Video games are big business. It's a multi-billion dollar industry that includes the most profitable entertainment product of all time in Grand Theft Auto 5, and it continues to grow with each and every gaming generation. With Google considering entering the video game console market, there's every chance that things could get even hotter.

With this success, of course, come the complications of big business. There's a lot at stake within gaming, and as such there have been a wide variety of lawsuits and legal disputes over matters such as intellectual property rights and compensation. Over time, some of these have become more important - or gained more controversy - than others.

Related: 15 Video Games That Were Changed Due To Controversy

Because of this, Screen Rant has dug deep to find the most controversial video game lawsuits of all time. The following lawsuits not only caused a stir when first announced, but also in some cases left a long-lasting impression on the video game industry as a whole. Read on to find out more.

10. Manuel Noriega vs. Activision Blizzard

Manuel Noriega in Call of Duty

When Treyarch was developing Call of Duty: Black Ops II, the studio was probably not expecting to be on the receiving end of the ire of a former dictator. Nonetheless, the second game in the Black Ops subseries of Call of Duty caught the attention of Manuel Noriega, the former dictator of Panama. Noriega, who was in prison at the time for the crimes committed during his six year rule of the country, sued publisher Activision Blizzard for the use of his likeness.

Noriega's lawsuit was certainly a bizarre one, particularly when he suggested that the game depicted him as "the culprit of numerous fictional heinous crimes" including murder. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the lawsuit was thrown out in October 2014, meaning that a potential freedom of speech legal minefield over the depiction of historical figures in games was avoided. That said, don't expect to see Noriega returning in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's Blackout Mode.

9. Bethesda vs. Warner Bros. Interactive

Although an extremely recent lawsuit, this one has the potential to be one of the most controversial of all time, in part due to the sheer profile of those involved. Back in the summer of 2015, Bethesda hit gold with its mobile game Fallout Shelter, successfully converting the world of Fallout into a mobile game format. However, when the company saw a similar game based on Westworld from Warner Bros. and developer Behaviour Interactive, who co-developed Fallout Shelter, the company was not pleased, and promptly sued Warner Bros. with a strongly-worded suit.

The lawsuit went beyond just implying that the similarities between the games were too close for comfort, however. Instead, Bethesda suggested that the Westworld game was reusing code from Fallout Shelter, calling the game a "blatant rip-off." Since then, Warner Bros. has hit back with a rebuttal of their own, so expect this one to rumble on for a while yet.

8. Bethesda vs. Mojang

Bethesda is no stranger to a lawsuit, however, as shown by a previous legal battle from the company. In March 2011, Minecraft developer Mojang announced its second game, a collectible card game called Scrolls. However, apparently the name of the game put Bethesda on edge, thanks to their own series The Elder Scrolls, and the company sued Mojang over how close the names of the games were.

This caught the ire of some of the gaming community, with some seeing the lawsuit as an unnecessary flexing of muscles from Bethesda to try and stop an issue that was never there in the first place. However, the two companies did come to an agreement - Mojang did not trademark the name Scrolls, with Bethesda allowing the name to be held as long as the game never became a competitor to The Elder Scrolls in general.

7. Atari vs. Philips

Pac-Man

Pac-Man is undoubtedly one of the most important video games of all time, becoming a standout success in arcades and leading potential gamers into the hobby in droves. Unsurprisingly, this led to a number of imitators, some of which straying very close to the Pac-Man formula. One of these games was KC Munchkin! from Phillips, a game that hit the Odyssey home console in 1981.

At the time, Pac-Man had yet to make its official release on home consoles, but Atari nonetheless had the exclusive rights to the game on home devices. Although Phillips survived the first ruling on the lawsuit, an appeal then saw the court find in Atari's favor. This particular lawsuit set a major precedent for copyright cases within video games as a whole, but in this instance led to the removal of KC Munchkin! from store shelves.

6. Epic Games vs. Silicon Knights

A photo of Baldur holding his sword in the video game Too Human

The legal battle between Epic Games and Too Human developer Silicon Knights was long and complex. Initially, Silicon Knights took Epic to court over the licensing of Unreal Engine 3, with the developer claiming that Epic was in breach of contract by withholding information about the engine itself, leading to the studio needing to build its own engine. However, before too long the tables were turned, and a countersuit led the courts to discover that Silicon Knights' own engine was using thousands of lines of code from the Unreal Engine.

