Grimgravesite13 wrote on 06/19/20 at 23:14:52:
I herd about the bad blood but to just give 989 credit for a project they had nothing to do with seems criminal my question why no law suit by Singletrac? The next question is why after that slap in the face did Jaffe still work with Sony but I supose the check was nice...
I will try to settle this confusion.
Dave Jaffe and his first partner Mike Giam were originally part of Sony Imagesoft (where they worked on Mickey Mania), and in 1995 prior to the western release of Playstation Sony Imagesoft was merged with Sony Computer Entertainment of America (SCEA) and was renamed Sony Interactive Studios America (SISA).
SISA worked with Singletrac in designing Twisted Metal 2 but in 1998 SISA was renamed, and became 989 Studios, thus why on the greatest hits version of TM2 989 Studios is credited, even though it's a big lie.
Singletrac couldn't sue because Twisted Metal is a property of Sony. They own it. The concept was created by Sony's guys. Singletrac only owned the gameplay engine which they took with them to work on Critical Depth and Rogue Trip, games that were spinoffs of Twisted Metal, but they lost their marketing advantage by not having Sony Computer Entertainment/SCE (who later became Sony Interactive Entertainment) as a publisher unfortunately.
Luckily for me I don't have the Greatest Hits version of TM2, I have the original without the 989 logo, but it's a case of false branding, for sure, but there was nothing legally wrong with what they did.
The original version doesn't give Singletrac any credit on the front or back cover either, outside of a small text mention, so really both versions (original & GH version) are in the wrong from a moral (but not legal) standpoint.