 4 years ago

    this is news?

  • JediMasterMalik #2 4 years ago

    That does look remarkably similar, the colours are almost identical, I think someone's fibbing.

  • ecureuil #3 4 years ago

    They're not THAT similar. I'm willing to believe it's a coincidence.

  • kangarootoo #4 4 years ago

    The colours are the only thing that is similar though. The art style and the city scape of the BO cover don't match the album cover.

    I suspect someone could have perhaps seen the album cover and been influenced by it, but frankly so what? Being influenced by things you see is part and parcel of creating art. Its blatantly NOT a copy.

  • sd99 #5 4 years ago

    I thought the cover looked a bit too classy compared to EAs usual fare.
    Edited by 1 at 18/01/08 @ 13:13

  • Stormflood #6 4 years ago

    There's nothing new under the sun in design. I would say the Burnout cover was inspired, whether intentional or not. No biggie.

  • jack_klugman #7 4 years ago

    Some unintentional free advertising for Karate there.

  • miiiguel #8 4 years ago

    Monet also plagiarized nature by drawing nenufars.

    Yet again, "is this news?"

  • KreyAtiv #9 4 years ago

    They really aren't that similar. The Burnout cover has the outlne of the car with Paradise City filling it in whereas the cover for the album is a car that is smeared with paint that are similar covers. More likely they are trying to get themselves a bit more recognition by comparing the two.

  • muscleblade #10 4 years ago

    Best cover in ages thats for sure.

  • NthSimulachum #11 4 years ago

    So, better than Gears' cover, then?

    /coat

  • ecureuil #12 4 years ago

    Also - no chance that's a coincidence.

    The images really aren't that similar. The Burnout cover maintains the colour inside of the car, and the car alone, with the outside city etc. as grey.The lining is different, the Burnout car is just an outline, the other is solid. The Burnout colours come from blue sky, and orange/red of tail lights. On the album cover the colours are clearly from different sources. (I'm not entirely sure what image is overlaid on the Karate album cover, I can't make it out.) There's pretty much no way the Burnout cover is taken from this, the whole idea behind both designs is clearly very different. Obvious coincidence, really.

  • asphaltcowboy #13 4 years ago

    You'd be VERY hard pushed to say it was a copy, but there's clearly some inspiration drawn from the original. Hardly a problem since nothing is completely original and it does look bloody cool!

  • optimusprym8 #14 4 years ago

    It hasn't turned up here yet: http://yo uthoughtwewouldntnotice.com/blog3/

  • JediMasterMalik #15 4 years ago

    I do think the burnout cover was inspired by the album personally, but I also don't really mind cause I love the cover.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #16 4 years ago

    I don't think it's a total rip off. It might be inspired by the design but frankly, the similarity of the colors is not really surprising seeing as they are mostly blue (sky) and red (car tail lights).

    I wouldn't be surprised if there are other images around that use a similar scheme, ie. a solid background with an object that is only visible because the 'innards' display another image. It's a somewhat common technique and that Burnout features a car on the cover is not necessarily something noone would have expected.

  • monkie_king #17 4 years ago

    Nice to see something other than the usual pre-rendered drivel gracing a game box though.

    Does Japan still tend to get more artistic stuff on their boxes for home-grown stuff? Compare the Jap, US and PAL box art for Ridge Racer 4 to see what I mean.

  • BM #18 4 years ago

    Still laughing at the captions...

  • Retroid #19 4 years ago

    Also: both covers are "shit".

  • Retroid #20 4 years ago

    "It's not as bad as the movie 300 ripping off the God of War cut scenes. That movie is shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit........"

    God of War was out before the original 300 graphic novel, was it? :p

  • f01re #21 4 years ago

    Where's the review so we can start moaning about it ?

  • FreakyZoid #22 4 years ago

    At least they tried to do something a bit different for their racing game box art.
    http://ma inlyaboutgames.blogspot.com/200...

  • Triggerhappytel #23 4 years ago

    Fairly similar, nothing major, although I'm sure a good lawyer could still get a settlement out of EA.

    Some great free publicity for the band, though.

  • ecureuil #24 4 years ago

    There is no way they'd ever get any money out of EA for this. Upon analysis they are vastly different. Do you think Karate were the first people in the world to have a left centred image on a white background? I've even made designs like that, and I've sure as hell never heard of this band before.

  • mingster #25 4 years ago

    They look identical to me..
    tried doing spot the difference..
    /failed

  • ecureuil #26 4 years ago

    Google for the higher res images.

  • 8bitMofo #27 4 years ago

    Expect a law-suit from the yanks any time soon

  • walledcity #28 4 years ago

    i went on holiday especially to see karate once. they were ace.

  • polar #29 4 years ago

    Pure plagiarism. Looks to me like they saw the album cover and used it as a base idea for theirs.

  • Talha #30 4 years ago

    it is cool. It was too good to be an EA original cover

  • zoidberg #31 4 years ago

    they do look similar... and if these were movie posters, the americans would be crying out for copyright enfringement in a heartbeat.

  • SomaticSense #32 4 years ago

    EA talking bollocks again. It was clearly at least 'inspired' by the album cover, so why don't they admit that and say it was an homage to it or something.This is just like when they said that using page 3 models to advertise NFS was a mistake. Yeah right, unintentional, whatever.....

    EA should really stop their rapidly increasing rate of PR bullshit. It's embarassing.

  • SomaticSense #33 4 years ago

    "There is no way they'd ever get any money out of EA for this. Upon analysis they are vastly different. Do you think Karate were the first people in the world to have a left centred image on a white background? I've even made designs like that, and I've sure as hell never heard of this band before. "

    Have you even looked at the design for the car, the use of colour, transparency, and the style in which they've drawn it? It's a damn sight more than just "a left centred image on a white background" that is similar.