As reported by PC Gamer back in late-June, Rebellion (the developer behind the recently released Sniper Elite III ) has started up a new lawsuit against Sins of a Solar Empire developer Ironclad Games, after Rebellion’s first lawsuit failed more than a year ago.
This new lawsuit, which has targeted Ironclad’s game Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion in both Canada and the UK, has prompted the Sins of a Solar Empire developer to speak up against Rebellion.
In a post that went up on the official Sins of a Solar Empire forums , Ironclad’s director Blair Fraser spoke in great detail about the developer’s victory over Rebellion’s first lawsuit against it, explaining what led Rebellion to the legal actions and everything in between.
Fraser also explained why the studio chose not to discuss about the dismissal of the lawsuit against Ironclad, until Rebellion filed its second lawsuit.
” We don’t like to talk about the business side of things in public. The focus should be on the games themselves, ” Fraser said in his post. ” We never brought up the cease and desist. We never talked about being served. We never commented when the story broke in the news. We never spoke when we won the case. We kept silent for over two years. However, last week we decided to break our silence.
For years now there has been a growing sense in our company that trademark issues in the gaming industry were getting out of hand and that talking about our experience might help, ” he explained. ” Our hope is that other developers will see this and be willing to explore, maintain and defend their freedom of expression without as much worry.
The gaming community is not simply content with buying the next cool widget regardless of who made it or how it was made, ” Fraser continued. ” Negative public response increases the cost of legal action to more than just legal fees – there is a public relations bill to pay on top. When we received confirmation last week that Rebellion Developments was taking this global we decided to direct attention to the facts and publicly available documents. We’ll let the public decide how to interpret them.
I don’t know why Star Wars: Rebellion was renamed to Star Wars: Supremacy in the U.K. but I’ll quit my job before I ever let there be a Sins of a Solar Empire: Supremacy or any other bastardization, ” he added. ” Everything in Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion , including the gameplay, the lore, the cinematic, the logo, the factions, the research subjects, the capital ships, the Titans, and every single asset was designed to fit into the overarching theme of ‘rebellion.’ No other word in the English language comes even close. ”
We’ll bring you more news on this matter should further information reach our ears.
[ PC Gamer ]