SAG-AFTRA has entered into an agreement with AI voice firm Ethovox to guarantee protection and equitable payment for performers.
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Legal
Everything you need to know about the legal side of the games industry. High-profile lawsuits and disputes, game-related laws and legislative changes, as well as patent and copyright issues.
The US Copyright Office has declined a DMCA exemption proposal by the Video Game History Foundation aimed at facilitating video game preservation
The US Copyright Office has decided not to grant an exemption in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that would support video game preservation and allow researches to remotely access classic titles.
The U.S. Copyright Office has rejected adding an exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that would allow libraries and archives to provide remote access to out-of-print video games.
Electronic Arts has secured a significant legal victory in Austria regarding the classification of loot boxes. The court ruled that loot boxes do not fall under the definition of gambling.
Sega Corporation has initiated legal action against Japanese developer Bank of Innovation, claiming that the studio has violated several of its patents.
The court case surrounding the infamous scam game Farm Bank and its creator Mehmet Aydin (Aydın in Turkish) has taken a new turn. The rapper-turned-entrepreneur could spend the rest of his life in prison.
The Turkish prosecutor is seeking 88,000 years of imprisonment for Mehmet Aydin, the creator of the online farm game Farm Bank. He is accused of establishing a financial pyramid scheme that affected thousands of gamers.
The Federal Trade Commission has unveiled a new 'click to cancel' regulation. This mandate requires companies offering subscription services to ensure that canceling a membership is just as straightforward as signing up.
The antitrust lawsuit concerning Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard has reached a settlement
Microsoft has resolved a conflict with American gamers. For almost two years, they had been trying to block the $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
Polish publisher PlayWay has shared some of the results its simulation game Crime Scene Cleaner has achieved in its first two months. Here is how it compares to other titles in the company’s portfolio.
Two months ago, President Studio and PlayWay released the crime scene cleaner simulator, Crime Scene Cleaner, on PC. PlayWay's CEO, Krzysztof Kostowski, shared on social media the achievements the game has reached during this period.
At the Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, a representative from Game Science studio revealed the production budget for Black Myth: Wukong. According to him, more than 300 million yuan ($42.4 million) was spent on creating the game.
Roskomnadzor does not plan to block Steam in Russia
· 19 days agoThere are currently no plans to block access to the Steam gaming platform in Russia. This was stated by Roskomnadzor in a comment to TASS
The writer Kelsey Martineau has filed a lawsuit against Bungie Studios, accusing them of plagiarism. He claims that the developers borrowed many plot details from his work for the "Red War" campaign in Destiny 2
Ubisoft has been sued for violating players' privacy
· 20 days agoA group of players from the United States filed a lawsuit against Ubisoft. The company was accused of illegally sharing users' personal data from the Ubisoft Store and Ubisoft+ subscription with third parties.
Matthew Kelsey Martineau, writing under the pseudonym Caspar Cole, has initiated legal proceedings against Bungie, accusing the company of copyright infringement by allegedly using his work to craft the storyline of Destiny 2
A pair of players from the United States have initiated a class action lawsuit against Ubisoft, accusing the company of allegedly distributing the Personally Identifying Information of its online store users to Meta.
Google has been mandated to implement major alterations to its mobile ecosystem within the United States, which includes allowing other app stores access to its Google Play marketplace.
An American court has issued a final decision in the case of Epic Games versus Google. It upheld the verdict delivered in December 2023, recognizing Google as a monopolist in the market for applications on Android devices.
After 11 years of operation, the French Studio Black Flag has ceased to exist. It is primarily known for the unreleased game Orphan Age—a dark life simulator about orphan survival in a cyberpunk world
Polish publisher PlayWay has resolved a conflict with the studio Titan GameZ, which was working on the city builder with real-time strategy elements Viking City Builder, according to the portal Puls Biznesu.
Recently, Epic Games initiated a new lawsuit against Google and Samsung over a feature that doesn't allow mobile devices to install apps from unauthorized sources. According to David Kleidermacher, Vice President of Engineering, Security, and Privacy for Android, this lawsuit has the potential to seriously harm users
Epic Games continues to file antitrust lawsuits. The company has complained to a U.S. court against both Samsung and Google, accusing them of collusion and attempting to protect the Google Play Store from competition.
Epic Games is initiating another legal action against both Google and Samsung, asserting that Samsung's Auto Blocker hinders alternative app stores and conflicts with a jury verdict from last year
Experts from Futura Digital have prepared a column for App2Top about an upcoming legal conflict between Nintendo, its close affiliate The Pokémon Company, and Pocketpair, which released the multiplatform blockbuster Palworld earlier this year
Valve has updated the Steam Subscriber Agreement. They have relaxed the rules for dispute resolution between the store and its users
The Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) has decided to boycott the game League of Legends. They are dissatisfied with the actions of Formosa Interactive, a company that assists Riot Games with the title's voiceover.
The UK's Advertising Standards Authority has prohibited five advertisements for social casino games, citing them as "misleading."