The result for Silicon Knights was catastrophic. Not only did the court find in favor of Epic Games, but it also awarded Epic $9.2 million in damages and ordered Silicon Knights to destroy the unsold copies of any games that used this Unreal Engine code. Following the loss of the court case, Silicon Knights filed for bankruptcy in 2014.

5. PUBG Corp vs. Epic Games

The fight with Silicon Knights was not the only time that Epic Games has been involved in a legal dispute, including a very recent battle regarding two of the biggest games of the moment. The similarities between PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and Fortnite have been well-documented, with even the announcement of Fortnite drawing ire from PUBG's developers. Before too long, things came to a head and PUBG Corp attempted to sue Epic Games.

However, the suit itself did not quite go to plan for PUBG Corp, with the company dropping the suit just a month after it launched it. The exact details of why this has happened are as-yet unknown, but the wider industry has avoided having difficult questions asked about games of a similar genre being subject to copyright claims. After all, although there are similarities between PUBG and Fortnite, there would be every chance that PUBG itself would then be subject of a suit from one who came before in the battle royale subgenre.

4. Digital Homicide vs. Jim Sterling

Digital Homicide Deadly Profits

The issue of Steam content control has been one that has caused debate for a long time, and some critics have been quick to point out a lack of quality control on the digital distribution platform. One of the most high-profile of these critics is Jim Sterling, who took the time to point out the most poor quality games on Steam, including the vast library of games from Digital Homicide.

In spite of Sterling's work coming under the bracket of criticism, Digital Homicide felt that Sterling's reviews were unfair, and eventually the developers launched a suit against Sterling suggesting that his work should be considered libel or slander. Digital Homicide asked for an astronomical $10 million in damages in its frivolous-at-best suit, but thankfully the company's tactic failed, with Sterling coming out on top after Digital Homicide's case was dismissed with prejudice.

3. Universal vs. Nintendo

Donkey Kong

Nintendo may be one of the biggest companies in video games, but there was a time where the company's place in the industry could have been in jeopardy. 1981's Donkey Kong was Nintendo's strongest foot into the arcade market up to that point, introducing gamers to two of the most iconic characters in gaming. Universal, though, felt that Donkey Kong was too similar to its own King Kong, and launched a suit against the company.

Universal's own legal history led to their downfall, however, after Nintendo's lawyer John Kirby pointed out that Universal had argued that King Kong was in public domain for its 1976 remake - a move that led to Kirby's name being honored with a Nintendo hero of his own. The court found in Nintendo's favor, and it appears as though Universal and Nintendo have buried the hatchet, given that the pair are making a Mario movie together and building a Nintendo theme park in Universal Studios.

2. Nintendo vs. Burt

Toad, Luigi, and Mario riding multi-colored Yoshis in New Super Mario Bros

Although Nintendo was on the defensive over Donkey Kong, the company has been very diligent when it comes to its own intellectual property over the years, and has not been shy of taking people to court. One particularly controversial example was when Nintendo issued a suit against James Burt, a 24-year old from Australia who made New Super Mario Bros. Wii available to pirates a week before its Australian launch date.

The case was not a difficult one, as Burt and Nintendo would settle for a whopping $1.5 million. Of course, it's unlikely that Nintendo would be receiving all of that money, but it sent a very strong message that the company would not tolerate piracy of its games lightly. Weirdly enough, though, Nintendo would end up sending Burt a limited edition The Legend of Zelda Ganon statue a few years later, so the pair may have let bygones be bygones.

1. Strickland vs. Sony

Grand Theft Auto 6's map will probably be larger than GTA 5's.

Violence in video games has long been a source of notoriety, and nowhere is this more true than with the Grand Theft Auto games. The Rockstar series has been no stranger to controversy over the years, be it the Hot Coffee squabble or the more significant fight with Lindsey Lohan over the alleged use of her likeness in Grand Theft Auto V. However, the most significant dispute came during the height of the debate over video game violence.

Infamous lawyer Jack Thompson, who became a major player in the violent video games furore of the 1990s and 2000s, took Sony to court over the shooting of police officers Arnold Strickland and James Crump, and dispatcher Leslie Mealer. Thompson stated that the killer, Devin Moore, was recreating scenes from Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and blamed Sony and Rockstar for the murders. The case was thrown out, however, with the game covered under the First Amendment according to Alabama's Supreme Court.

That concludes our rundown of the most controversial video game lawsuits of all time. These legal disputes were not only major talking points, but also helped shape the history of gaming through the legacies left behind. As such, future video game lawsuits may look to these cases for a precedent on what's to come.

More: The Most Controversial Video Games Ever