Puzo estate sues over Godfather games

By Robert Purchese Published 19 June, 2008

Still waiting for its cut.

The son of late author Mario Puzo has sued Paramount because he didn't get his cut from sales of The Godfather games.

He argues this is a breach of an agreement that his dad, who wrote The Godfather novel, had made with the film studio in 1992. This entitled Mario Puzo to a meaty chunk of money made from any audio or visual products based on The Godfather licence.

"In material breach of the audio-visual products agreement, Paramount has failed and refused to pay the Puzo estate the sums due it in respect of the Godfather game," said the court filing, according to Reuters.

The original hand-shake came about as a result of Mario Puzo accepting a low price to sign away The Godfather rights because he was a young and relatively unknown author at the time.

Mario Puzo died in 1999, leaving his estate to his children. His book about Mafia life through the eyes of the Corleone family has since gone on to be immortalised in what IMDB ranks as the greatest film of all time.

The Godfather game was rather less well-received, scoring around the middle-mark but selling bundles nonetheless.

So strong is the pull of the licence that EA continues to talk about sequels and what you may be able to do in them, although still, frustratingly, unofficially.

EA boss John Riccitiello did recently hint that it would be a game "we'll be talking a lot about this fall".

But other than that there is nothing. Honest.

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.

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

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Comments (12) Latest comment 3 years ago

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

  • the_dudefather #1 4 years ago

    every godfather based joke has already been made about this story on kotaku

    so dont even think about it

  • Saladin #2 4 years ago

    All I know is the Wii version was surprisingly good fun, and released at a point when there were literally no adult games for the console.

  • Draqule #3 4 years ago

    What ever happened to the band Hell is for Hero's?

  • Golgo #4 4 years ago

    Maybe Puzo Jr should get a job, some self-respect and stop creaming off dead dad...

  • penhalion #5 4 years ago

    The deal was struck so I don't see an issue with Paramount paying up. If my parents left me a multi-million dollar franchise to cream off I sure as heck wouldn't let anyone use it for free (charities and non profit being the exception)

  • DFawkes #6 4 years ago

    I'm curious about the exact contract, as I'd be willing to bet there'll be a get out due to the fact it's a video game. They'll probably argue it's interactive art :p

  • wobbly_Bob #7 4 years ago

    Give the man his money.

  • frostcircus #8 4 years ago

    The game deserved to be a cult hit, if only for the fact that it immediately followed the restaurant scene with a car chase and tommygun shootout. That is amazing! Other licensed games wish they could butcher their material this deftly.

    There's just no point in anyone parodying film-to-game adaptations anymore; reality has trumped all possible fiction.

  • MGG #9 4 years ago

    Umm, the guys dead, why does his son deserve to get anything?

    But then, I'm a big fan of 100% death taxes (just like Warren Buffett, so not quite alone), and don't see why any child deserves to inherit......

  • Shakey_Jake33 #10 4 years ago

    Whatever people think about the games, or the kid and his inheritence of his father's finance, surely it's irrelevent? Sounds like Paramount is trying to weasel out of paying royalties. They'd be the first to take action if it was vice versa.

  • Tehren #11 4 years ago

    Godfather sucks. Whatever happened to the Sopranos FPS. Imagine - class-based FPS insanity with everyone's favourite mafiosos... Play as Tony (like Crysis, only with Pentium II power), Chris (Haze!) or Paulie (?). Would be made of awesome, as they say on Aerie Peak-EU.

  • Tlaloc #12 3 years ago

    @ Golgo...

    " Maybe Puzo Jr should get a job, some self-respect and stop creaming off dead dad... "

    Maybe he'll do that when you renounce *your* inheritance and use your will to leave your money to some rich Hollywood magnates. Your comment, and the real world, are completely at variance. Wake up.