While browsing mysoti.com, we came across something that caught our eye. It seems that MySoti user Red Corner is a bit of a BioShock fan. We constantly get questions from our fans about where they could get some BioShock-themed attire, and we’re happy to say that Red Corner has you covered. Take a look at this BioShock Infinite t-shirt titled Infinite Alt by Red Corner.
Though it may not be an official Irrational Games shirt, one thing that is official is that this shirt is awesome.
boltonhawser | September 30, 2011 5:28 pm
Love the shirt,! But I’m really hoping we can see the official Bioshock Infinite T-shirt for sale…
jayakers | September 30, 2011 5:54 pm
Great work and an awesome theme for a shirt!
IG.Seamster | September 30, 2011 6:10 pm
Immediate ‘Add to Cart’
legendlogsdon | September 30, 2011 6:17 pm
very cool design
japester | September 30, 2011 9:56 pm
Irrational Games and Ken have both repeatedly shown their love for unofficial merchandise. I’ve always found that rather interesting. Is that something we could hear more about someday? For example, is it based on a sense of respect for a fellow artist? Or appreciation at seeing IG’s work inspire someone to create something new? Or perhaps because apparel isn’t a revenue stream IG pursues, so it does no harm financially? Perhaps a combination of them all?
🙂
Does tacit approval of bootleg merchandising pose any risk if IG has to defend it’s IP in the future? (I’m not a lawyer, but that’s always the reasoning given when a company goes after fan sites and similar projects, even if they are not monetizing their efforts.)
It’s definitely a way cool shirt. But I’m fascinated by the questions it raises.
knives | September 30, 2011 11:03 pm
Badass design is badass….
juan29zapata | September 30, 2011 11:50 pm
I would totally use that shirt, it looks very simplistic, yet very artistic.
I love it!
undeniably | October 1, 2011 2:31 am
My sense is that Irrational, being largely made up of younger people of the ‘internet generation’, understands that the strategies regarding obsessive protection over ‘intellectual property’ tend to backfire and also stifle creativity. If a fan community wants to spring up and bring the game to life in different ways, what do they get out of stopping them? There is a lot more to be gained from being part of that process, supporting it, seeing it as part of what it means to have a fan community – rather than stifling it, shutting it down, etc.
japester | October 1, 2011 5:00 am
Hmmm. I don’t think the current situation fits the extremes you’ve described, so I’ll just say I respect your opinion and I hope IG chimes in.
As for “what do they get out of stopping them?”, well, let me offer an extreme scenario of my own. How would you feel if there were 7 or 8 BioShock Infinite games on the market? A Wii game? A few Android games? A couple of Iphone games? Maybe something by Zynga? And none were made by Irrational? And they all sucked?
A few unofficial shirts being sold for profit would probably be dismissed as minor by a court, but any company that fails to protect it’s trademarks can lose those trademarks. In this case, that means Irrational (or 2K) no longer own the rights to the name “BioShock”. So anyone can use it. In any way they want. On any game or merchandise they want. Thereby effectively killing the brand. Not all imitation helps grow the fan base.
😉
Again, I’m no lawyer. So I don’t know how this applies (if at all!) to this particular situation. But I wanted to try and explain that it isn’t all about evil, stodgy corporations killing innocent fan enthusiasm. LOL. There is a very real, very logical reason why most companies are leery of this sort of thing. And that makes IG’s stance all the more interesting.
felonious | October 1, 2011 10:44 am
if something potentially damaging to the brand popped up, you can bet lawyers would be all over it. I can see both sides to the argument, what still surprises me a bit is the lack of official apparel/merchandise available to the fans. I’m not asking to flood the market but a little more here and there wouldn’t hurt!
japester | October 1, 2011 12:07 pm
@felonious
Agreed! Luckily, Ken’s tweets have repeatedly mentioned merchandise (especially toys!), so hopefully the drought will be over soon. LOL.
And that might be why they are so supportive of independent efforts like this. I wonder what would happen, though, if someone created a BioShock game? Wasn’t someone working on one? I could see IG being supportive of a tribute effort, like a flash game. But what if that person then put the game up on iTunes and tried to sell it? I assume they’d have to step in? But who knows?
🙂
felonious | October 1, 2011 10:06 pm
They actually have put an unofficial flash game on a previous insider page — https://irrationalgames.ghoststorygames.com/insider/bioshock-the-unofficial-flash-game/
japester | October 1, 2011 10:48 pm
Thanks, felonious! That’s the one I was thinking of. It’s more of a brief mash-up than a full-on game, but I wonder what would have happened if they tried to sell it rather than host it for free?
Do you remember hearing anything about another game being worked on? I vaguely recall talk of an 8-bit tribute game, but I might be confusing it with all the 8-bit art mock ups people have done.
felonious | October 4, 2011 2:33 pm
I don’t remember seeing anything of their being an 8 bit tribute game. Could be happening though, wouldn’t be surprised.
undeniably | October 24, 2011 1:31 pm
I never meant this in regard to big, evil corporations… I meant the concept of intellectual property in general, which is actually a very recent phenomenon. I don’t really think that creativity (and video games being a product of creativity) is something that is meant to be put ‘on the market’, so I’m not really sure how to respond when you say what if there were 7 or 8 different Bioshocks, because it isn’t the brand that makes the game exciting or fun to play (Bioshock 2 is a great example of this) and that opening up the creative process by, say, allowing the free distribution of mods and whatnot, or making the game editor available to everyone, actually has produced things which were more popular than the original game itself… and I think the more that opens up, the more that good stuff happens.
October 1, 2011 7:28 am
[…] of Bioshock, Irrational is hardly afraid of fan art, today the company blog recommended a fanmade t-shirt that’s on […]
See Original Post at http://weeklypop.com/2011/10/big-daddy-and-little-sister-fan-art/
icegrove | October 1, 2011 8:22 am
Nice looking shirt.
losstarot | October 1, 2011 2:34 pm
It captures everything Infinite has shown so far minus the tears, I’d love wearing a blue version of it.
ismell | October 2, 2011 8:04 pm
I wish people who make merchandise would make shit like this instead of regular stuff with their logo on it, cos this is great.
adoboninja | October 2, 2011 8:52 pm
where can i get these shirts i really want one!
knightcarver | October 3, 2011 7:24 am
Japester already spoke about this, but I’m really impressed that IG takes the time to shine a spotlight on excellent unofficial items.
dannysal | October 4, 2011 7:40 am
Wow. Beautiful work MySoti!
mrtiddlywinks | October 18, 2011 10:51 am
This is awsome. I don’t think I would have found it if it weren’t for this article though. Thanks IG!
magicmaker | December 25, 2011 8:18 pm
Nice, always love it when it doesn’t blatantly say the title of the game, just an art piece unless your in the know…..