Rockstar "Spazzed Out Like Little Babies" Says Simpsons Producer

A trio of EA developers have fired back at Rockstar on Geoff Keighley's Game Head program. Executive producer Matt Selman explained the controversy:

"The game begins with Bart wanting to play a game called Grand Theft Scratchy. Of course this is a parody of Grand Theft Auto. And Marge immediately takes it away from him. She tries to clean up the town and stop the game from being distributed in Springfield because Marge is against video game violence. She uses horrific violence to stop video game violence… in a video game. Thats called irony… The people who make Grand Theft Auto, they spazzed out like little babies."

Senior producer Matt Warburton chimed in: "They're supposed to be rockstars… That's not a big Rockstar move, to be afraid of The Simpsons making fun of their game."

[Witty Comment]

I'm not shocked by this.

Usually people who poke a lot of fun at people, and you KNOW no subject is untouchable in a RockStar (especially Grand Theft Auto) game, do not handle being made fun of themselves too well. I could see R* not reacting to "spazzed out like little babies" too well. They should really just have a mission in GTA where you have to find and kill "Gomer Pimpson", a fat balding pimp who works at a nuclear power plant.

[Karebear]

LoL! You've lived up to your name on here. Bubbles :)

[Bathyj]

Wow, I never thought I'd side with EA for anything, especially ove Rockstar, but indeed R* need to grow up a bit here.

For one, its the Simpsons, they parody EVERYTHING cool. They should be honoured, not upset.

Second R* parody everything themselves. Wasn't there a mission where you had to kill a "Poorly animated" driver who would get out of his car and make a run for it. They even ripped off his animation cycle to make it look like Tanner from Driver 2. I thought i was piss funny and a brilliant little in-joke. You know, the kind of thing that makes you feel smart cos you got it and can explain it to your friends.

Any if R* no longer feels parody is OK then they are going to be struggling for characters, dialog, settings and storyline.

And I hope Martin Scorsese sues their arses.

[nix]

Rockstar will probably have mission where the player has to blow up a game company which goes by "GA". q:

[gamesR4fun]

I lol'd you know gta was such a rip now they cant let anyone else make fun of them even if it is their nemesis they shoulda known this would be seen has a biased and stupid move on their part.

[Evil0Angel]

........

[mighty_douche]

rockstar themed episode.

its never a good idea to bash a cartoon company, especially one with huge amounts of viewers. anyone remember issac haze and the whole south park episode (the death of chef)?

[goodganja]

That's promotion for R*. They should be able to benefit off this. But yeah, I'm with everybody else when I expect some EA or Simpson's related mission in GTA IV.

P L A Y B 3 Y O N D

[SmokeyMcBear]

yeah.. bad play rockstar. One thing I did notice, not sure if anyone else saw this, but on comedy central and toon network (adult swim), the simpsons game was being promoted, with a playstation 3 kicker... i was pleasantly surprised

[Lacarious]

"We couldn’t get our game out in time, so we’re afraid that the gamers — who are not morons — are going to get confused by an Itchy and Scratchy poster of Grand Theft Scratchy - they’re going to think that’s the same thing as Grand Theft Auto…"

Too bad that EA had to go back and spend more money on development. That's just oh so to bad. Maybe the second time around they will make it a better game.

This is also a desperate ploy to create publicity for a game that not many gamers will care about or purchase.

The simpsons has ran its course.. they were more populare in 1994.

[Caliber]

After all, EA is a competing distributor to Rockstar, I don't see why R* would help EA make a better game.

"I’ll be the first person in line to play Grand Theft Auto 4… in five years when it comes out."
Well, I'm glad Rockstar delayed the game to make it the best game it can be, unlike EA that pushes out unfinished products every year.

And I'm not siding with R* because I'm a huge fan of them, but because EA is one of the worst game making companies out there, that only live off it's licenses.

[THX7168]

Didn't the Rockstar lawyers have a problem with the name, not the parody itself?

I remember reading somewhere that it had something to do with trademark or copyright. I don't think Rockstar actually had a problem with a parody of their game. It was just probably the lawyers doing what they do.

[Rooftrellen]

I woulf find it hard to believe they could make a big deal about the name.

Scratchy has been a Simpsons character for...ever.

Grand Theft, as in the words proceding auto, is a crime, not something they made.

And because Spike Lee was not able to sue Spike (the TV channel, like in the video) after holding a copyright on the name Spike, as well as the person unsuccessfully sueing Disney for using the word supercalifragilisticexbeaoldoc ious (like I'm going to look up how to really spell it), they couldn't be upset over any single word.

It might be lawyers doing what lawyers do, but it's certainly not making Rockstar look good, no matter what its over.

[Twist96]

Remeber the Simpsons had a GTA paraody in one recent episode, but that one was called 'Death Kill City 2: Death Kill Stories'. No huff raised over that.

[Enigma_2099]

... I don't understand why they reacted that way either. But I'm willing to bet that GTA will be a better game