Myth of Empires Devs Want Their Game Back on Steam
Myth of Empires was removed from Steam earlier this month due to a joint DMCA takedown request from Snail Games and Studio Wildcard. According to their allegations, the game’s devs built it using a source code based on the source their own game, Ark: Survival Evolved.
They claimed that a former Snail Games employee stole the source for Ark shortly before leaving to found his own game developing studio. The whole situation ended up in court.
Myth of Empires developers Angela Game filed a complaint against the two companies. They denied having done anything wrong. They also requested an injunction against the DMCA takedown request.
Snail Games may have provided the court with evidence to strengthen their claims against the Myth of Empires devs. However, Angela Game claims that it is incomplete. The evidence was a preliminary analysis that showed both games shared hundreds of variable, function, and class names. According to Angela Game, however, this information is misleading. Should there be any similar names, they “are not copyrightable, and are not subject to copyright control.”
The filing also denies that Myth of Empires’ devs developed the game based on a stolen source code. Angela Game counters that these allegations—including the game’s subsequent removal from Steam—”caused and threatens to cause irreparable harm.”
Despite their claims, Studio Wildcard and Snail Games remain strong in their allegations against the Myth of Empires devs.
“All employees of Wildcard, Snail USA, and Snail Games signed non-disclosure agreements promising to maintain technical secrets, like software, in confidence, and not to provide that material to a third party,” said Snail Games USA CEO Jim Shun Tsai. “The source code was also stored on a server that could be accessed by only those employees who were given login credentials to that server.”
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