Characters in games from other games...

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TobyS
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Characters in games from other games...

Post by TobyS » Wed Apr 14, 2021 9:23 pm

What's the legal situation with game characters being used by other games?

Presumably Toei part owns the characters, and when they are created by toriyama they are possibly partly bird studios too.

But do the different game development companies have a stake?

Like they put 21 from fighterz and SKoT as a lobby avatar in Fighterz... SKOT and other heroes characters first appeared in DBO too.

Ozotto from that old game appeared in the heroes manga.

Can any game company just like use Shallot from DB legends? Or do they need permission.

Was the FighterZ Xeno Xover a special case, or a we won't sue gentlemen's agreement?

I imagine the characters from Jump All stars toriyama designed might be more complex although it's probably easier then say marvel/DC as it's all on house at jump...

What do you think?
Yamcha almost certainly did not cheat on Bulma:
He was afraid of Women, Bulma was the flirty one.
Yamcha wanted to get married (it was his gonna be his wish)
He suggested they settle down in the Trunks saga.
Alternate future Trunks is not a reliable source.
Toriyama wanted new SSJ Kids and not make new characters.

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VegettoEX
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Re: Characters in games from other games...

Post by VegettoEX » Thu Apr 15, 2021 4:10 pm

There are a few key points to keep in mind:

(1) All of these games are ultimately "made" by Bandai Namco
Even when the development is outsourced to outfits like Dimps or Arc or Spike, Bandai Namco is the publisher of all these titles. They're the ones the developers are answering to.

(2) Further up the chain is Shueisha
You're going to learn more about this in the next podcast episode and next big translation going up on the main website, but Shueisha is the top dog and has full supervisory and veto rights on anything and everything that goes into these games. The developers report to Bandai Namco, but Bandai Namco reports to Shueisha. There's likely a combination of both developers pitching what they would like to include, as well as Shueisha telling the developers what they need to include.

Therefore, it's effectively impossible for a game to come out and Bandai Namco or Shueisha NOT already know that a character from some other previous game was included. They're no realm of possibility where "suing" enters the equation here.

(3) It took me forever to parse what the heck a "SKOT" was
"Supreme Kai of Time". I don't play in English and it took me far longer than you would think to figure out you were talking about the Kaioshin of Time. Spell it out from the start! :lol:
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TobyS
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Re: Characters in games from other games...

Post by TobyS » Sun Apr 18, 2021 5:48 pm

VegettoEX wrote: Thu Apr 15, 2021 4:10 pm There are a few key points to keep in mind:

(1) All of these games are ultimately "made" by Bandai Namco
Even when the development is outsourced to outfits like Dimps or Arc or Spike, Bandai Namco is the publisher of all these titles. They're the ones the developers are answering to.

(2) Further up the chain is Shueisha
You're going to learn more about this in the next podcast episode and next big translation going up on the main website, but Shueisha is the top dog and has full supervisory and veto rights on anything and everything that goes into these games. The developers report to Bandai Namco, but Bandai Namco reports to Shueisha. There's likely a combination of both developers pitching what they would like to include, as well as Shueisha telling the developers what they need to include.

Therefore, it's effectively impossible for a game to come out and Bandai Namco or Shueisha NOT already know that a character from some other previous game was included. They're no realm of possibility where "suing" enters the equation here.

(3) It took me forever to parse what the heck a "SKOT" was
"Supreme Kai of Time". I don't play in English and it took me far longer than you would think to figure out you were talking about the Kaioshin of Time. Spell it out from the start! :lol:
Interesting so the power/rights only go upstream?
So the team who make legends couldn't stop arc sys putting Shallot in say FighterZ IF bandai/shuisha really wanted to do that for some reason?

I was gonna make a seperate thread for it but do you think that's why we have never seen Goku meet Bardock? I always wondered if Shuiesha/bandai have other plans to do this one day, or know it's a big deal and want to get it right first time in the event they ever do go for it.
It'd be an easy sell for a game developer so I always assumed that was probably something that was vetoed from higher up.

Sorry I usually use Viz names but I feel like Chronoa is not well known and took too long to get revealed, kaioshin is too vague and KoT is also vague and unused. She's an anomaly haha.

It just makes me wonder why there aren't way more crossovers, the Devs would get those characters preexisting fans and the higher ups get cross promotion it seems like a win win.

I was fucking furious I bought FighterZ for the XV2 crossover and it was japan exclusive which they didn't make clear....
Yamcha almost certainly did not cheat on Bulma:
He was afraid of Women, Bulma was the flirty one.
Yamcha wanted to get married (it was his gonna be his wish)
He suggested they settle down in the Trunks saga.
Alternate future Trunks is not a reliable source.
Toriyama wanted new SSJ Kids and not make new characters.

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Xeogran
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Re: Characters in games from other games...

Post by Xeogran » Sun Apr 25, 2021 3:35 am

TobyS wrote: Sun Apr 18, 2021 5:48 pm I was gonna make a seperate thread for it but do you think that's why we have never seen Goku meet Bardock? I always wondered if Shuiesha/bandai have other plans to do this one day, or know it's a big deal and want to get it right first time in the event they ever do go for it.
It'd be an easy sell for a game developer so I always assumed that was probably something that was vetoed from higher up.
There was a what-if story in Burst Limit about this and it was handled very nicely.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSnZZ3zqfgQ

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