THQ sues Activision over BAJA box art

By Robert Purchese Published 28 October, 2008

We made ours first, copycat.

THQ has taken legal action against Activision for infringing on copyrighted cover artwork for off-road racer BAJA: Edge of Control.

You may have noticed that Activision unveiled a rather similar-sounding game earlier this year called SCORE International Baja l000.

Well, the similarities apparently don't stop there, as both box covers - THQ's made public first - depict a buggy racing in the foreground with a truck jumping in the air just slightly behind.

The reason for all of this: "In order to avoid the customer confusion that is likely to occur if Activision proceeds with its planned release of its own game using packaging artwork virtually identical to THQ's," according to the legal papers (spotted by Joystiq).

Matters have come to this because THQ has "exhausted all reasonable efforts" to get the design changed "voluntarily", apparently.

BAJA: Edge of Control was released at the end of September on Xbox 360 and PS3. We'll be bringing you our thoughts of the game soon.

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 (16) Latest comment 3 years ago

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

  • kangarootoo #1 3 years ago

    Hard to call with these things. I mean, its not going to have chickens and handbags on the box art is it?

    I'm no artist, but if you asked me to design a cover for such a game, one truck in the foreground with another jumping in the background might well be top of my ideas list.

  • SirClive #2 3 years ago

    They are VERY similar though. Can't understand why they would want them to look so similar.

  • Xerx3s #3 3 years ago

    "I'm no artist, but if you asked me to design a cover for such a game, one truck in the foreground with another jumping in the background might well be top of my ideas list."

    As an artist, it would be your job to be original, inspiring, different AND communicate the message. Picking the item first in the list would be epic fail (like this box art btw).

  • Royal Fool #4 3 years ago

    I think you can find a number of covers for any given product that look similar, when they share similar themes (in this case: Desert racing). Some things on the covers are eerily similar, others aren't.

    Just go look at movie posters for films that share the same plot or character stereotypes.
    Edited by 1 at 28/10/08 @ 10:28

  • rudedudejude #5 3 years ago

    First link broke!

  • kangarootoo #6 3 years ago

    Anyone got any links? I can't any pics of IB 1000.

  • Iora #7 3 years ago

    One way to beat the credit crunch I guess! ;p

  • KreyAtiv #8 3 years ago

    Surely people will look at the name of the game before buying even if the box art is somewhat similar.
    As mentioned by Royal Fool when there are games with similar themes the box art will be similar and in some cases almost identical.

  • DDevil #9 3 years ago

    Actually, that is pretty similar... Right down to the colour of the truck.

  • bdc #10 3 years ago

    Oops!
    We're sorry, but that page doesn't exist any more! It may have moved, been removed or may just never have existed in the first place. I don't suppose being told that really helps you much; why don't you try searching?

  • FHUTA #11 3 years ago

    "Surely people will look at the name of the game before buying even if the box art is somewhat similar. "

    though if you don't expect there to be multiple BAJA games out - then going to pick up the one you played round a mate's, read a review on, but didn't note the full title or you're trying to remember the title of the game that little tommy or whoever wanted then being presented with what appears to be the similar enough title with a nigh on identical cover (and bare in mind you often have slightly dif covers for the same game with platinum, SE etc versions).

    I can see how if the thing is close enough to yours you don't want to lose sales to confusion or find your marketing budget is also plugging your rivals.

  • FHUTA #12 3 years ago

    and quite how you can accidentally put a "|" instead of a "1" in a link just goes to show how people can get the wrong thing if it's not visually differentiated enough.

    perhaps the b0rked link is a deliberate metaphor for the dangers of misreading something...?

  • The_Surreal #13 3 years ago

    HAHA!!! Funny though how similar they are:

    COMPARISON

    But I'm not sure whether a lawsuit is the answer. Isn't there an industry watchdog who could tell them to change the boxart?

    Activision were DEFINATELY trying to piggy back the possible success of THQs game. Enough parents would buy this game for their child by mistake to take like 25% of THQs profit.
    Edited by 2 at 28/10/08 @ 13:27

  • Altrezia #14 3 years ago

    I dont get it. There's a motorbike in the same spot on both covers, but there aren't even any bikes IN baja!

    Edit: In the baja game, not IRL.
    Edited by 1 at 28/10/08 @ 13:30

  • The_Surreal #15 3 years ago

    Na there aren't any bikes on the Edge of Control cover.

  • riz23 #16 3 years ago

    So the Activision game is not out yet? Is it worse than the THQ one then? Seeing as how the THQ game has a metacritic in the mid sixties maybe they are just trying to recoup their outlay somehow? As for the design there are actual design reasons why they both do the same thing, leading your eye across the FOP, images jumping out of the picture for impact etc. It could look wrong to go against these design basics. Let them tear each other to shreds I say.