Heard about a little game called Rock and Roll Racing?
Apparently this is on Steam? What the hell are Valve doing these days, allowing this to get onto Steam.

Greenlit? Greenlit.

That's uh...hmm.

Jeff needs to QL this.

So...is this officially affiliated with the Rock n' Roll racing license, or is this a case of some Russian studio intentionally misleading people? When I saw this game on Steam, I of course immediately thought it was just a blatant rip-off, but the written description kinda confused me:

Motor Rock recreates the spirit and gameplay of the best oldschool 90’s race games. And The Rock’n’Roll Racing is certainly leader among them.

Notice the mention of "The Rock'n'Roll Racing".

Also, I noticed that somebody added this game to the Rock 'n Roll Racing page on Wikipedia. Seems sketchy as hell.

EDIT: Alright, now that I've watched the video, this seems even more sketchy. I would ask how this managed to make its way onto Steam, but at this point I'm more curious about how it hasn't been pulled.

This is stickied in the game's steam forum, written by the developer.

The game has no copyright issues , since negotiations with Blizzard were , and allowed the company YardTeam to publish the game with the condition a change in name . Blizzard does not want to announce it . Please do not create more threads with similar questions and statements , since many times it's all been said . In the future such topics will be deleted . I also want to note that almost all of the content created by the developers of the game again. The game does not use Blizzard's labels and does not use the content of the original game too (we left the original voice acting commentator at the request of fans of the game , it's ok ) . Thank you.

Yeah...

Did the company scrub some of the complaints from their website. This youtube guy suggested they had a clear FAQ where they said something to the effect of, "yea we don't have a license, but no one has complained" . I couldn't find that anywhere, I am not saying it didn't happen. It looks like they have completely locked their english message board also.

EDIT: Oh steam, I see I went to their official homepage, but that is pretty damning to have on your games own steam page

Can someone please re-write this sentence so I can understand what it means.

For anyone else who was a bit confused like I was upon first reading this thread, here are some pictures that should make everything a bit more clear:

Rock and Roll Racing	Motor Rock

I personally don't like pitchfork armies started by prolific youtubers, but I did some digging and here's another recent post on their forums

As for Larry - yes, there is a chance to get to the head from Blizzard. But also, if you have not read fixed subject in this section of the forum - were conducted negotiations with Blizzard, and us were allowed to publish the game under a different name. We changed the name because Blizzard does not want any of the fans had been misled, and that's all. And I can say that the talks were in a fairly warm environment, and hardly Blizzard will put forward any claim to game.

It could be that more than anything it is simply a difficulty in language barrier. It seems like they may not be fully understanding the question, but regardless of that it sounds like a conversation was had with Blizzard, whether or not they are now capable of performing the legalese speak required to satisfy youtube armies is another question.

@christoffer: I think they were trying to say that they created almost all of the content in the game (the music covers, graphics, etc.). They only blatantly stole the announcer audio and sound effects from the original Rock 'n Roll Racing...and they probably didn't license those songs...and the extent to which they just cloned almost everything is pretty insane too.

I just don't understand why they would do all of this stuff. You could totally make a great game inspired by Rock 'n Roll Racing in a way that doesn't cross into this copyright infringement territory. Why would you risk putting so much effort into something that there's a high probability could get shut down by legal teams from multi-billion dollar companies.

If they were just giving this game away for free as a fan project, I would fully support it, but the fact that they're selling this is crazy.

Hey guys, hardly Blizzard will put forward any claim to game. Don't worry about.

@hamst3r: holy crap. If that's not someone stealing IP, i don't know what is.

Sure, I can definitely believe that Activision-Blizzard would let some faceless developer infringe upon their IP without any form of compensation.

@bisonhero: I find this line from their statement kinda hilarious -

(we left the original voice acting commentator at the request of fans of the game , it's ok ) .

We left in assets we stole from a Genesis game at the request of fans...but hey, it's ok.

They claim it is authorised. You will know if it is true eventually, if it goes on sale without a Cease and Dissist.

