Lawyers from Sega of America have filed a patent infringement suit, claiming that
The Simpsons: Road Rage was designed to "deliberately copy and imitate" the basic concept and gameplay from
Crazy Taxi, to which it holds a patent. The suit names publisher Fox Interactive, distributor Electronic Arts and developer Radical Entertainment.
Road Rage was widely criticised at its time of release for being a blatant
Crazy Taxi clone and indeed the company is using several such reviews as part of its evidence. If successful the move could have a huge impact on the game industry, which since the earliest days of
Pong and
Space Invaders has seen successful titles being ‘cloned’, copied and adapted by other companies.
