Studio 3D Realms, in 2015 a legal dispute with Gearbox Software over the rights to the Duke Nukem franchise has recently found itself embroiled in new litigation. In May of this year, a lawsuit against a company preparing to release Duke Nukem 3D-inspired shooter Ion Maiden, brand owners of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden. The claim looks absurd, but the situation turned out to be serious: the plaintiff is demanding $2 million in compensation for copyright infringement. Developers the other day that made a concession and changed the name of the game to Ion Fury. Also, the studio has published a fresh trailer and clarified the release date of the full version.
Recall that the plaintiff made claims on several points at once. An unacceptable similarity was seen not only in the name, but also in the name of the main character (Shelly Harrison (Shelly Harrison) allegedly reminds of Steve Harris (Steve Harris) - the founder of the group), the logo font and the bomb in the form of a yellow skull, as if copied from Eddie (Eddie ), the mascot of British musicians. In addition, the authors were suspected of copying Legacy of the Beast, a shareware mobile game created with the participation of Iron Maiden. Iron Maiden Holdings Limited demands not only to pay compensation, but also to deprive 3D Realms of the rights to the ionmaiden.com website or transfer them to the group. Most likely, now the company will withdraw the claim.
"After careful consideration of the issue, we have decided to rename our FPS game Ion Maiden to Ion Fury," said 3D Realms CEO Mike Nielsen. β This step was not easy. Getting into a long legal battle would be disrespectful to our loyal fans and incredible developers. Amazing gameplay, interactivity and pure fun is what makes Ion Fury a great game. The name is not so important.
However, the developers announced that Ion Fury will leave early access August 15. Versions for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch will follow later. The standard PC variant is now offered for $20, but on July 18 the price will rise to $25. The official 3D Realms store is already accepting pre-orders for the disc edition for $60, which includes a DRM-free copy of the game on a USB flash drive, a digital soundtrack, an A3 poster, a replica keycard, a set of stickers, and a 60-page booklet with materials about the creation of the game.
Ion Fury is the prequel to Bombshell, a top-down action game from Interceptor Entertainment that was released on PC in 2016. In it, mercenary Shelley Harrison, nicknamed Bombshell, a former bomb disposal specialist, must deal with the insidious doctor Jadus Heskel and his army of cybercultists. Non-linear levels with caches, colored key cards, lack of health regeneration and shelters, and other charms of old-school shooters coexist here with headshots, well-developed physics, seamless transitions between locations, automatic saves, support for widescreen mode and controllers, and other features of modern games. At the same time, all levels are made manually - no procedural generation. Already on the day of release, tools for creating modifications and support for the Steam Workshop will become available.
The project is being developed by the Voidpoint studio. The shooter will be the first original commercial project in nineteen years to use the Build engine (its modified version), which formed the basis of Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior and Blood. The release on Steam Early Access took place on February 28, 2018. At the moment, user reviews in the Valve store are characterized as "extremely positive" (over a thousand reviews in total).
Source: 3dnews.ru