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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 young Russian Case studio decided to develop its own game engine. She plans to make its use free for indie teams, but without access to the source code.
Nintendo has filed a lawsuit against Tropic Haze. She accused the developers of the Yuzu emulator of copyright infringement and complicity in piracy.
Edinburgh-based Rockstar North regularly enjoys the right to tax benefits in the UK. The Scotsman claims that between April 2015 and March 2023, the company requested a tax deduction from the country's authorities in the amount of £360.3 million ($453.7 million).
What were the biggest trends in VC investment deals across the games industry in 2023 and which ones will remain relevant this year? This is an overview by legal experts Anna Solovei and Viktoryia Semianitskaya, representing REVERA law group.
At the end of January, Apple announced a number of innovations in iOS. These include support for third—party stores and payment systems. However, those who want to use the new functionality will have to pay for each installation. We talked about the innovation with experts from Skich and INFUSION GAMES.
During the recent WN Conference in Belgrade, we had a chance to speak with Raphaël Colantonio, creative director of WolfEye Studios and founder of Arkane. Check out our interview with one of the industry’s most prominent creative minds for a quick dive into the immersive sim genre and Raphaël’s approach to game development.
Microsoft has responded to a US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaint about the recent layoffs in its video game division. The company argued that Activision itself had planned to make the cuts long before the acquisition.
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has asked the appeals court to look into the situation with mass layoffs at Microsoft. On January 25, the corporation announced its decision to lay off 1,900 people from Xbox, Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax Media.
Hasbro has decided to sell the IP rights to Dungeons & Dragons due to financial problems, the Chinese edition of Speed Daily reports, citing its sources. One of the potential buyers is Tencent.
New details have emerged in the long-running legal fight between Nexon and Dark and Darker developer Ironmace. It appears that the South Korean publisher’s preliminary injunction against the studio was dismissed.
Ironmace can continue to distribute the PvPvE action game Dark and Darker. Studio managing director Choi Ju-hyun told Discord that the court rejected Nexon's request for an injunction against the game.
Homa wins Voodoo Plagiarism trial
· 2 months agoThe Paris Court of Appeal has cleared the French mobile publisher Homa of all charges brought by Voodoo. The latter claimed that the hyper—casual Craft Island game developed by Ducky Games studio — the "daughter" of Homa - copies its Lumbercraft.
Neither Epic Games nor Apple have been able to challenge the lower court's decision in their multi—year dispute over the App Store monopoly - the U.S. Supreme Court rejected new appeals from both companies without explanation.
SAG-AFTRA has entered into an agreement with AI company Replica Studios to allow game companies to use digital voice replicas of real-life actors. However, the move caused sharp criticism in the professional community.
Next year, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of South Korea will spend 67.9 billion rubles, or about $52.5 million, on subsidies to Korean gaming companies. This is reported by the GameMeca portal.
The morning of December 27th began for Chinese gaming giants Tencent and NetEase with an increase in the value of shares. This is due to the promise of the Chinese authorities to review restrictions affecting the local industry and the issuance of a new batch of licenses for games.
There are more and more initiatives related to video games in Russia every day. We also got to the discussion of in-game content.
The State Duma proposed to regulate in-game advertising
· 3 months agoRussian MPs want to limit the duration and frequency of advertising in video games. The draft amendments to the federal law "On Advertising" have already been submitted to the State Duma for consideration.
On December 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a number of instructions to the government related to video games. They are tightening regulation in the Russian gaming market.
Epic Games has been fighting Google since 2020, and now the jury has reached a verdict in the case. The Fortnite maker has managed to prove a violation of antitrust laws by Google.
Fntastic, a studio behind the controversial shooter The Day Before, has suddenly announced its closure. This comes just days after the launch of the game, which many players labeled a scam.
Another sad news in a series of reports of mass layoffs. The Danish indie team Triple Topping is closing four years after its founding.
Three years later, CD PROJEKT closed the issue of a lawsuit from the company's investors, who were not satisfied with the state of the release version of Cyberpunk 2077. The District Court of California finally approved the settlement agreement between the parties.
The seventh episode of Games and Names, a games industry podcast launched by AppMagic in partnership with WN Media Group, is here. It is dedicated to a really complex yet important topic — the legal side of the games industry and how developers can protect the results of their creative work.
Sony failed to annul a class action lawsuit filed by British gamers in August 2022. The UK Competition Court of Appeal ruled that the company must justify its position at the hearing.
