The Godfather: The Don's Edition

Publisher files suit after purported rights holder of famed bank robber demands millions for use of name in Godfather games.

Notorious bank robber John Dillinger was gunned down by FBI agents in 1934, but his fame lives on. And that is causing some problems for game publisher Electronic Arts. EA has filed suit in federal court in San Francisco, requesting that a U.S. District Court judge grant them the okay to use the name Dillinger in association with a pair of virtual machine guns depicted in its Godfather games. The Dillinger Tommy Gun appears in the original Godfather game, while the Modern Dillinger is featured in The Godfather II. The publisher has taken the unusual step because the owner of Indiana-based Dillinger LLC, reportedly the grandson of the famous gangster's half-sister, lays claim to all things Dillinger, including his name and likeness.

Kotaku writes: Paramount and the estate of The Godfather author Mario Puzo settled their $1 million dustup over how much was owed to whom over sales and rentals of the 2006 game. The estate of Puzo, who died in 1999, sued Paramount Pictures Corp., which licensed the game to Electronic Arts. The two sides appeared headed for trial until the agreement late Friday. Its terms were not disclosed.

Anthony Puzo, son of Godfather creator Mario Puzo, has taken Paramount to court for allegedly not paying revenues on the Godfather videogame.

Puzo is claiming for $1 million in damages, after he agreed with his father in 1992 to pay up a share of revenues from any sold or rented audio-visual productions containing Godfather elements.

"In material breach of the audio-visual products agreement, Paramount has failed and refused

The funny thing about inventing a genre of videogames is that, until it becomes completely played out, every game that emulates your formula is going to be attached to your name. Games that feature a wide-open, freely explorable world, for example, will have a hard time avoiding the label of "Grand Theft Auto clone," especially if their worlds are littered with vehicles to steal and drive. In the six years since Grand Theft Auto III, a slew of games have tried to become "the next GTA," but so

Gamerzines, the site behind the free magazines for Xbox 360, PC games, PSP and DS, has launched its free PlayStation 3 magazine to co-incide with the UK launch of the console. As with other Gamerzines, the magazine is written by professional games journalists and offered for free in a digital format. All that is required is Adobe Reader 8 on a PC. The magazine is enhanced with videos and multimedia that play on the pages themselves. Issue 1 is available for download immediately and covers every single European launch game, as well as lengthy preview feature highlighting their pick of the top 20 games still to come on the PS3 this year. The magazine is to publish a new issue for free every month from launch, to match the other existing Gamerzines for other platforms.

The Godfather, last year's movie inspired GTA-a-like actioner, is pushing into new territory this March, with The Godfather: The Don's Edition planned for PS3 and The Godfather: Blackhand Edition aimed at Wii, developer Electronic Arts has revealed. The Don's Edition comes to PS3 complete with The Corleone Expansion Pack, adding brand new missions and gameplay to the gangland experience currently doing the rounds on Xbox 360, PC, Xbox and PS2. It'll also include SixAxis support - think