this post was submitted on 26 Apr 2025
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24
How come id Software / Bethesda have never sued Bungie / Microsoft over the similarity between Doomguy and Master Chief? (lemmy.today)
submitted 18 hours ago by MacNCheezus@lemmy.today to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
24 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

They look so damn similar, from the style and color of their armor down to their behavioral traits. Seems like Bungie simply saw the success that Doom had over their Marathon series and thought to themselves "you know what our next game needs? A massively overpowered super soldier in green high tech armor who spouts sarcastic one liners in the face of an overwhelming alien invasion" and went to town with that concept. And it worked like a charm, they cranked out six massively successful games before id/Bethesda decided it was time to reboot the Doom franchise 2016.

Perhaps it was payback for them to give Doomguy the Crucible in the reboot games (which looks a lot like the energy sword from Halo), but I can't help but think these two are essentially the same character.

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[–] daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 5 hours ago

Why would they? Getting inspiration or doing something similar to something that already exist is not illegal. And it shouldn't be. All art is derivative, and that's ok.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 71 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (3 children)

  1. They're both "generic future soldier guy."

  2. They're still distinct enough that no one would confuse them.

  3. The current version of the Doomslayer came after Halo and does more ripping off Halo than Halo ever ripped of Doom.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 14 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

They’re still distinct enough that no one would confuse them.

I've only played the original doom, from the early 90s. In that gsme your only view of your character is a little head in the hud. This head does not have armor on. You only see a human face. The promo/box shows the armor, so I'm not saying he isn't wearing it. I'm just saying you don't see yourself in game wearing it.

I've never played halo.

All that being said, the photo in this post shows both master chief and doom guy. I have no idea which is which. 50/50 chance I get it right.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 8 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

I've only played the original doom, from the early 90s. In that gsme your only view of your character is a little head in the hud

You never played multiplayer? You never saw the dead Marines in the first level? You didn't see the box art for the game and the intro menu?

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 4 points 14 hours ago

Never played multiplayer. I don't remember any dead marines in the first level, but it HAS been 30+ years. So, maybe my memory is lacking.

And I SAID that he's wearing armor on the promo/box art. I already.

The menu I remember was seeing first person perspective running through a level, while a bunch of menu choices fell from the top of the screen until you chose one.

[–] gibmiser@lemmy.world 11 points 18 hours ago

Yeah I was going to point out #3.

I bet that halo took the original space marine doomguy armor and modernized it, then doom later realized but didn't have a way out since halo had become so successful.

[–] MacNCheezus@lemmy.today 1 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (1 children)

It wasn't necessary for both to be green. Master Chief could've had a blue (or a red, or black, or silver) armor and he'd still be the same.

[–] CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world 14 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

Green is the universal color of soldiers. The regular soldiers in Halo were wearing green. Master Chief's armor was green because he was a soldier. It made perfect sense to me.

[–] StrawberryPigtails@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 16 hours ago

If I remember the Halo books correctly (it’s been a while) the Spartan armor started out a golden color but dulled to green hue due to hits from Covenant energy weapons over time. Not particularly relevant to this discussion but I thought it was an interesting bit of lore.

I need to go back and reread them. Great series and well written for the most part.

[–] MacNCheezus@lemmy.today 3 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (2 children)

The protagonist in Halo: Reach wears gray armor with blue accents and he looks just as badass as Master Chief, if not moreso.

[–] BussyCat@lemmy.world 3 points 14 hours ago

Halo reach came out way later, and doesn’t look half as good as master chief but that’s not due to the coloring and instead the worse looking armour

[–] CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world 6 points 17 hours ago

Sure, but they had to start somewhere. Reach is the 6th Halo game.

[–] Smoolak@lemmy.world 7 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

One argument that hasn't been discussed here is the fact that Bethesda has been owned by Microsoft since 2021. It's likely that Microsoft had been planning to acquire the company for several years prior to the official purchase too.

[–] MacNCheezus@lemmy.today 1 points 13 hours ago

Possible, but in that case it might have actually helped them to first tie them up in a difficult and potentially expensive lawsuit in order to lower the purchase price. Sounds like something Microsoft would do...

[–] AlexisBlackbird@lemmy.ca 11 points 18 hours ago

I reckon it's way too generic to sue over

[–] fubo@lemmy.world 7 points 17 hours ago

Marathon's Security Officer already had the green armor and shiny mask.

[–] StrawberryPigtails@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 17 hours ago (3 children)

Originally doom guy was just a face at the bottom of the HUD that grunted and got bloody as you took hits. The only images of him I remember was just a marine in green combat armor, not too dissimilar to modern real world combat armor, standing on a pile of dead demons and zombies(1993) and the 3rd person cinematics from Doom 3 (early 2000s ish?) where again he looked just like a normal human marine.

Halo come around in the mid 2000’s and Master Chief was never shown outside his armor or with his helmet off. Outside the TV show I’m not sure if that is still the case.

Not sure when the modern images of doom guy came about but I think it was around 2015. Probably not earlier.

[–] n3m37h@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 hours ago

Halo 1 was released in 2001, doom 3 was 2004 current doom was 2015.

[–] fartsparkles@lemmy.world 18 points 17 hours ago

For those of us who played Doom multiplayer over a network back in the 90s (the OG “Deathmatch”), you were very familiar with Doomguy(s): Image

Not to mention the iconic box art: Image

[–] MacNCheezus@lemmy.today 3 points 13 hours ago

That's a good point. I mean Doomguy WAS very clearly visible on the box art wearing a green outfit and a gray helmet, but the outfit appears to be made of cloth rather than steel, and he looks more like a football player than anything.

His modern appearance in full power armor was indeed only introduced with the 2016 reboot.

[–] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 3 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

Games workshop would then have to use both of them. Space marines pre-date both of them.

[–] GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip 5 points 15 hours ago

I mean, can you really put a patent on the idea of an astronaut suit for space soldiers? That seems way too generic.

[–] MacNCheezus@lemmy.today 1 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

But they generally have blue and gold armor, no?

[–] Kirca@lemmy.world 3 points 12 hours ago

The "poster boys" are the Ultramarines, who rock the blue and gold, but there are a tonne of different chapters with individual colour schemes.

In saying that I don't there are really any super popular ones rocking green at the time (probably were, but I don't recall any)