Last night (September 15), the BBC debuted their 90-minute feature Gamechangers to a mixed-response, including the subjects of the feature themselves, video game developers and publisher, Rockstar Games, who dismissed the TV movie as “random, made up bollocks”.
Game Changers features Daniel Radcliffe as Rockstar president Sam Houser as he develops and creates the third instalment (San Andreas) in the Grand Theft Auto franchise over a three year period from 2002. Houser faces conflict at that time from the now-disbarred American attorney Jack Thompson (played by Bill Paxton) who lobbies against the violent video game.
It was only back in May that Rockstar’s parent company, Take-Two, filed an trademark infringement lawsuit against the BBC. Announcing in a statement to IGN: “While holders of the trademarks referenced in the film title and its promotion, Rockstar Games has had no involvement with this project. Our goal is to ensure that our trademarks are not misused in the BBC’s pursuit of an unofficial depiction of purported events related to Rockstar Games. We have attempted multiple times to resolve this matter with the BBC without any meaningful resolution. It is our obligation to protect our intellectual property and unfortunately in this case litigation was necessary”. While the lawsuit is still pending, the film did make it clear that it was not authorised by Rockstar.
@BBC Was Basil Brush busy? What exactly is this random, made up bollocks?
— Rockstar Games (@RockstarGames) September 15, 2015
#Peace.Love.GameChangers
