[Updated: 1/14/2020]Oof! Tommy Tallarico may be taking Roblox to court over famous death sound effect

Via Giphy

Editor's note: Tommy Tallarico has clarified via a Twitter reply that he has yet to sue Roblox. The title of this article and some text has been changed to reflect that.


About six months ago Intellivision CEO Tommy Tallarico became aware that a sound from his 2000 game Messiah was being used in the online game Roblox. According to Tommy he made the Roblox Corporation aware of this fact and offered to sell the rights to the sound to them. Surprisingly, the Roblox Corporation turned down the offer. Now, the price Tommy asked for was not revealed to the public but Tommy has gone on record saying he believes it was a fair price.

According to Tommy, he continued to try and convince the Roblox Corporation to purchase the sound in lieu of taking them to court. According to Tommy, the Roblox Corporation expressed their belief that they owed him nothing and continued to refuse buying the sound effect. The Roblox Corporation would Tweet then delete their desire to change the Oof sound effect, causing the Roblox community to respond with fire and fury. Or, as much fire and fury a community of mostly little kids can muster.

Having exhausted all means to convince the Roblox Corporation to buy the sound effect, Tommy has expressed interest in filing a lawsuit against them for copyright infringement. This has further angered the Roblox community and Tommy is currently receiving a lot of hate on Twitter for trying to defend his intellectual property. Despite all the hate being directed at him, Tommy has been able to remain humble and he has gone out of his way to try to explain the situation to those calling for his blood.

With the Roblox Corporation admitting to not creating the sound effect, they say they downloaded it from some website, it seems like a slam dunk case for Mr. Tallarico. However, there are precedents set by the California 9th circuit court that could allow the Roblox Corporation to drag things out. Whether Tommy files and wins his case or the unlikely happens and he loses, the negative attention may affect the launch of the Intellivision Amico. Despite the Amico being aimed toward families, it is unlikely that older non gamers would be aware of it coming out and the kids in the Roblox community could steer their parents away from the console. I reached out to Tommy to see if I could get a bit more info on this case and I would update this story if he responds. In the meantime, how do you feel about this lawsuit? Should Tommy drop the case, regardless if he is right? Leave a comment below and let us know your thoughts and as always be sure to share this on all your social media sites.