Just for giggles: Lich King vs Witch-King box art

by Alexander Sliwinski on Nov 3rd 2008 4:30PM

Far removed from the totally serious THQ v. Activision Baja box art lawsuit, a WoW Insider reader tipped the site off to the box art and subtitle similarities between Blizzard's incoming mega-hit, Wrath of the Lich King, and EA's 2006 title, The Rise of the Witch-King. As for the inevitable "who copied whom," it's debatable until the ghouls come home.

Box art posing aside, the Overlord also wears a similar outfit as the Lich and Witch monarchs, with matching spiky sword guard. Of course, if the first Overlord had a subtitle, it would have been Attack of Glitch King ... or, if you liked the game, Niche King. As for the witchy-lichy trade dress (box art) creating a lawsuit between EA and Activision Blizzard, we're fairly certain the scourge of time has taken its toll on Witch-King's presence on retail shelves and any lawsuit relevance, but lawyers do get bored sometimes.

Source

Tags: activision-blizzard, blizzard, ea, Electronic-Arts, PC, rise-of-the-witch-king, world-of-warcraft, wrath-of-the-lich-king

Reader Comments (45)

Now if we could only fit in a blue truck jumping in the background.

I'm really liking these box art comparisons

Seriously. Its funny to me how horribly original they are.. I mean how many artist do you have working on your team, and you just let some Marketing a-hole screw your cover up like that.

Burnout Paradise had the best box art in recent memory.

original should be unoriginal. Damn spell check.

yea, Burnout Paradise is a good example of nice box art.

I've never played the game but I think that Shaun White's Snowboarding bas good art to.

I also like the look of Fallout 3's art. Probably because the contrast is really high, and the colors seem really saturates and rich.

Army of Two was also pretty cool.

I know this is not really a fair comparison but:

http://www.gamestop.com/common/images/lbox/270274b.jpg
v.
http://www.gamestop.com/common/images/lbox/270115b.jpg

mmm, typos

You guys know Joystiq (ps3 fanboy)did an article about how Burnout's box looked like a rip off of someone's cd right?

Here it is: http://www.joystiq.com/2008/01/14/burnout-paradise-art-style-inspired-by-rock-album/

The big R down there posted it

|
|
|
|
V

"but lawyers do get bored sometimes" Case in point: Jack Thompson.

Ah yes, but now he's not-a-lawyer who's bored and looking for something to do.

Last I heard, JT is pwnin noobs on CoD4.

last i heard, JT got pwned by florida of all places

i'm still wondering who's gonna get make bank for being the first to make an awful 80s/90s movie poster featuring the main character looking over his/her sunglasses and suing the pants off of the infringers

disregard 'get' plz

Its really gonna get confusing when Sir Elton John releases his new interactive album, 'The Bitch King is back'.

Then there's that movie about the epileptic dictator, "Reign of the Twitch King."

Then there's that horrible shovelware title "Gulch of the Ditch King".

How about a sub-aquatic adventure starring Lindsay Lohan - Bath of the Rich Thing

I've heard of that one, watch out for the fire coral!

Fire Coral: Fire corals are colonial marine organisms that look rather like real coral. However they are technically not corals; they are actually more closely related to jellyfish and other stinging anemones.

When I read "colonial marines" I immediately thought of Aliens

There's a book I read as a young lad, a cautionary tale about crabs, "Bath for the Itch Queen."

Dude, I make this joke over a year ago. I'm not going to call you a thief but I would greatly appreciate it if you, say, include it in an article? http://www.vgboxart.com/view/10023/world.of.warcraft.wrath.of.the.lich.king/?replies=15

In all fairness your original 'comparison' is complete shit.Maybe Joystiq should make a brand new article entitled 'worst mock-ups ever' just for you(They're nice that way :))

Hmmm... Blizzard ripping people off? k, with lich king/witch king? Never Played WC3 Frozen Throne did you.

@gary. Never read Lord of the Rings did you.

almost all fantasy novels/games/movies/etc take heavily from LotR and D&D.

Oh, I read LOTR way before Warcraft, and not to say that a lot of fantasy worlds don't borrow/steal/homage others. But regarding the point here, box art, and I've seen plenty of Lich King drawings from way back when, which is why I think this is comical. hah.