This was told by the head of Epic Games, Tim Sweeney, during a hearing in the case of Epic Games and Google due to the removal of Fortnite from Google Play.
On Thursday, November 9, the Government of the Russian Federation held a meeting with representatives of the Russian gaming industry. According to Kommersant, it discussed a bill on the mandatory transfer of servers of popular games in the country to Russia.
In the USA, a lawsuit was filed against Microsoft, Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, Epic Games and some of their affiliated studios. The companies were accused of making games too exciting and aggressively monetizing them in order to earn as much as possible.
Epic Games Store is still running at a huge loss for the company. New details have emerged as part of its antitrust court battle with Google.
Journalists dev.by We have studied the latest data of the State Tax Inspectorate under the Ministry of Finance of Lithuania. They found that in the first nine months of 2023, Wargaming paid taxes in Lithuania in the amount of €11.8 million.
The Tokyo Tax Bureau found that in 2018-2020, the Luxembourg division of Epic Games did not declare income from microtransactions in Fortnite in Japan. The company was obliged to pay off the tax arrears and pay a fine.
FNTASTIC studio has announced that The Day Before survival will retain its name. She won a lawsuit over the trademark rights of the game with a Korean company that developed a calendar application called TheDayBefore.
A group of Russian senators and deputies proposed to streamline the work of creative industries in the country. The relevant bill was submitted to the State Duma for consideration.
French police have arrested several former Ubisoft executives to question them about workplace harassment allegations. This is part of an investigation that has been running for more than a year.
The police detained several former Ubisoft managers, according to the French trade union Solidaires Informatique. They were interrogated in the case of harassment.
Age ratings for in-game content will appear in Fortnite
· 6 months agoEpic Games continues to develop the Fortnite ecosystem. The company announced that since the game has content for different ages, then everyone should be assigned an appropriate age rating.
Seven BioWare veterans have appealed to a Canadian court. They accused the company of "unreasonably mistreatment" during the dismissal.
A group of Russian deputies appealed to the government with a proposal to create an analogue of The Sims, which will correspond to the values important for Russia. This is reported by "TASS", who got acquainted with the materials of the initiative.
The owners of the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II — The Sith Lords version for Nintendo Switch sued Aspyr Media and Saber Interactive. Gamers are unhappy that companies have changed their minds about releasing DLC with cut content.
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has released a new statement on its probe into Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The $68.7 billion deal is now as close to approval as possible.
Despite the difficulties of recent years, game studios continue to open and operate in Russia. An overview of the current state of regulation, primarily tax, for such companies was prepared by Roman Motorin, a lawyer at Versus.legal.
You will have to fork out a lot for the expansion of the Game Pass library. Microsoft management came to such conclusions, according to a leaked internal correspondence that appeared on the website of the District Court of Northern California.
The new Unity collection is called Runtime Fee. It got its name in honor of the Unity Runtime library set. The company believes that since libraries are installed on users’ devices along with the game, the developer must pay for it. We talked about Unity Runtime with Kirill Shabordin, the founder of Yerevan Cowboys Games, and Alexey Pechenin, the founder of Infinite Art Solutions.
Unity has announced a new pricing policy. Starting next year, if a number of conditions are met, the company will charge for each installation. Important: the installation will also be considered a reinstall (maybe it won’t be considered).
The State Duma proposed to give benefits to esports players
· 6 months agoThe Russian authorities continue to talk about the need to support esports. The State Duma Committee on Physical Culture and Sports proposed to legislate the term “esports athlete”, and then discuss special benefits.
A court in Japan has sentenced 53-year-old Shinobu Yoshida, who posted a video on YouTube with the passage of the visual novel STEINS;GATE: My Darling’s Embrace. He was given two years in prison with a five-year suspended sentence.
Google is ready to sign a settlement agreement with the attorneys general of 37 US states who accused the corporation of abusing power in the Android mobile store market. The legal conflict between them lasts more than two years.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has opened up about the use of AI tools in game development. He also threw shade at Steam, saying that the EGS doesn’t ban titles for “using new technologies.”
Erik Peterson, responsible for business development at Valve, has shared some insights into visibility and discovery mechanisms on Steam. Here is how the company helps devs reach players and connect users to games.
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House Flipper 2, the long-waited sequel for successful sim game from PlayWay, has just launched globally. Let’s take a look at its metrics and compare them to other titles in the Polish publisher’s portfolio.