This situation just shows how vague the DMCA can be. Additionally, it shows how easily it could be exploited, especially by those who feel they have the right to just claim ownership of a game they made little to no contribution to.
Our story starts with a city-building game uploaded on Steam. Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic is a game that focuses on how urban planning worked alongside communist economies. It’s certainly unique and appeals to a certain set of fans.
However, players will now have no access to the game thanks to one rogue fan. According to the game’s developers, Slovakian studio 3Division, this player was “once a respected member of our community,” but has begun taking down trailers of the game, their actual website, as well as the actual Steam page.
The player began connecting with the staff after writing a guide on how to play the game more realistically, and the developers agreed to add him to the game’s credits as they work on a game mode that did just that. However, this person was not satisfied by being added only after the new mode has been released.
The game was taken down on Steam due to a DMCA request. It turns out that this player is “now claiming that they own the rights to the [realistic] game mode”. Yikes. The developers are now working to resolve this issue.
image credit: 3Division