Yesterday, they removed the annoncer, change the names of all the drivers. Today their website is in reconstruction.

At first, they were aiming for a freeware without any exit on Steam or other, seems like it changed somewhere on the road.

The game is really good, but has many glitches in multi player. I do recommand it and hope they will settle everything with Blizzard, because I was waiting for a game like that for several years.

This is a great idea for a game, not sure why they needed to so clearly copy the original. Just make the appropriate tweaks.

@artisanbreads said:

I'm pretty sure China and Russia just don't have designers of anything, ever. So nope, no original character designs/game ideas. They have mountains of coders and artists, but since producing an original idea is forbidden by law, those coders and artists must instead create games using the characters and game ideas others have created. No exceptions.

I don't see the big deal... presumably this "ripoff" took more time/effort to create than the original.

Also, it's funny how the youtube video in the OP, has a 1 minute 10 second ad, when all he is doing is posting footage of games other people made. Now who's milking the fruits of others' labor?

You don't see the big deal in blatant copyright infringement? Who cares how long it took, you don't steal people's work.

They didn't steal work though.. the entire game had to have been made from scratch.

If they hadn't pulled content directly, this would probably be totally fine regardless if they had permission. But, it sounds like they did? Or, that guy is playing the "shut up, we got permission" card in hopes that nobody tells Blizzard or whoever now owns the rights.

@egg said:

Did you watch the video? They took the narrator voice tracks right from the old game. And that music... oh boy.

Ok maybe the music... but that aside... why does this offend us? If it is an SNES game... and if no official remake happened for over a decade... and if it benefits us as gamers to have a new classic racer to play.

And for that matter, why is it bad for devs to make a homage to a game we all love, and make some money off of it, yet it's ok for Youtubers to make money off playthroughs/footage of games as if it's their God given right?

It's not like we're taking the side of the little guy, since apparently Rock'n'Roll Racing is owned by BLIZZARD

Something seems odd about this post lol.

So, you're saying basically copying the entire design doc of an old game and creating new assets to sell for a profit is fine, but doing an editorial video and making money off of it isn't? You do realize what website your on, right?

If you have such a problem with professional video game critics using game footage in an editorial/first impression capacity and being paid to do so, you must hate Giant Bomb (and every other video game website in existence).

I was willing to defend these guys until I heard the voice track and the music. That changes things from "homage" to "we're trying to pass this off as an official remake." I can appreciate the time and effort that went into this game, but you just can't go and take assets from another game without asking and sell it with your game, even if you are merely paying homage. Regardless of whether you think it's "right" or "wrong," it's illegal... and stupid.

edit:

@zombie_bigdaddy

@rethdakair said:

Yesterday, they removed the annoncer, change the names of all the drivers. Today their website is in reconstruction.

At first, they were aiming for a freeware without any exit on Steam or other, seems like it changed somewhere on the road.

The game is really good, but has many glitches in multi player. I do recommand it and hope they will settle everything with Blizzard, because I was waiting for a game like that for several years.

Something seems odd about this post lol.

Hah, yeah. If it's true that they removed the announcer and are making changes, then I guess they're doing what needs to be done, though. The game doesn't actually look bad, to be honest, but then again I always despised those isometric racing games. Can't stomach what seems to me to just be a terrible camera angle.

The developers blatantly ripped audio from Blizzard's game to use in their own without Blizzard's permission. This isn't a case of the little guy going up against the big nasty corporation. This is about straight-up theft of assets and designs that, while put together to make what is apparently a fun game and decent homage to Rock n' Roll Racing, is still illegal. The people that made this game could have come up with their own vehicle and character designs, their own announcer audio, and could have properly licensed music for the soundtrack, but they didn't. It's a game that is built on content that they had no legal right to utilize.

"So, you're saying basically copying the entire design doc of an old game"

Since when is this a bad thing? If someone made a CoD clone nobody would bat an eye.

"you must hate Giant Bomb (and every other video game website in existence)."

