DMCA action used by Ammobox to reclaim own game

Underhanded actions of publisher prompted legal action

Sometimes, indie developers need a bit of help getting their games “out there”. Maybe they don’t have the marketing skills necessary or maybe they are just too busy creating an awesome game that they don’t have time to do themselves. That’s where publishers come into it. Developers basically hand part of their game over to them and they get it from the studio to the people. It should be a mutually worthwhile deal and experience. Well, you would think that but sadly it doesn’t always happen that way as indie developers Ammobox Studios have found out.

Currently in Early Access is Ammobox’s FPS strategy game Eximius: Seize the Frontline. It was released back in September 2018. On January 10th 2019, the developers issued a statement on the games Steam page announcing that a DMCA notice had been issued against the publisher of their game. The publisher being TheGameWall Studios. According to the statement, the publisher had “…went off grid…” and were withholding funds generated by game sales. As a result, the contract between Ammobox and TheGameWall Studios had been terminated.

Annoyingly for the developers, the publisher still owned and operated the Eximius Steam store page, held the application rights and had access to the community hub. It would have been impossible to get the Steam right back in their name without taking some kind of action. So a DMCA notice was issued. The game had been in development for eight years and now Ammobox hadn’t made a penny from it. Thankfully Valve cooperated and appropriate action was taken to put the game back in the developer’s hands on Steam and TheGameWall Studios has been removed as it’s publisher. Sadly, other storefronts selling the game have yet to do this.

Since making the announcement surrounding this case, Ammobox Studios has received lots of support from the community on r/gamedev Reddit and across social media. It has, however, brought to light another incident surrounding a different indie developer and the publisher TheGameWall Studios. Reddit user e-vinyl has come forward and said that a similar incident occurred between their studio, Titan Forged Games, and TheGameWall Studios back in 2014. Thankfully they managed to get their game, an action platformer called Slinki, back from the publisher before it could escalate further.

Hopefully, the end is in sight for Ammobox Studios and they can start making money from this game going forward. Make sure you check back with us for any more developments surrounding the case.