Abyss Odyssey

[Varrok]

"No connection to Abe's Oddysee"...
Sure...

New 'n' Tasty will be released on 17. April 2014!

Who would believe me?
...
Exactly.

When you pronounce "New 'n' Tasty" it sounds a bit different than "Abe's Oddysee", and it's the former which is more used in marketing now. They might even have heard about it but didn't know it's the same thing.

[Jordan]

Hell, just two weeks ago I was talking to someone about classic games and out of the blue he asked me if I had heard of 'Abe's Oddworld'.

It was surprising how often people I knew used to call it 'Abe's Oddworld'. Is it easier to say/remember than 'Abe's Oddysee' or something?

[RoryF]

Probably because they found Oddworld and Abe easier to remember, being that they're the first two words in the title and Abe is the main character in it, as well as Odd and World being used more than Odyssey.

[pupbenny]

The title sounds oddly close, but I think that’s just coincidence. The game itself doesn’t seem anything like AO, stylistically or gameplay-wise.

I thought it looked quite a bit similar.

[Michael]

Saw this on Gameinformer earlier in the week, was toying with whether to make a new thread to discuss it or not, so I'm glad someone did!

I agree with Havoc, a games company should indeed have enough knowledge of their field to be aware of similar names. Hell, anyone creating a brand should do at the very least a quick search online to see if anything similar already exists.

Even if the similarity was not intended (I'm skeptical) it's still trademark infringement. The test for infringement is whether reasonable members of society would become confused between the brands. Even as a longtime Oddworld fan who knows the brand well, I myself (as others here also seem to have) only went to the article thinking it was Abe's Oddysee related. If that's not confusion I don't know what is.

Especially with New n' Tasty coming out so soon, this seems a bit dodgy. If Abyss Odyssey ends up with bad press/reviews etc, it could harm the success of New n' Tasty.

[Crashpunk]

It was surprising how often people I knew used to call it 'Abe's Oddworld'. Is it easier to say/remember than 'Abe's Oddysee' or something?

Almost everyone I know who have heard of Oddworld but aren't into the series call it "Abe"

[AlexFili]

Wierdworld: Abyss Odyssey"
and the follow-up game made in 9 months,
"Wierdworld: Abyss's Exadus"

Dont forget "Unknown's Fury"
or "Ranger's Bath"

lol

Weirdworld sounds too much like Waterworld
Its not as clear cut as say The War Z or the voxel based 'Craft/Mine' clones

[Xavier]

I agree with Havoc, a games company should indeed have enough knowledge of their field to be aware of similar names. Hell, anyone creating a brand should do at the very least a quick search online to see if anything similar already exists.

Even if the similarity was not intended (I'm skeptical) it's still trademark infringement. The test for infringement is whether reasonable members of society would become confused between the brands. Even as a longtime Oddworld fan who knows the brand well, I myself (as others here also seem to have) only went to the article thinking it was Abe's Oddysee related. If that's not confusion I don't know what is.

Especially with New n' Tasty coming out so soon, this seems a bit dodgy. If Abyss Odyssey ends up with bad press/reviews etc, it could harm the success of New n' Tasty.

Basically this ^

Intended resemblance or not I think that seeing everyone is confusing it for Abe's Oddysee they should have the decency to come up with an other name in order to avoid confusion.

[JennyGenesis]

There was once a court case between THQ and Activision with one of them claiming that the other copied their box art, probably didn't help that both games are based on the same sport and were released less than a month apart from each other.



The result of the case was that Activision then changed the box art of their game to this



I find it highly unlikely that J.A.W would take things down that route, but I'm sure that a friendly suggestion to the developers of Abyss Oddysee wouldn't hurt.