SNK Playmore Plans To Punish Sony Over ‘Neo’ Name

While PlayStation fans celebrate the announcement of the PlayStation Neo, SNK Playmore the intellectual property rights owner to the Neo Geo, is saying “no way Sony.”

While they are technically not the same SNK company that created and sold the popular cross home/arcade Neo Geo game system, SNK Playmore does own all intellectual rights to the Neo Geo, including software, hardware, and most importantly in this case, the name.

“The name ‘Neo’ has already been used,” said Takahashi Toyoma, a lawyer representing SNK.  “While we are not worried about a disassociation between Sony’s console and our legacy system, ‘Neo’ is synonymous with the Neo Geo brand.  We insist that Sony immediately stop using it in all reference materials.”

This isn’t the first time SNK has filed lawsuits against other companies over the use of the name ‘Neo’.  In 1999 SNK won an undisclosed amount of money from Warner Bros. over the use of the name ‘Neo’ in the popular movie The Matrix.  Some industry insiders believed that Warner Bros. had to pay SNK in excess of 15 million dollars to license the name ‘Neo’ for the 2nd and 3rd Matrix movies.

The Gaming Free Press will continue to follow this story.