the-godfather-ii posts

The games weren't very good but Electronic Arts is now defending its recent Godfather movie-based games in court. GamePolitics reports that EA has filed a lawsuit against a man whom EA claims is trying to shake down the publisher for millions of dollars over the use of a name.

That name, by the way, is "Dillinger" – as in the famous 1930's bank robber John Dillinger. A man who says he is the grandson of Dillinger's half-sister (yes, we know that's odd) also claims to own the rights to everything named "Dillinger". EA happens to have named some weapons after Dillinger in both Godfather games. In their lawsuit against "Dillinger LLC" EA claims, "Dillinger threatened EA with litigation unless it agreed to pay Dillinger millions of dollars for the game elements..." EA claims that it's usages of the name "do not violate any right to publicity or infringe any trademark" under the First Amendment.

Electronic Arts may have had its heart broken with making games based on the Godfather movie franchise and the reason is pretty simple. The LA Times web site has posted a quote from EA Games head Frank Gibeau (taken during E3 2009) who stated, "We're not going to do another one." While the first game in the open world crime action game series sold over 4 million copies, sales for the sequel, released last April, have been far less, selling under a quarter of a million copies since its release.

It's also likely that EA doesn't want to spend any more licensing money on such an expensive property like Paramount's Godfather series when it can do better creating its own original titles. Gibeau himself admitted, 'The bloom is really off the rose for licensed games."

For a game that's isn't scoring well in reviews, the recent release of the crime action game The Godfather II is gaining more press from its media kit than the game itself. As we reported a few days ago publisher Electronic Arts sent a number of media outlets a Godfather II press kit that included a very real set of brass knuckles, something that's illegal to own in a number of states.

Now several of those media outlets, including Kotaku, Game Politics and our sister site Joystiq, have been asked politely by EA to ship back the brass knuckles portion of the media kit. EA has declined to comment on the matter further. However, as Kotaku points out, even shipping something like brass knuckles is a crime. Something tells us whomever thought of shipping this item isn't going to win the Best Chotchkie Award at next year's MI6 Conference.

Electronic Arts ships out their organized crime action sequel The Godfather II to stores today but apparently the publisher could be sending out an illegal item in their media pack that are sent to certain journalists. The kit contains a number of items including a set of real brass knuckles.

So what? Well, Game Politics points out that metal knuckles are considered to be an "offensive weapon" at least in the state of Pennsylvania and therefore illegal to possess. However, there is a loophole in the law that allows possession of such items "solely as a curio or in a dramatic performance." Having brass knuckles in a swag media packet to help promote a game would seem to fall under the "curio" definition.

After a bit of a breather, PC gamers get a solid list to choose from in terms of new PC game releases this week:

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena: Vin Diesel's sci-fi franchise may not be as popular as the Fast and Furious movie franchise but this new game from developer Starbreeze Studios and publisher Atari does return Diesel's character of Riddick back in the FPS game genre. With an all-new single player campaign, a graphically revamped version of the 2004 game The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay and new multiplayer modes there's quite a lot of Riddick to go around this time.

It looks like even after its completion, Electronic Arts has got some surprises up its sleeve when it comes to The Godfather II. The movie-based open world action game is due out in April 7 but today EA revealed that it will release a free patch that will add a new multiplayer mode to the game.

That mode is called Don Control and uses the single player strategic portion of The Godfather II and puts it online. As the press release describes it, "Players can now challenge one another in 16-player battles for their in-game currency from the single-player game. As a Don online, players can recruit others to join their family by giving them a cut of the profits. But if a player loses as Don, the in-game currency they wagered will be removed in their single-player campaign and their empire can come crumbling down." That actually sounds interesting.

It's almost time to be pulled back into playing as a member of the Corleone family. Electronic Arts just announced that The Godfather II, the next game in their open world crime action series based on the classic mob films, has now gone gold and will ship to stores for the PC and other plaforms on April 7.' Previously the game was scheduled to be released last month but EA pushed the release date back about six weeks.

As we have mentioned before, The Godfather II (developed by EA's Redwood Shores studio) puts you as the head of the Corleone family during the 1960's. In addition to New York City the game takes place in Miami and Cuba. It also mixes in action gameplay with some strategy elements as you have to manage businesses, plan hits on enemies and more. Of course, this title tends to be on the violent side. Good thing it has an "M" rating, huh?

A few days ago, Electronic Arts announced a delay in the release of their open world action game The Godfather II. Today the publisher announced a more specific release date for the game, as they announced an April 7 ship date for the US and April 10 for Europe.

EA has previously had a Feb. 22 release date planned for the game so this new date will only push The Godfather II back by a little over a month's time. EA previously announced that The Sims 3 would be delayed from Feb. 20 to June 2 and Dragon Age: Origins' ship date was pushed back from March until sometime this fall.

Electronic Arts is planning to release its second game based on the Godfather crime moves in early 2009 and this week the publisher released some new screenshots from the open world action game showing more of the somewhat brutal and, yes, explosive action we can expect in the final version.

Developed by EA's Redwood Shores studios, The Godfather II will have open world gameplay like the first game in the series but will expand on the first game's location as the player controls organized crime in the 1960s in not just New York City but also Miami and even Cuba. The screenshots show off not just the action portion of the game but also the strategic view which allows the player to get more involved in the business portion.