Mojang beats big game companies like Nintendo, Obsidian, Valve...

[ARTgames]

Well you cant copyright ideas (aka concept:An abstract idea; a general notion.) so its probably the name or something else.

[Lingus]

Surprisingly, you didn't hear about the DotA incident? Blizzard is suing Valve because of DotA 2... Many Valve fanboys now 'hate' blizzard, while in my eyes blizzard is absolutely right about DotA 'author rights'... Google it if you're interested, it's being debated as we post...

Interesting. No, I hadn't heard of this. Unfortunate too because I like both companies. Although, if you think about it, this is after Blizzard has merged with Activision, which I don't like so much. Not sure if that has anything to do with it.

[ARTgames]

Has there been any other small game companies that have gotten this big that fast? Maybe there have but I cant think of any.

[Cactuscat222]

Uhm, as far as I'm aware, Blizzard isn't suing. I read a couple articles on the issue, and that was back in October. A few google searches and those appear to still be the latest news on the issue.

Blizzard has just stated in an interview they don't approve of Valve trying to copyright the DOTA brand name, but there hasn't been any word of legal action occurring.

More specifically, it seems the copyright went through, as seen on www.dota2.com at the bottom copyright - "? 2010 Valve Corporation, all rights reserved. Valve, the Valve logo, Steam, the Steam logo, Source, the Source logo, Valve Source and Dota are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Valve Corporation."

[Lingus]

Yea... Dota wouldn't even be owned by Blizzard. It's a mod right? And from what I read, the people involved in making that mod were hired by Valve to make Dota2. I don't really see where there would even be a problem...

Confused

[T-Rok]

Yea... Dota wouldn't even be owned by Blizzard. It's a mod right? And from what I read, the people involved in making that mod were hired by Valve to make Dota2. I don't really see where there would even be a problem...

Confused

Because when you create a custom map in WC3 World Editor, part of the ToS is the Blizzard reserves all rights to your map.

[krele]

Yea... Dota wouldn't even be owned by Blizzard. It's a mod right? And from what I read, the people involved in making that mod were hired by Valve to make Dota2. I don't really see where there would even be a problem...

Confused

Keep in mind blizzard could've made a DotA game anytime they wanted. They didn't, due to respect of the modders. DotA is a wc mod, blizzard supported, advertised, and promoted DotA to what it is today, they made dota what it is today (or at very least, are the contributing factor). Only icefrog is working for Valve on Dota2, he's the last successor of DotA, with dota all stars... Icefrog is only one member in a giant chain of developers, and he wasn't making DotA alone by himself... If there's anyone that should get copyright rights on DotA, it is Eul (who made the first DotA map).

DotA was made on blizzard's map maker. If it wasn't for blizzard's awesome map maker functionality, DotA wouldn't be even made. It's running on blizzard's game engine and was developed by WC3 players. It's just that blizzard didn't want to snag money from the developers of DotA by making a game out of it. True, they did get popularity and some income, but it can't compete with money they could've earned if they decided to make a game out of a mod for their previous game. It's not true they didn't see the possibility of making a DotA game, it's stupid to say so. There's no other explanation than what I previously stated, they supported a mod from their game, and wanted it to grow.

The problem here is very obvious...

EDIT:
By the way, it has nothing to do with activision. If valve announced the game before they merged, the outcome would be pretty much the same.

[Lingus]

I didn't realize about the modders. If only one of the modders (and not the one who originally made it) is getting hired, then I see how that's an issue.

[krele]

I didn't realize about the modders. If only one of the modders (and not the one who originally made it) is getting hired, then I see how that's an issue.

Problems would be obvious even if IceFrog was the only modder. It was still developed using Warcraft 3 map editor so it's technically still warcraft 3, not DotA... Which means it still follows the same EULA as whole Warcraft 3. If Valve made a game called Warcraft 4, on copyright grounds it's pretty much the same as what they're doing right now. Blizzard was generous enough to promote DotA, arrange fundings for tournaments, etc... They weren't limited to it, it's their good will. No matter how hard it is to believe, there is no other explanation.

[Cactuscat222]

Blizzard is making their own DotA based map for Starcraft 2 currently, called "Blizzard DotA". I still honestly don't think its that much of an issue anymore between the two companies (the interview I read made it sound like not much of a big issue: http://www.shacknews.com/article/66170/starcraft-2-blizzcon-2010-interview), so now it sounds more of just an moral/legal debate between the community.

[EpicPhailure]

I don't think Blizzard DotA is going to be able to take off. Mostly because of the game context it's in.

[krele]

Blizzard is making their own DotA based map for Starcraft 2 currently, called "Blizzard DotA". I still honestly don't think its that much of an issue anymore between the two companies (the interview I read made it sound like not much of a big issue: http://www.shacknews.com/article/66170/starcraft-2-blizzcon-2010-interview), so now it sounds more of just an moral/legal debate between the community.

I'm still convinced they do this stuff behind the scenes. They know that by making such information public they would harm their publicity. Even though, some parts of information leaked and was blogged immediately. Carefully read what blizzard answers to the question about characters in dota.