While many await news from Capcom of a Mega Man X17: Zero Battle Nexus, the rest of the gaming world will have to make due with the company’s newest legal entanglement. Seems someone finally realized that Capcom’s Dead Rising was a blatant rip-off of George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, and its less socially conscience remake. Capcom has preemptively filed a claim that “humans battling zombies in a shopping mall” is a “wholly unprotectible idea” by copyright standards.

They may be right. Really, almost any film premise can be translated into game form, and short of using character names and direct situations, be considered fair use. For example, someone could make a game of the last man on earth battling zombies and being held up in his apartment. Would the producers of I Am Legend like to sue? Sure, and they’d probably have a legitimate case in one regard. Still, how does that come off any more a rip off than many low budget films that attempt to capitalize off new theatrical releases?

It doesn’t really. Consider that True Lies’ climactic finale sees a harrier jet flying around downtown Miami. While we likely won’t be getting a new True Lies game anytime soon, it is hard to imagine we won’t see a game in the next five years that recreates this scene in some fashion. That’s simply playing the law of averages. Or, consider how generic the film version of Doom felt, and then consider it’s because there’s already a million generic action films just like it. Which side is ripping off which?

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