Gods & Monsters Name Was Reportedly Changed Because of Monster Energy Trademark Challenge

Ubisoft's Gods & Monsters is now known as Immortals Fenyx Rising and has a release date thanks to a reveal from the last Ubisoft Forward, but it appears there might be more to the name change than what was initially known. New reports shared this week have suggested that the name change had something to do with a trademark opposition from Monster Energy, the brand known for its energy drinks that interacts in the gaming space often with different promotions and sponsorships. Monster Energy supposedly opposed the name of the game in trademark documents while saying it the name would be too confusing alongside Monster Energy's different properties.

TechRaptor first took notice of the trademark deliberations laid out in the United States Patent and Trademark Office's files pertaining to the Ubisoft trademark and the opposition from Monster Energy. Ubisoft has had a trademark in for Gods & Monsters for a while now, but the documents show it was eventually challenged by Monster Energy.

The opposition by Monster Energy was filed in April according to these documents which predates the first news of the game's name being changed. In that opposition, Monster Energy listed a number of different Monster properties ranging from Java Monster to Monster Army to all sorts of other various on its energy drinks and products to show just how much domain over the "monster" category it had. In part of the documents, Monster Energy stated that it would be damaged if the trademark registration for Gods & Monsters went through.

Ubisoft also responded to the opposition based and denied the claims, though it eventually ended up changing the name of the game anyway.

While the trademark disputes are evident, the Immortals Fenyx Rising team has said recently the name change was a result of wanting to focus the game more on the main character and his story. Scott Phillips, game director on Immortals Fenyx Rising, recently was asked why the name of the game was changed. Phillips said the team wanted to make sure the protagonist, Fenyx, and his story were at the center of the game.

"At the end of 2019, we got the chance to have more time with the game," Phillips told GameSpot. "So all the directors, all the team, we got together, played through the entire game, looked at, 'Okay, what do we want to do narratively? What do we want to do visually, artistically? And what do we want to do gameplay wise?' So as we developed that, as we figured out where we wanted to go, narratively, one of the things we wanted to do was put a bigger emphasis on Fenyx and Fenyx's journey through this adventure, and Fenyx's interaction with the gods, and the gods as sort of this meta context of the unreliable narrators on top of it. And so we really wanted to make that the centerpiece of the game."

Immortals Fenyx Rising releases on December 3rd.