Resident Evil 8 Accused Of Stealing Enemy Designs From A Horror Movie
The creative team behind Resident Evil 8 may be in copyright trouble. Here's what's happening.
This article is more than 2 years old
Copying someone’s homework apparently goes beyond just high school because the director of the Frankenstein’s Army horror movie suggested that Capcom copied his monster designs for Resident Evil 8. The Dutch movie director claims that Capcom used his creature designs completely without authorization and without giving the artist any credit.
The story was initially covered by GameRant and reads that the filmmaker Richard Raaphorst posted comparative photos of creature designs used in Frankenstein’s Army movie and those used in recently released Resident Evil 8. Raaphorst compared Resident Evil Village’s Strum monster to a creature from the aforementioned movie in his post on LinkedIn, and we must say–they look quite similar. For those who are yet to complete the game, Strum is a humanoid with a massive propeller engine for the top half of his body, which looks incredibly similar to the monster appearing in the Frankenstein’s Army.
However, completing the new Resident Evil 8 game unlocks the game’s Concept Art files in the bonus section, which allegedly state that the game Strum monster was based on a creature from the Frankenstein’s Army movie, giving it due credit. Unfortunately, the credibility of this information can only be verified by those who have actually completed the newly released Resident Evil Village. In one of his interviews regarding the matter, Raaphorst said that he’d like to receive credit in Resident Evil Village and is currently exploring his legal options against the game’s developer.
And the allegations against Resident Evil 8 didn’t stop with the Strum monster. According to Twitter user CloneKorp, Capcom copied several designs from the Frankenstein’s Army, all of which appear in the later sections of the game, mainly in the Factory area. So Capcom didn’t only copy one of Raaphorst’s monster designs, but four. Or did they?
Well, this is where things get interesting for the copyright case with Resident Evil 8. The monster designs from the Frankenstein’s Army can be credited to the movie’s director, but the man himself doesn’t hold the rights to the film. In fact, the movie is owned by MPI Media Group, which has the right to seek legal actions against Capcom if Capcom committed any copyrights breach. Which only begs the question: did Capcom do that? Unfortunately, at the time of publishing, the developer and publisher of Resident Evil 8 released no official comments or statements regarding the matter.
If Capcom did, in fact, copy someone’s homework, that someone is the movie’s rights owner, the MPI Media Group. Depending on the legalities, any legal actions Robert Raaphorst’s investigating have more to do with the movie’s rights owner than the developer of Resident Evil 8. It’s possible that any similarities between said monsters are purely coincidental. Given the extent of their similarities, however, those possibilities look rather slim. On the other hand, it’s also entirely possible that the director is trying to scratch some of Resident Evil Village’s fame and perhaps some of its fortune.
Just recently, Capcom revealed that the company hit record-high profits for the fourth consecutive year, contributing much of its earnings to their recent releases, like Resident Evil 8. Since their profit went up more than 50%, they’ll be able to pay any legal fines if Robert Raaphorst proves his case. And judging by everything, we’re talking about one big “if.” We’re still waiting for Capcom’s official response to these allegations.
