Rockstar Games' parent company, Take-Two Interactive, is going after Max Payne and Alan Wake 2 developer Remedy Entertainment. Take-Two Interactive is one of the biggest companies in all of gaming. They own some of the biggest developers and franchises including 2K Games, Mafia, BioShock, Borderlands, Grand Theft Auto, Rockstar Games, and many other lucrative properties. They have also made a name for themselves as being a pretty litigious company, which makes some sense when you hold the rights to some of the most valuable entertainment properties in the world. However, it has led to some fans being very against the company as mods, fan remakes, and other projects have all been met with threats of legal action and led to a very contentious relationship between the fans and the publisher.

With that said, Take-Two's next legal battle is actually against a company that it will be working with. Take-Two Interactive has filed a trademark dispute against Remedy Entertainment, stating that its logo is too similar to that of Rockstar Games. Take-Two claims that it believes there's a likelihood that the public could become confused by the two logos. This is particularly awkward because Rockstar Games is currently working with Remedy Entertainment on remakes of the first two Max Payne games. As one might imagine, both studios will have their logos on the box for the game. Remedy Entertainment developed the first two Max Payne games and they were both published by Rockstar Games in the early 2000s. Rockstar Games would go on to develop Max Payne 3 itself as Remedy moved on to projects like Alan Wake in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Whether anything will come from this remains to be seen, but Rockstar has had the same logo for decades now and it is uniquely recognizable thanks to its colors and how prominently it's featured in its products.

Whether Remedy is forced to change its logo to avoid any troubles remains to be seen, but it'll be interesting to see if anything notable happens here. It's possible Remedy will be able to come away from this without any changes, but we'll just have to wait and see.

Max Payne Remakes
The Max Payne remakes are expected to be Remedy's next project. The studio has been working on them since 2022 and they entered full production around the time Alan Wake 2 was released late last year. It's unclear how long it will take to remake these games and just how different they'll be from the original games. Given they're remakes and not remasters, we can probably expect some notable changes to help modernize them. It's unknown whether there will be any new voice recordings, especially since Max Payne actor James McAffrey died in December.

Posted: Jan 21, 2024 1:06 pm
Related Forum: Grand Theft Auto Forum

Source: https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/take-two-sues-remedy-entertainment-rockstar-games-logo/