I'm not saying people are wrong to want money from youtube vids, I'm just pointing out the double standard here. If someone posted a "Let's Play" (ugh) of RocknRoll Racing for the SNES they would get ad money and everyone would act like this is the way it should be, then they'd turn around and villainize someone who did actual work, and who took the time to create something.

Nice to see someone paying attention. Too bad it isn't Steam.

"We've had no complaints yet."

...Wait for it.

It depends on what you mean. If you're saying CoD clone, as in Doom clone, as in... another military first-person shooter, you're right, no one would care. However, if a game came out that said it was highly influenced by the original CoD, mentioned that game a lot in their press material, had a lot of the same missions, weapons, squadmates, and maps from the game, used ACTUAL audio from CoD... and then somehow got on Steam?!

The internet would loose its shit. And rightfully so.

Also, to clarify, Rock'n'Roll Racing is owned by Blizzard because it was made by Blizzard (then called Silicon &Synapse).

I don't see how the amount of work someone puts into something even remotely correlates to legitimacy. Putting aside your extremely over simplification of how much work goes into putting out professional quality gaming videos on a regular basis, how does saying the developers put a lot of work into their rip-off game do anything to make up for the fact that it's a rip off.

I bet it takes a shit load of work to plan and successfully pull off a bank heist or to produce counterfeit money that could pass as the real thing, but the amount of effort it takes doesn't make those activities anything but illegal.

Blizzard getting ripped off, well that's what I called KARMA!!!!!

You know this genre is so under used, I keep wondering why Rare didn't go back to RC Pro Am for 360 XBLA ONLINE PLAY!!!!

Karma for what?

And Rare likely hasn't made an XBLA RC Pro Am because any talent that might have had interest in such has either left the studio or acquiesced to Microsoft's turning the studio in a a Kinect game salt mine.

@hailinel: oh come on, really?

@hailinel: I'm sure he's referring to the fact they 'adapted' Games Workshop licenses when creating Starcraft after they lost they license to make a WH40k game. (For what it's worth, I like DoW way better than Starcraft)

That's what I was about to say ... the game makers didn't exactly break into a bank or murder anyone, they created a videogame. If they wanted to leech off an IP, there might have been more insidious and profitable ways of doing so, rather than reviving a 90s SNES isometric racer.

That said, I'm not saying they had the right to rip off the music, nor that it was a good idea on their part... but that maybe we should just let Blizzard handle it.

This game looks great, who doesn't love rock and roll racing?

I am not offended by this game's existence, whatsoever. Also, it looks like a lot of fun. More Rock and Roll Racing? Cool!

"We stole the idea and some of the assets outright and don't want Blizzard to know about it. We're pretty much just anticipating that since no one really cares about Rock and Roll Racing anymore, we can get away with it."

I'm not going to buy it by any stretch but is it any good? If it actually plays like Rock and Roll Racing I might have to give it a shot one of these days.

Intellectual property... that is all...

If that's the case, I didn't even know about it.

Yes, really.

I don't get why people are upset. It's not like Blizzard would ever do something other than WoW, Starcraft and Diablo these days. Activision have them by the balls and intend to squeeze all the money out of them until they dry up. Small projects with a low profit margin are squashed. Let the fans have their "spiritual successor"

A spiritual successor would be something like Mighty Number no. 9, or even that fantastic looking 3D Chrono Trigger remake that got shut down for no reason when the small team behind was going to release it for free.

This is a company that wanted to make money off of ideas that weren't their's nor was it anything they had a right to.

Don't remind me....

Yo that is blatantly untrue. Ice Pick Lodge, makers of fine games like The Void or Pathologic or 'fine' games like Cargo: The Quest for Gravity live in Moscow. Hell, 1C's entire catalog pretty much.

Or because that could never translate well into a modern game.

@hailinel: well a. everyone and their mother has a axe to grind with blizzard and they haven't done anything to please them. b. I have a few friends who work in blizzard as animators and confess they do "barrow from other artists" and c. this is a genre of game we haven't seen in a long time so people do want a revival of some kind. That's what I mean by karma