Final Fantasy XIV accused of ripping off band's song

Final Fantasy XIV has stirred up a bit of a controversy, with some gamers claiming the song played during a boss battle is a ripoff of the Powerman 5000 song "When Worlds Collide." The game's producer says the song is an original "industrial rock" track developed specifically for the game, but any casual listen reveals it has a striking similarity to Powerman 5000's own track.

The song in question is "When Worlds Collide," a track from Powerman 5000's 1999 album "Tonight the Stars Revolt!" You may not remember that album (or Powerman 5000, for that matter), but you'll probably remember the song after a few seconds of listening. Hear it below:

Having flashbacks? Now compare the song to the one that plays in Final Fantasy XIV during the 2nd Phase of Containment Bay S1T7 boss battle:

Though they aren't exactly the same song, the tracks are so similar that someone casually listening could easily mistake one for the other. For a shortcut two when the two tracks are nearly identical, skip to about the 38-seconds mark on the Powerman 5000 track and the 1:04 minute mark on the game video...the game's lyrics even rhyme with the "When Worlds Collide" lyrics.

Game director Naoki Yoshida recently took to the Square Enix forums to discuss the issue, saying in part:

Building upon the motif of Sephirot as a representation of the World Tree, to create this FINAL FANTASY XIV original track, we further incorporated story-driven themes of death and a warped obsession with life, all while utilizing a musical genre — industrial rock — which we believed would provide substantial emphasis to the message.

Industrial rock is a popular genre that can be further divided into numerous sub-genres. Countless songs from these genres have been released worldwide, and I have been made aware of an allegation regarding similarities between an existing track and the track created for the 2nd phase of Containment Bay S1T7. However, track composer Masayoshi Soken, has also stated to me that he was unaware of the track in question while working on this FINAL FANTASY track.

SOURCE: Kotaku