‘Vault Boy,’ the ‘Fallout’ Celebrity, Pops Up in Real Life
For those who
don’t know fallout is an open-world post-apocalyptic role-playing game from Bethesda Game Studios who the creators of Skyrim. The objective of the game
varies in each but the harsh survival in the nuclear wasteland is the same. The
new Fallout 4 game has only been out for a few days and has already beat the
sales record of Fallout 3 and Skyrim, Bethesda’s most popular games. Because of
this crazy hype, the “mascot” of the Fallout series, Vault Boy, is popping up
around in real life. Businesses are using the excitement of the game to their
advantage and plastering his face on what they can. They most probably are
using the vault boy as an attraction to draw in younger customers who are most
likely to play the game.
The problem
with this is that it is happening without the permission of Bethesda, of course
the company isn’t happy about this considering they “prefer to control and
manage the way he gets used”. There are several trademarks and copyrights for “Fallout
celebrity” and because of this, the company’s legal team have been contacting
those that have been using the character illegally. They suspect that the usage
is most probably just innocent ignorance and that those that are using it do
not realize that they are doing anything wrong, since the people usually comply
with the legal team. This
situation obviously has to do with the legal aspect of marketing. Seeing how
the game is growing in popularity, it’s not surprising seeing other businesses
trying to capitalize on it as well. It would draw in more customers, especially
some fans of the game. I’m a big fan of Fallout myself and if I saw the Vault
Boy in a business’ window or on their signs I most probably would go check it
out.
For those who
don’t know fallout is an open-world post-apocalyptic role-playing game from Bethesda Game Studios who the creators of Skyrim. The objective of the game
varies in each but the harsh survival in the nuclear wasteland is the same. The
new Fallout 4 game has only been out for a few days and has already beat the
sales record of Fallout 3 and Skyrim, Bethesda’s most popular games. Because of
this crazy hype, the “mascot” of the Fallout series, Vault Boy, is popping up
around in real life. Businesses are using the excitement of the game to their
advantage and plastering his face on what they can. They most probably are
using the vault boy as an attraction to draw in younger customers who are most
likely to play the game. 
The problem
with this is that it is happening without the permission of Bethesda, of course
the company isn’t happy about this considering they “prefer to control and
manage the way he gets used”. There are several trademarks and copyrights for “Fallout
celebrity” and because of this, the company’s legal team have been contacting
those that have been using the character illegally. They suspect that the usage
is most probably just innocent ignorance and that those that are using it do
not realize that they are doing anything wrong, since the people usually comply
with the legal team. This
situation obviously has to do with the legal aspect of marketing. Seeing how
the game is growing in popularity, it’s not surprising seeing other businesses
trying to capitalize on it as well. It would draw in more customers, especially
some fans of the game. I’m a big fan of Fallout myself and if I saw the Vault
Boy in a business’ window or on their signs I most probably would go check it
out.
Those businesses who are using it without knowing it's illegal could end up in big trouble. Yikes!
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