While waiting to see more clearly on a case of the theft of source code, Steam preferred to remove the Chinese MMO Myth of Empires, too close to another title.
The studio behind the survival MMO ARK: Survival Evolved has had its competitor Myth of Empires removed. Studio Wildcard indeed believed that the Chinese strategy game was based on own source code, which would have been stolen. Steam therefore respected the DMCA complaint that was recorded by the studio, and removed the product from its database.
Angela Games’ game, which we recently beta tested, is a medieval survival MMO that launched in November. Consulted by PC Gamer, the official complaint would indicate that the Chinese studio behind the game notably recruited a former employee of Snail Games China (the parent company of Studio Wildcard) who had access to the source code of the game.
In addition, the group indicates that they have discovered many classes, variables or similar function names in the game files, and very similar gameplay mechanics. For her part, Angela Games has denied any industrial piracy. After this case which dates from last week, the account of the game has returned to the accusation in recent days:
Our development team solemnly declares: Angela Game fully owns all rights and property associated with Myth of Empires and will actively respond to any doubt or allegation on this point. We are in active contact with Steam and are doing our best to restore the game to their store. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused to the players.
The game, which has been in maintenance on its servers almost every day for several weeks, has also asked its community to do not get involved in the ongoing investigation:
After the game was temporarily removed from Steam, rumors began to circulate around the identity of the company that filed the complaint with Steam. We claim that these rumors are false regarding the parties currently involved in this removal. and out of due respect for legal process, we are temporarily unable to disclose further details.
If the game is still unavailable on the platform on PC, it remains however playable by those who already have a copy of the title. Moreover, the number of daily players does not seem to suffer for the moment. According to the figures of Steam Charts, they are on average 38,000 each day on the servers.
