The 7 Most Ridiculous Lawsuits in Video Game History

Lindsay Lohan is a very famous and problematic actress and Grand Theft Auto is a very popular and problematic video game series and, in 2014, these two forces met in court. 

Lohan believed that GTA V had used her likeness without her consent in the design of a character (Lacey Jonas) and used the implied association to drive up sales, so she filed suit against developers Take-Two Interactive. Lohan’s attorneys would even go as far as to say that Lacey wears a hat similar to hats that Lohan herself wears. (Because you know when you think of Lindsay Lohan you think "Oh yeah, the girl who was infamous for wearing hats," right?) Plus Jonas was seen posed with the two-finger "peace salute," and throwing up peace signs is a hand gesture that Lohan (allegedly) used all the time. (Because you know when you think of Lindsay Lohan you think "Oh yeah, the hat-girl who was all about peace," right?)

It's actually not the craziest lawsuit in the world, as the character does look a little bit like Lohan, particularly in a fairly famous picture of Lohan also wearing a red bikini and flashing the peace sign. But it was later revealed that the true visual inspiration behind the creation of Lacey Jonas was a model named Shelby Welinder, who was hired by Rockstar through her talent agency and even took a pic of the paycheck as proof.

The court dismissed Lohan’s case and ruled that the character looked like a “generic. . . twenty something woman without any particular identifying physical characteristics.”

Yikes.

In December 2015 an unnamed, 28-year-old man from Krasnoyarsk filed suit against Bethesda for making Fallout 4 “too addicting.” The individual had gone on a hardcore play binge for three weeks straight, skipping out on work, skipping out on friends, and skipping out on his wife. As a result, he lost all of the above.

The lawsuit sought 500,000 rubles ($7,000 US) in damages for emotional turmoil. The individual had already obtained representation through the “Single Center of Protection” who, despite expressing some hesitation in making a case against a foreign company, were willing to see how far they could take it.

While his losses aren’t a huge surprise in light of sacrificing his priorities, it’s obvious that there were already a number of factors in play to have lost his wife and job in the meager span of three weeks. 

The war for ownership of long-established words in the English language continues. In February 2014, King, the developer of the hit mobile game Candy Crush Saga, pursued copyright claims against any and all games that utilized the words ‘candy’ and ‘saga’ in their names. This, of course, sparked a lot of concerns amongst developers, but the silliness did not stop there.

It was brought to light that Albert Ransom creator of CandySwipe, had been locking horns with King over their respective creations’ names ever since Candy Crush Saga’s release in 2012. The kicker: CandySwipe was released in 2010. Ransom had long been concerned about confusion between both titles, not just in name, but also the fact that much of Candy Crush’s gameplay elements, including icons, were nearly identical to CandySwipe. Ransom would go on to pen a fierce open letter directed at King, with memorable lines such as “I hope you’re happy taking the food out of my family’s mouth.”

Two months later, the dispute came to an end. Ransom posted on his site that both parties amicably agreed to withdraw their claims and their respective games will continue to coexist without any changes. Around the same time, King and another developer, Stoic, also came to the same agreement with regards to Stoic’s The Banner Saga.

There's a lot to unpack here. In 2008, Silicon Knights finally released Too Human, which spent a long 10 years in development hell…to less than stellar reviews. Probably anticipating the bad reviews, a year previously Silicon Knights attempted to sue Epic Games for failing to provide them with a complete version of their Unreal Engine 3, which they were supposed to use on Too Human’s development. Epic Games never delivered Unreal Engine 3, which forced Silicon Knights to develop their own engine which, they maintain, is why it took so long for their game to come out (and why it was ultimately, you know, bad). Epic in turn filed a counter-suit against Silicon for utilizing their engine without paying royalties (and if you're keeping score at home, suing the people that it turns out you stole from is a much worse thing than just releasing a bad game).

Five years later, the case came to a close after thorough investigations revealed that Silicon Knights had actually copied lines of the Unreal Engine’s copyrighted code and made efforts to hide the theft through tampering of various components of the code. Silicon Knights was then ordered to recall and destroy all unsold copies of their games that used the Unreal Engine including Too Human and X-Men: Destiny. On top of that, they were to pay Epic over $9 million in damages.

Crushed from the weight of the lawsuits, and being exposed for their wrongdoings, Silicon Knights filed for bankruptcy in 2014 and closed its doors.

One of YouTube’s most outspoken gaming critics, Jim Sterling, came under fire from Digital Homicide after he posted a video review of their game The Slaughtering Grounds in 2014. Despite the strong title given to his video ("New Worst Game of 2014"), Sterling actually made attempts to try and find positive aspects of the game, which eventually led to frustration as there really weren’t any beyond his commenting of the agreeable frame rate. Overall, nothing too out of line was said from Sterling as he gave a fair assessment of the game demonstrated through his own playthroughs. 

Digital Homicide and Jim Sterling have since made many heated exchanges with one another, which has been chronicled by James in a video. The video also exposes that through investigations conducted by his fans and others online, Digital Homicide had actually stolen a number of copyrighted assets for use in their games. Plus, they have been creating fake accounts on Steam to give themselves positive reviews. Fast forward to March 16, 2016, when Digital Homicide filed a formal lawsuit against Sterling for $10 million dollars for defamation and slander.

Digital Homicide even attempted to use crowdfunding to pay their legal fees. It didn't work out so well, garnering just $450 of the $75,000 goal. Ouch.

In 2005, 18-year-old Devin Moore was convicted of shooting and killing three police officers at the Fayette, AL police station after the officers brought him in on suspicion of car theft in 2003. He was apprehended hours later in Mississippi, after stealing a police cruiser and escaping the scene. Upon recapture, Devin was quoted stating: "Life is a video game. Everybody's got to die sometime." The combination of murder and car-theft inspired a man named Jack Thompson to file Strickland v. Sony. Sony was the company behind the popular Grand Theft Auto series of video games that, among other things, encourage violence against police and car-theft. Thompson filed the suit as a measure to review whether or not violent video games played a part in Moore’s crimes.

What’s ridiculous about this case isn’t so much that it was filed, but who it was filed by. Jack Thompson wasn't someone who saw this case and was suddenly moved by the possibility that games might lead to murder; Jack Thompson had a lifelong, one-man crusade against violent video games, regardless of the methodology. He had no actual connection to the case. Thompson was able to convince the families of the three murdered officers to file suit against Sony. He compared Sony’s “irresponsible” selling of violent video games to Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. It didn’t take long for people to catch on that he was using the tragedies of others for his own personal agendas. Thompson was soon removed from the case for unethical practices, though he insists that he left on his own volition.

Devin Moore was found guilty and sentenced to death by lethal injection later that year, but the decision appealed by his attorney, Jim Standridge. Alabama would eventually revoke Thompson's law license. A few years later he was disbarred. And, of course, Grand Theft Auto was not held responsible for the tragic death of these police officers.