Warcraft's basic concept is actually stolen from Warhammer, not LOTRO

I lol'd so hard at the ownage there. Clearly Tolkien ripped blizzard's character off with his design and desciption of the witch king. You say that the witch king in PJ's movie was ripped off frozen throne. Why would he do that? He has tolkien's own descriptions of the character from which to draw reference. Somehow i doubt peter jackson played frozen throne and went 'zomg lich king is teh win, ai muzt putt that in mai muvie'. what I find more likely, is that you thought you had a point, and then tried to protect it when the enormous flaw in it was pointed out. Badly.

Um, isn't Blizzard ripping off Witch King, since Sauron was created about 80 years ago??

Are you an absolute moron, KingTorres? I'm betting you are. It's meant to look bad. It's a joke that Blizzard just grabbed the official LOTR:BFME ROTWK box and did a quick paint edit.

I was reffering more to the overuse of cliches i.e. satirical review quotes etc., It's quite clear what you're trying to do, but you fail because it's just not funny, and i think you kind of prove that yourself with a quick look at the comments section next to your page :) I'm not one for personal attacks and i admit in hindsight i was a bit harsh, but clearly Joystiq didnt steal this from your site.

Ruh oh http://www.joystiq.com/2008/01/14/burnout-paradise-art-style-inspired-by-rock-album/

Thats a pretty slim comparison. I still think its damn purty.

you could say the witch king stole it from WoW, since the Lich King first appeared in WC3 The Frozen Throne which was in July 03, vs the Witch King in Return of The King in December

and 80 years earlier as well...

I don't think Return of the King was a picture book

Why wasn't the title "Which king is witch king?"

Then there is that new Ubisoft DS sewing game: "The Rap of the Stitch King."

Does the Doctor travel in either of these?

...

...you know. "Blue Box" and all that.

...Yeah. It sure seems like a Friday.

People are overreacting. Are there similarities? Yes.

Remove Arthas and the Witch king, and you have nothing.

And if I remember correctly, WC3 is a rip off of everything. From Lord of the Rings to some WarHammer. Using a lich/witch sorta revenant wrath thing is free domain. It's like how everyone can use orcs.

LOTR FTW!!!

We ALL know Blizzard has NEVER ripped off anything ever!

And then there is Mongol the movie vs Prince of Persia:

http://image.mcomet.com/iw/2008/0416044/2007_11_27_02_02_35_53312_0_0.jpg

http://www.zwtm.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/prince-of-persia-warrior-within.jpg

hehehe.

"Mongol."

See.. If Blizzard was making the copied claim...
Then just hold a copy of Warhammer Online infront of them, and tell them to cram it.

Sorry, you must be logged in to leave a comment.

Breaking News

The most popular posts
in the last 7 days

Vita 'UMD Passport' won't be offered in US 218 comments
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning review: A tempting fate 152 comments
David Jaffe leaves Eat Sleep Play, layoffs hit developer [Update] 107 comments
Don't call it a remake: Final Fantasy X is a 'remaster,' to be clear 95 comments
Battleship movie adapted into FPS by Double Helix 93 comments

Just for giggles: Lich King vs Witch-King box art

Reader Comments (45)

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 4:34PM Dirty said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 4:34PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 4:44PM Dirty said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 4:44PM Dirty said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 4:54PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 4:56PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 6:25PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 6:27PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 4:35PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 4:42PM Courtney said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 4:44PM The Last Metroid said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 7:17PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 4:37PM idiot said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 4:38PM idiot said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 4:43PM Shagittarius said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 5:02PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 5:30PM Zertoss said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 6:03PM Haggard said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 6:16PM Shagittarius said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 6:20PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 6:25PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 5:01PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 5:05PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 5:07PM Bock said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 5:13PM Mitsuo said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 5:32PM Bock said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 6:06PM Haggard said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 6:12PM danijami23 said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 5:13PM 343 Guilty Fart said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 5:19PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 6:14PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 5:40PM Ryudo said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 8:02PM Dirty said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 5:46PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 6:20PM mrmobius said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 8:15PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 6:00PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 6:18PM Misframed said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 6:32PM Centaur said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 8:39PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 6:50PM Crockett said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 9:24PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 10:28PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 3rd 2008 11:08PM zuburi said

Posted: Nov 6th 2008 12:07AM (Unverified) said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

Kotick: New Call of Duty planned for 2012, Diablo 3 still launching this year

Featured Stories

Rhythm Heaven Fever review: Crazy into you

Remedy not done with Alan Wake

The Joystiq Show - DICE 2012: David Jaffe and Kevin Dent

The most popular postsin the last 7 days

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW

The most popular posts
in the last 7 days