Remember Powerman 5000? The nu-metal band’s biggest hit was “When Worlds Collide,” which was pretty popular upon it’s release in 1999. Perhaps popular enough to have been ripped off 11 years later for a Final Fantasy game, even. We’re not sure why it took Rob Zombie’s younger brother Spider One (ed note: probably not his real name) over five years to figure out that a boss battle in Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward sounded really familiar, but the other day, he weighed in on the similarities via PM5K’s Facebook page:

Really? Got to say that the level of unimaginative theft that was used in creating this music for ‪#‎finalfantasyXIV‬ is mind blowing! I mean, this is When Worlds Collide! Using something as inspiration is one thing but a straight up rip off is another! Did they really think no one would notice?‪#‎FFXIV‬‪#‎ripoff‬

To clarify, this is music from the game. If it was a song made by a fan, we wouldn’t care.

It was enough for the game’s producer/director Naoki Yshida to weigh in on it in a forum for the game:

Regarding the Music for the 2nd Phase of Containment Bay S1T7

I have read through your comments concerning the BGM for the 2nd phase of the Containment Bay S1T7 battle with Sephirot, and I would like to personally explain how the track was conceived.

As most FINAL FANTASY fans already know, Sephirot (the Fiend) is a legacy boss character who originally appeared in FINAL FANTASY VI. When considering how to portray Sephirot’s return in FINAL FANTASY XIV, we decided to pay tribute to FFVI by working VI’s “Battle to the Death” track into the Containment Bay S1T7’s first phase, while opting to create an FFXIV original for the second.

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.

We hope that you continue to enjoy FINAL FANTASY XIV battle content.

Spider reacted to the reaction stating that he wasn’t going to sue or anything.

“UPDATE on the Final Fantasy music controversy.

Fascinated by the level of interest in this. Opinions range from total agreement to extreme hatred towards the subject (and me apparently)
So crazy.

The original post was a two sentence observation about a piece of music that was way too similar to be coincidence.
Since then it has been taken as some sort of declaration of war. Oh, internet…

Anyway. There’s no lawsuit, there’s no cry for attention or publicity. Just an observation.
Going back to my normal M.O of not participating in social media. Thanx for the fun!
See ya on the road in March/April

We’d say maybe it’s an intellectual property issue, but we don’t want to use the “intellectual” word related to Powerman. Coincidentally (or maybe not) Powerman 5000 announced that they’d be touring with (hed) p.e. Here are those dates:

03/24 Santa Ana, CA – The Underground
03/25 Las Vegas, NV – LVCS
03/26 Farmington, NM – Top Deck
03/29 Oklahoma City, OK – Diamond Ballroom
03/31 Waterloo, IA – Reverb
04/02 Belvidere, IL – The Apollo Theatre
04/03 Danville, IL – Vintage Villains
04/05 Ringle, WI – Q&Z Expo Center
04/06 Chippewa Falls, WI – Every Buddy’s
04/07 South Bend, IN – Cheers
04/08 Grand Rapids, MI – Intersection
04/09 Columbus, OH – Alrosa Villa
04/10 Cleveland, OH – Agora Theater

Here’s the two compositions, so you can A/B them and either live out your glorious late ’90s JNCO phase, your hours glued to a Playstation 3 a few years ago, or both.

[youtube]https://youtu.be/lsV500W4BHU[/youtube]

[youtube]https://youtu.be/xdV_bzJgRxE[/youtube]

[via Kotaku]