Ubisoft denies a Monster Energy dispute influenced Immortals’ name change

Ubisoft had denied its decision to rename Gods & Monsters was influenced by a trademark opposition from Monster Energy.

Action-adventure game Gods & Monster was first announced in June 2019 and re-revealed last month under the new name Immortals Fenyx Rising, in a decision it claimed was “entirely because of the vision of the game”.

However, it later emerged that drinks firm Monster Energy filed an opposition to the Gods & Monsters trademark in April of this year – two months before Ubisoft first confirmed it had decided to rename the title.

Monster claimed in its opposition documents that the Gods & Monsters game would damage its business and highlighted its involvement in the games industry, including its sponsorship of esports teams and events, as well as its own games site monsterenergygaming.com.

On Thursday an Ubisoft spokesperson denied the name change was influenced by the dispute and reiterated the claim that it was due to the vision of its developers.

Gods & Monsters had its name changed to Immortal Fenyx Rising.

“The name change for Immortals Fenyx Rising reflects a creative decision and is not a result of legal matters,” the spokesperson told VGC. “As stated in the past, the extra development time allowed us to push our initial vision even further and explore new avenues for the game.

“As this vision was coming to life and developing a more mature tone, we felt the game needed a new name to better reflect those changes.”

According to Hoeg Law’s Richard Hoeg, Ubisoft likely would have defeated Monster Energy’s opposition to the Gods & Monsters name, should it have chosen to. However, it would have sacrificed a significant amount of time and money fighting the claim.

In an Immortals Fenyx Rising interview held and published last week, the game’s associate game director Julien Galloudec denied its name change was influenced by external factors.