I saw many games like this one on App store:
I thought Apple was very rigid on the app review, but how come they approve games that are clearly using licensed characters?
This one is #1 in the educational chart.
And it’s not like they are mistakenly approved and short lived, Super Saga has been on the app store for a long time now:
So is apple fine with it?
Who’s to say they didn’t get legal permission then?
I worked for a brand as licensing manager, no brand would grant you the license with:
1-no mention of the brand in the app name
2-no mention of the licensing company anywhere
3-A license to an individual, not even a company?! no way
See the developer of Super Saga:
https://itunes.apple.com/it/app/super-saga/id913960569?mt=8
TE CHUAN LI is not a company name.
It’s not Apples work to do a background check for every possible character, music piece, car etc. when they can appear anywhere in the content like last level. I think it works about the same as in youtube, some license holders monitor for their own stuff and send take down reports and possibly handle the rest with author (like take it to court, demand all the money he got + fee).
Both App Store and Google Play all full of stuff that break the rules.
Apple doesn’t know what is and what isn’t used legally in a game you submit.
Can you imagine how long the submission process would be if they had to verify every brand and character in a game was used legally with written permission?
If a company does use IP illegally it is up to the IP holder to initialise a takedown notice and get Apple to remove the product from the store.
Protecting IP has always been the responsibility of the IP owner. You have to track down each person who infringes it and have it taken down. Some companies are diligent with this. Some are not.
TotalBiscuit did a video about one that was put on steam called “Spartans Vs. Zombies Defense”. Basically a terrible port with in-game purchases that uses actual audio from the movie “300” with Leonidas face on the cover.
so it’s not just the app store… it’s going to become an epidemic! Run!
when i saw that video i just kept thinking “what about Broforce???” its the same thing…
they changed the names Hardly, and the graphics are ‘crappier’ … but its the same
Well I think Broforce is different. Even if they did use retro graphics they did the character looks more own and did not try to copy them too much. Also the names have their own style and not riding with known SEF-names like the video in 1st post or the spartan vs zombies.
Well I just find strange that they are so strict when it come to their app policy, and then let everything in when it’s clearly violating copyrights.
Staying in topic, I wonder if the creators of Crossy Roads asked PewDiePie permission to insert PewDiePie dog as character or simply went through with it.
It’s not really that strange, they can set the rules and inspect what they can and list the rest of not allowed things which include using trademarked, licensed etc. stuff without permission. Enough copyright infringements means account will be closed for good and for individuals that means for life unless they use fake or someone elses id papers.
For using PDP’s dog they would not have needed to ask anything cause it’s not and individual and not an IP property or etc. but I think they probably did a pm to him or something.
http://trademarks.justia.com/857/27/pewdiepie-85727147.html
PewDiePie is a trademark, he’s the #1 youtube channel worldwide, it would be surprising if it wouldn’t be a trademark.
Yep but the dog ain’t and they did not use the full trademarked name 
The thing I find insane is not the app reviewers not blocking all of these apps but all of these developers just grabbing whatever they want, brands, assets etc and using them even basing their whole game around them. Kongregate has its share of this kind of thing too. It is just weird that so many people would do it period. It makes me think a lot of these devs must be kids who just grab whatever they want and use it. Lol
but then theres the other side… where, sometimes i think, for all the computer work people have done… its already done, so why should i have to do it over again? .. i mean like lets say, a 3d model of a german tiger tank… once one person made such, it should be there for Everyone to use, why make people work when the work is already been done? .. youre just being greedy and making people work twice.. really by keeping it to yourself you are being a real scumbag, hindering the advancement of all the peoples works… okay.. well.. the thing that gets to me is they go out of their way to make encryptions and compiles, to make the files secure… thats just weeiirdd … i guess this viewpoint is like communist vs capitalist???.. i mean.. ive always thought i should help my fellow people and not work against them.. i understand protecting against ripoff etc etc.
. but the real truth of the situation is, if it has been created, why make another person HAVE TO create it again?? you take a pain to create something great, why should everyone take a pain, ease peoples pain..
Anything you make has NO VALUE AT ALL unless people get to see it and use it, the real value of Anything is the Number of people that can enjoy it… and not money… money is a corruption in this realm.
with this kind of thought in mind, i heard of china hacking usa alot… and i thought, hmmmm.. i wonder, if they are hacking trade secrets from companies… information that would help humanity, but the greedy idiots are keeping it to themselves.. and so, if china uses that knowledge in a good way, then iam all for it… i mean.. keeping valuable information to oneself, is like the most evil thing a person can do, i think … its comparative to killing people… i mean, if your information would take a lifetime to come up with, then that is a person youve killed by keeping the info.. not to mention pharmaceutical companies and the whole deal there…
i never understood why people can value money so much i guess.. its too evil…
i guess.. money makes sense for goods… but for information, money should be rewarded to the informers, but not pursued by the informers … ?
Ha ha. I think it is just the principle of if YOU spend your time making some awesome work such as your German Tiger Shark model example then it is YOURS. Why should you have to spend all of the time and money acquiring the skills necessary and then the time and money to actually create this model… and then everyone else just be able to take it and use it.
So you are the only one who had to actually invest anything probably in the hope of being unique. And then a hundred other people just take it with no expense of time or money or skill required to produce it. So, multiply that by the assets in a game and then imagine trying to make a living or otherwise run a successful business. It would be like your hands are tied. You have to buy or build everything new that you need and a hundred others just take what you build. So they actually can get to the market faster than you can and yet have no “skin in it” at all.
It is virtually no different than working hard on a job buying a nice tv and a nice car and a nice house and then your neighbors all stop by invite their friends over have parties and such enjoying your house, your tv, your car. It just seems different because the stuff is easily copied but the same thing in the end.
A developer contacted us once and asked us if we could post about their Unity game on our social media channels, the game contained various characters from a very large publisher’s franchises. We had to question if it was legitimate and with further investigation they had a profit share deal with the publisher, there was no publisher branding, just the use of the characters.
Moral of the story, it’s often difficult to know if something is legit.
What’s the name of the game Aurore?
Heres a good side question to this:
If i make a Unity 3d Asset package and used a movie or a game as an example of how it could be used, but not sell the example do i need a license?
Yes, you are using their IP.