Video Game Background

[JPGraphicsMI]

Does anyone have any information on the legality or if there would be any copy-write issues for using a video game "screenshot" as part of a vehicle/trailer wrap? I have a customer that is building a mobile gaming trailer, and for part of the wrap, he wants to use like a scene with some characters from some of the more popular video games. It doesn't necessarily have to include the name of the actual game, but something similar to searching "High Res Video Game Background".

Also, is he able to list the consoles that he will be using? Like a Playstation or Xbox logo?

Thank you in advance!

 

[Val47]

Search istock or something similar for royalty free artwork.
Logos, not sure. You can probably look that up online for each company.

 

[victor bogdanov]

What's the worst that can happen? They send the trailer owner a cease and desist and he has to cover up/remove the image, if that happens play the lottery. Video game companies have more important things to worry about, like people pirating their games

 

[Pauly]

It's fine as it's apart of his business. His promoting that he has that particular game and those consoles.
his not selling the artwork.

 

[Dan360]

We had one of the console manufacturers go after a local used game store for using one of their characters as the logo/mascot.

As far as using an image from a game that would depend on the publisher/developer of the game. I can see someone like EA possibly going after them. But I've seen a lot of video game images (mainly Square Enix stuff for hobby shops) used around here for years on store windows and never heard about anything happening because of it.

And be careful with that search term because that will bring up a lot of fanart made by independent artists which might be a whole other issue.

Logos should be fine.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

What's the worst that can happen? They send the trailer owner a cease and desist and he has to cover up/remove the image, if that happens play the lottery. Video game companies have more important things to worry about, like people pirating their games

I wouldn't say so much about Nintendo. They have gone after play throughs (Nintendo in the end monetized those videos if I'm remembering correctly), fan content, outside of the usually fans with closely related merch for sale (latest I'm aware of that is from last year).

Have to keep in mind, this is still another person/company IP. They may or may not want it used, for whatever reason.

I would think, that if legality is the concern here, the best course of action is to actually talk to the people that own the IP as they have that permission to give. Now, asking them, you run the risk of them saying no or maybe they have very specific artwork etc that they have set aside for such use case. It's a risk either way, it just depends on your C/B analysis of each situation and go from there.

 

[Patrice Brunelle]

What's the worst that can happen? They send the trailer owner a cease and desist and he has to cover up/remove the image, if that happens play the lottery. Video game companies have more important things to worry about, like people pirating their games

I don't know about that, one of my client, a video game retailer, got sued by Nintendo for using Luigi's hat in his logo. Since it was part of his logo, he had to redo his entire company image. And we're in a small northern Canadian mining town. That's a long reach for a Japanese based company.

 

[Pauly]

I don't know about that, one of my client, a video game retailer, got sued by Nintendo for using Luigi's hat in his logo. Since it was part of his logo, he had to redo his entire company image. And we're in a small northern Canadian mining town. That's a long reach for a Japanese based company.

That's fair enough as it was apart of his logo. Different situation.

 

[Stacey K]

I have a customer who puts "Unilock" on the arms of his landscape apparel and the company gives him a kickback. If the customers wants to ask, they may pay for some it.

 

[CSOCSO]

just do it. I have done a few game trailers with all the nintendo, capcom, sony, microsoft, tc characters. No issues.
But one of my clients got their logo done that was a complete ripoff of The Godfather. ( with the hand and pupetteer stuff) . They did get a letter to change their logos or else.