A few weeks ago, developers Beeswax Games released a “spiritual successor” to 2019 freeware game No Players Online on Steam. If you’ve not played the old freeware project – still available on Itch – it’s one of those haunted software jobbies that accentuate the eerieness of elderly 3D simulation tech, and in this case, abandoned FPS multiplayer maps. I was looking forward to playing the successor. But then, spookily, the Steam page vanished. And now, spookily, it’s back.
According to Beeswax, the game was hit by a Digital Millennium Copyright Act claim filed by a “former friend” who “claimed to be co-author of the game despite not having done anything for it”. Valve then took the game down on 13th November, a week after release. The developers filed a counter-notice, and Valve have now reinstated the Steam release after the complainant neglected to respond to that counter-notice in time.
You can read developer Adam Pype’s full account of events here. It doesn’t name the “former friend”, and I’m not going to speculate about their identity. Pype says the upheaval has cost the project dearly, writing that “we spent 2 and a half years of our lives and a ton of money making this game. we also have a lot of people who believed in us and wanted us to succeed. it’s crazy to me that someone can just take down our game by filling out a simple form, and it’s been tough trying to reconcile with this betrayal from someone i considered a dear friend.”
Pype continues that “this situation has had a significant impact on us, especially given how crucial the first months after release are for small indies like us. we lost out on much needed momentum and revenue right after the release of our game and we’re unsure if we will be able to recover financially from this given our already thin margins.”
I haven’t been keeping up with latest happenings in DMCA-land, but this particular legal institution has attracted much criticism for being easy to abuse. Back in 2017, Alice O (RPS in peace) reported on the yoinking from sale of River City Ransom Underground, commenting that DMCA filings “don’t require that the accuser offer proof that they hold the rights, putting the burden of time and effort (and sometimes money) on the accused”. More recently in 2023, a community guide writer had ace city-builder Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic removed from Steam for a month or so, after developers 3Division added a mode that seemingly took a little inspiration from the writer’s work.
Natalie Clayton had a rare old time with No Players Online back in 2019. “No Players Online sees me, booting up old games, looking for that sweet nostalgia kick, and suggests that maybe I let dead things stay buried,” she wrote. These cautionary sentiments notwithstanding, I’m thankful that the spiritual successor has escaped the grave of DMCAing. It expands on the freeware game’s premise with a faux-90s desktop interface and a bunch of different, presumably cursed games to download from various not-forums.