Capcom wins Dead Rising lawsuit

Most of us remember the rather obvious disclaimers telling us Dead Rising has nothing to with MKR's Dawn of the Dead film.  It was on the box, and I believe it was even at the start of the game.

Anyway, that didn't stop the film production company MKR Group from filing their lawsuit, claiming Capcom stole from their 1978 zombie flick.  In February, MKR notified Capcom, Microsoft, and Best Buy of its intent to sue for Dead Rising's development, marketing, and distribution.

In addition to the lawsuit, MKR had repeatedly hounded Capcom about their alleged copyright infringements, forcing the company to eventually file a motion for relief from the legal harassment.

"The few similarities MKR has alleged are driven by the wholly unprotectable concept of humans battling zombies in a mall during a zombie outbreak," Capcom stated in their motion.

During the hearing, the Dead Rising developer and publisher provided "dozens of zombie movies and games" in order to establish certain conventions of the zombie genre and prove that any similarities between their game and Dawn of the Dead are purely coincidental.

United States Magistrate Judge richard Seeborg eventually ruled in Capcom's favor.  After finding several major differences between the survival-horror game and MKR's movie, he wrote, "The social commentary MKR draws from Dawn of the Dead ... appears totally absent from the combat focus found in Dead Rising."