Abstract:
The White House recently launched an official game page called "Arcade.gov", launching five pixel-style retro arcade games. These games deeply integrate the core political ideas of the Donald Trump administration into the game mechanics, covering policy issues such as border control, child savings plan and Make America Healthy Again (MAHA). However, while the new platform aroused heated discussions on major social media, it was also quickly involved in potential copyright and intellectual property disputes because of its obvious imitation of several classic video games and well-known console brand logos.
In this series of web games, many works have a distinct and controversial political propaganda color. For example, a game called "Build the Wall" directly borrows the block stacking and elimination mechanism of the classic puzzle game "Tetris", and its core goal is set to "protect the border from invasion"; another game called "Rio Run" fully replicates the gameplay of "Snake" from the Nokia era. The player controls a pixel character similar to Trump's appearance, collecting and arresting groups of immigrants trying to cross the border along the way. In addition, there is "Flappy Bill", which imitates the popular mobile game "Flappy Bird", in which players need to control a bald eagle to cross various obstacles above Washington; "Trump Savings Tycoon", which aims to promote his family savings initiative; and a simulation sorting mini-game that advocates cleaning up school lunches and echoes health reform.
Not only is the core gameplay of the game exactly the same as popular works well known to the public, but the promotional trailer released by the White House on social media platforms also heavily spoofs the startup animations and brand logos of well-known game manufacturers. The promotional video not only appears to imitate the startup screens of Microsoft Xbox, Sony PlayStation and Nintendo, but also directly adapts SEGA's classic blue sound effect title into a specialized "MAGA" logo.
This high-profile borrowing of commercial pop culture symbols quickly triggered discussions among legal experts and industry observers about the possibility of infringement lawsuits facing the White House. For a long time, Trump and his team have repeatedly received infringement accusations and legal warnings from well-known musicians and record companies for the unauthorized use of music and artistic works in rallies or promotional materials. Regarding the infringement risk of this arcade game, legal analysts pointed out that although the game mechanics and concepts themselves are usually difficult to obtain exclusive protection under copyright law, and the webpage involved is currently a non-profit government platform, and may try to invoke the "Fair Use" principle to defend, the White House's high overlap in art assets, trademark styles, and spoofs of well-known manufacturer logos still poses a potential legal risk of violating copyright law or trademark infringement-related provisions, and the final interpretation will still depend on the ruling of the judicial authorities.
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