There are some stories which are just so bizarre and fascinating that you can't help but laugh. Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega has launched a lawsuit against Activision accusing them of unlawfully using his likeness in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.
Noriega says Activision portrayed him as the "culprit of numerous fictional heinous crimes", and accuses them of "misuse (of his image), unlawful exploitation and misappropriation for economic gain".
GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 leap up due to summer sales
Wow, good games never get old I guess.
CoD will always be a beast of a franchise, and how awesome is it that you can just boot it up or pop it into your Xbox and play, MS BC is really a neat feature.
Many players on social media are now reporting unannounced matchmaking fixes have been put in place by Activision ranging from Call of Duty 3 to Modern Warfare 2 to Black Ops 2, on Xbox 360. Players are reporting that player counts are updating, lobbies forming, and matchmaking times have been reduced. Neither Activision nor Microsoft have commented on the matter when reached out to at this time. This is currently impacting both 360 and BC versions of the games. PS3 is not affected at this time.
Reports:
https://twitter.com/ModernW...
https://twitter.com/charlie...
https://twitter.com/CODMW2I...
https://twitter.com/matchbo...
https://twitter.com/PleaseF...
https://www.reddit.com/r/Ca...
Multiple users coming forward saying the games are finally working again after years of server issues. Note that not all issues such as player counts are totally fixed at this time however matchmaking is fully working again. With legacy Call of Duty games releasing on Game Pass within the next 2 years, it does make sense for these servers to eventually be corrected. Good to see the preservation of these legendary games. Hopefully PS3 receives the same treatment for these legacy titles!
“Activision Unexpectedly Fixes Old Call of Duty Servers, Just One Day After FTC Verdict”
Imagine that.
Conspiracy theory: MS have been planning on purchasing ABK for a long time. They let Sony outbid them for having console-exclusive CoD stuff/being first for certain dlc so the PlayStation player base would increase.
Years later, MS buy ABK, with plans to make CoD either exclusive/platform exclusive features etc with the release of a new console (Xbox Series X2?) So the established CoD player base migrates over to their platform, taking a huge percentage off Sony?
Wild theory
Game Rant Writes "Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 has been available for 10 years, and in that time, no other entry has topped its weapon balance and variety."
Although Black Ops 2 is one of the more loved entries in the series, there seemed to be an overall lack of recoil when I played back in the day, which made the guns feel toy-like. The overall art style didnt really sit well with me at the time either. A bit too cartoony. I think zombies could have been cool, but on the PS3, playing splitscreen made the frame rate drop to unplayable levels.
Oh brother.. Greedy people trying to gets chunk of the money... I guess I'll sue Ubisoft for having a character of me rendered from my Facebook profile into the game on Watch_Dogs.
The irony of Noriega complaining about unlawful behaviour.
Do historic figures fall into the same category when used for historic reasons as using the likeness of a celebrity?
good luck with that.
This is highly unlikely to go anywhere. There are laws against exploiting someones name or likeness without permission, but this situation likely doesnt fit the bill. Its also unlikely Noriega would meet his burden of proof for the required elements of an exploitation of name or likeness action.
There are first amendment protections for creative works. In other words, the First Amendment ordinarily protects you if you use someone's name or likeness to create something new that is recognizably your own, rather than something that just evokes and blatantly exploits the person's identity.
But hey, good luck with the law suit. Might as well give it a shot before the statute of limitations is up, right?
As dumb as it sounds, I actually agree with old Manuel here. I guess they figured it does fall under the public/political figure for purposes of parody or satire? I don't see any parody or satire going on in these games, so that would be a pretty thin argument, I think. All I see are false representations of him, or at least his likeness, doing things he never did and it amounts to little more than defamation. Noriega doesn't need any help with defaming his character. Developers have done the same for other public political figures, too, like Abe Lincoln, Napoleon, etc., in other games such as Civilization and many others. Didn't the old NBA Jamz games have some presidents in there too? At least NBA Jamz has a legitimate parody claim.