At the inaugural session of Gamescom Latam, Carolina Caravana, who serves as vice president of Brazil's gaming trade organization Abragrames, stated that the history of the country's gaming industry will be divided into two eras: before 2024 and after.
A film production company located in Louisiana, Stellarblade, has initiated legal action against the game developer Shift Up and Sony Interactive Entertainment, accusing them of trademark infringement related to the "Stellar Blade" name.
Shift Up studio has encountered issues due to the name of their game Stellar Blade. The American film company Stellarblade has initiated legal proceedings against them. Sony, the corporation that published the game, has also been sued.
The Russian government will fund game developers
· a month agoRussian President Vladimir Putin has instructed the government to allocate funds from the federal budget to support Russian game developers. This is being done "for the purpose of developing creative industries" in the country.
In late August, Brazil's Supreme Court mandated the prohibition of the social media platform X, formerly recognized as Twitter and owned by Elon Musk, within the nation
The newest episode of The GamesIndustry.biz Microcast is now available for download, providing a brief overview of the most significant news in the video game industry.
Three months ago, a group of Russian lawmakers drafted a bill to ban the sale of smartphones and tablets in Russia unless they have access to the RuStore app store. Their initiative is primarily aimed at Apple devices. According to TASS, this idea was recently approved by the government
The studio Pocketpair, which developed Palworld, announced that it will fight the patent lawsuit filed against it by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company. The studio aims to prove its innocence and, in doing so, protect other indie developers from attempts to prevent them from bringing their ideas to life.
Nintendo has initiated legal action against Pocketpair, the developer behind Palworld, accusing the company of violating "multiple patent rights."
Pocketpair Studio is facing a lawsuit. Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have approached the Tokyo District Court, accusing the developers of Palworld of infringing on their patents
The Pokémon Company has secured a $15 million victory in a copyright and intellectual property theft lawsuit against multiple Chinese firms regarding the game Pocket Monster Reissue
The Australian government has made changes to the game rating system. Starting from September 22, 2024, the country's classification board will begin assigning a rating of "M15+"—recommended for individuals over 15 years old—to games that contain paid loot boxes
IBM emerged victorious in its 2022 patent infringement case against Zynga. A jury in Delaware found that mobile game developer Zynga had violated IBM's patents related to web-based communications through its popular mobile game, Farmville, and several of its spin-off iterations. The lawsuit also involved claims against other Zynga titles for patent infringement, including Crosswords With Friends, CSR Racing 2, Empires and Puzzles, Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells, Hit It Rich!, Wizard of Oz Slots, as well as Farmville 2, Farmville 2: Country Escape, Farmville 2: Tropic Escape, and Farmville 3
Italian authorities have confiscated counterfeit vintage gaming consoles and games valued at €47.5 million. According to BBC News, nearly 12,000 consoles containing over 47 million fake games were seized. Some of the titles included in the haul are Super Mario Bros., Street Fighter, and Star Wars. Alessandro Langella, the head of the economic crime unit for Turin's financial police, stated that the fraudulent retro consoles were sourced from China and were intended for sale in specialized stores or online platforms
Media: Australia may ban children from playing online games
· 2 months agoThe Australian government is drafting a law that would prohibit children under the ages of 14-16 from using social media and "other digital platforms." Several media outlets have suggested that this wording could imply a potential restriction on access to online games as well
CD PROJEKT has been sued over GOG
· 2 months agoThe Polish corporate group CD PROJEKT is facing new issues. They have announced that a class action lawsuit has been filed against their GOG store in the United States. The plaintiffs allege that it discloses user information.
The head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, Anton Alikhanov, told TASS that several companies have already shown the authorities their prototypes of a domestic gaming console. However, he noted that it is too early to discuss state support
SAG-AFTRA has advanced in obtaining improved rights for video game actors through a new collaboration with Lightspeed LA. The developer, owned by Tencent, has agreed to the union's Interim Interactive Media Agreement, which provides protections for actors worried about AI applications affecting their voice work. SAG-AFTRA members are presently on strike, largely due to concerns that studios might have actors record lines, then employ AI to alter or generate additional content instead of rehiring the performers.
Roblox Corporation is attempting to restore Turkish users' access to its platform. The company has filed a lawsuit with the intent to challenge the ban within the country.
Bungie's victory over cheat provider AimJunkies stands firm as two US courts have ruled in favor of the Destiny developer. According to TorrentFreak, US District Judge Thomas Zilly determined that Bungie furnished sufficient proof of AimJunkies' copyright infringement. Therefore, the request for a new trial was denied. The judge noted, "At trial, Bungie needed only to demonstrate that the 'cheat software' distributed by the defendants had replicated protected elements of Destiny 2. Bungie could establish that the defendants copied these protected aspects either through direct or circumstantial evidence. Both forms of evidence were presented during the trial."
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Last War: Survival is a mobile strategy game set in a zombie apocalypse, developed by the Singaporean company First Fun. The game was released in July 2023. According to the analytics firm Sensor Tower, since its release, Last War: Survival has generated over $900 million