MLB is upset with a Texas-based independent video game developer who has "created a modification for the video game 'Fallout 4' that lets players fight mutants in a post-apocalyptic Boston using a character in a Red Sox jersey" bearing DH David Ortiz' name and number, according to Steve Annear of the BOSTON GLOBE. An MLB spokesperson in an email wrote, "The use of these marks is an infringement of our rights. We plan to enforce those rights." Richie Branson, who created the modification to the game, was "surprised to learn of the MLB’s reaction, since modifications are a common practice in the world of gaming." He said, "I’m not trying to sell this counterfeit Red Sox jersey. I’m putting a free Red Sox graphic into a game that already insinuates the Red Sox are in the game, at Fenway Park." Annear notes "Fallout 4," which was released this week by Bethesda Game Studios, "takes players through a futuristic, doomed Boston, where city landmarks are crumbling and decayed, and mutants roam free." Locations such as the State House, Boston Public Library, Boston Common, and Hatch Memorial Shell "are included in the game." When players "enter 'Diamond City,' a rundown Fenway Park that has become a shelter for a town of survivors, they can purchase a plain baseball jersey for their character to wear." Branson had "planned to include other modifications featuring an array of notable Red Sox players’ uniforms." He said that if he "hears from the MLB about the removal of his download, he will 'begrudgingly' comply" (BOSTON GLOBE, 11/13).
