The developer of ORION: Prelude has revealed that Activision forced Valve to pull its game from Steam, a decision that was made due to stolen assets. The assets found in ORION: Prelude, specifically the weapon assets, have been taken from Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 according to Activision. While the Indie developers haven’t taken the entire weapon specifically, it’s clear they’ve taken parts of it to create a new weapon.
That’s not all, though. Spiral Game Studios, the developers of ORION: Prelude, are trying to claim that Activision have no grounds to pull its game from Steam. The developers argue that even if the design was 1:1, it would not be enough for a design infraction.
Reddit and NeoGAF users have found that Spiral Game Studios have been stealing assets from other sources. NeoGAF user Mechazawa points out that one of the stages in ORION: Prelude is a slightly altered version of the Unreal Engine tech demo.
Spiral Game Studios/TREK Industries (TREK Industries are listed as a publisher, but they are really Spiral Game Studios in disguise) are trying to plead ignorance. The developer/publisher clearly knew what they were doing when they ripped off the assets, and now they are making the argument that Activision shouldn’t come after them because they are a small studio. “They are are multi-billion dollar company coming over what is currently a 50 cent game, without contacting us or requesting anything of us NOR providing any specific assets or images of the offensive content to begin with.” read the post by David James on ORION: Prelude’s Steam page.
Reminds us of that incident involving Limbo of the Lost and stolen assets from Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. Anyone remember that? This isn’t as bad though, as Limbo of the Lost used level design structures straight from Oblivion.
