Blizzard Entertainment, a US-based game developer that creates games for the PC/Mac platform.
Namco Bandai Games, the video game division of the Japan-based holding company Namco Bandai that primarily creates games for the console and handheld platforms.
That is all fine, but surely these two have nothing in common? That is what I thought to. Much to my suprise, however, I discovered that there is one thing that connects them....and it is not a pleasant link.
On 19th August 2009, Namco Bandai issued an official apology to Square Enix and Taito. The reason for this was the fact that their game title "Super Robot Taisen K" (also known as "Super Robot Wars K"; the Super Robot Wars series was previously owned by Banpresto and is primaly known only in Japan, since most of the games were never released outside of it) included two songs which were almost identical to the songs "Battle With Magus" from Chrono Trigger and "The One Who Will Save The Earth" from Lufia II, thus commiting plagiarism. Namco Bandai pledged to resolve the issue behind the curtains and reach a settlement with both companies, while promising to not allow anything like that to happen again.
However, in this apology, Namco Bandai failed to mention that they plagiarised another song. This one is almost identical to "Orc 2" from WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness and is used as a battlefield theme in both "Super Robot Taisen" K and W. It is unknown whether Blizzard was ever aware of this, nor if they ever held talks with Namco Bandai over the matter.
For comparison:
Of course, there is always the chance that Blizzard granted rights to Namco Bandai to use the song in the games. But considering the above incident and the fact that Blizzard and PC games in general are relatively obscure in Japan, this seems rather unlikely.
Anyway, I just thought it was something interesting and worth posting about.
EDIT: Just to clarify, the first video is uploaded by me and I was being generous when I titled it a "remix".
On May 23 2010 12:53 Milkis wrote: Time to download the SRW K OST to see this Lufia II OST clone
Anything similar to Lufia II's ost shoudl be good!
Here are two videos directly comparing Battle with Magus and The One Who Will Save The Earth to the appropriate counterparts from SRW K:
The ironic thing about this is that the Super Robot Wars franchise is in general known for very good music. Not just beacuse they include the theme's of the animes that are included; their original songs are also very popular. So this incident is really suprising.
Listened to it, and holy crap, yeah, it's just way too blatant
Yeah, i definitely like the SRW original songs better than their Anime theme remixes (Dark Prison!!!!). Would have been better if they got permission from the composers and just used it as a homage or something instead of having to resort to something like this though.
Am i the only one who thinks they arn't really alike? maybe its just my ears. perhaps slight note similarities, but theres only so many notes and beats in music... i dunno, i personally don't think they sound too much alike to be dubbed any form of plagiarism.
Hindsight is 20/20, but I'm actually pretty familiar with all 3 musical samples plagiarized and think I would have noticed them all. They're all quite obvious. o_O
edit: what's amazing to me is that the Lufia 2 and especially the CT tracks should be familiar with many Japanese console gamers as well.
On May 23 2010 13:19 CKSide wrote: Am i the only one who thinks they arn't really alike? maybe its just my ears. perhaps slight note similarities, but theres only so many notes and beats in music... i dunno, i personally don't think they sound too much alike to be dubbed any form of plagiarism.
On May 23 2010 13:19 CKSide wrote: Am i the only one who thinks they arn't really alike? maybe its just my ears. perhaps slight note similarities, but theres only so many notes and beats in music... i dunno, i personally don't think they sound too much alike to be dubbed any form of plagiarism.
I really don't know what to say to you....
do you have functioning ears?
well i'm not an audiophile but i'm pretty acquainted to music.perhaps i'm looking for too specific of a sound. but again, i can't hear why its considered a copy.
is there perhaps a part of song thats exactly the same to the another part that you could point out? like 1:26 of the bandai song to 1:35 of the orc song? or something.
not trying to troll, just honestly don't hear it. =\
The ironic thing about this is that the Super Robot Wars franchise is in general known for very good music. Not just beacuse they include the theme's of the animes that are included; their original songs are also very popular. So this incident is really suprising.
Not really surprising to me, the guy is known for doing this..
On May 23 2010 13:19 CKSide wrote: Am i the only one who thinks they arn't really alike? maybe its just my ears. perhaps slight note similarities, but theres only so many notes and beats in music... i dunno, i personally don't think they sound too much alike to be dubbed any form of plagiarism.
I really don't know what to say to you....
do you have functioning ears?
well i'm not an audiophile but i'm pretty acquainted to music.perhaps i'm looking for too specific of a sound. but again, i can't hear why its considered a copy.
is there perhaps a part of song thats exactly the same to the another part that you could point out? like 1:26 of the bandai song to 1:35 of the orc song? or something.
not trying to troll, just honestly don't hear it. =\
cmon, from 0:33 to 0:59 it's almost copy paste to the 0:42 of the original music
On May 23 2010 13:19 CKSide wrote: Am i the only one who thinks they arn't really alike? maybe its just my ears. perhaps slight note similarities, but theres only so many notes and beats in music... i dunno, i personally don't think they sound too much alike to be dubbed any form of plagiarism.
I really don't know what to say to you....
do you have functioning ears?
well i'm not an audiophile but i'm pretty acquainted to music.perhaps i'm looking for too specific of a sound. but again, i can't hear why its considered a copy.
is there perhaps a part of song thats exactly the same to the another part that you could point out? like 1:26 of the bandai song to 1:35 of the orc song? or something.
not trying to troll, just honestly don't hear it. =\
cmon, from 0:33 to 0:59 it's almost copy paste to the 0:42 of the original music
ah i hear it now. thanks for that. sorry, i guess i just wasn't paying enough attention. though i did listen both songs through, separately however. musical memory must be failing me. =\ thanks again.
EPT
