Let this be an important lesson to any would-be game designers: If you try to make a game based on a very well-known IP without a license to do so and then attempt to raise money to fund it, you’re going to be on the receiving end of a Dumbledore Army of lawyers.
This is the case with BioHazard Entertainment, whose Kickstarter campaign to fund The Wizarding World Online was slapped with a cease and desist by Warner Bros. “This campaign is devoted to the creation of an MMO game based on the Harry Potter stories and films,” WB’s lawyers stated. “This game is unauthorized and violates Warner Bros.’s rights in the property.”
In a forum post on Tuesday, the dev team admitted defeat: “It came to show that people expected something from us that we were not eligible to speak about, which in this case is the licenses and permits from WB.” The team said that the studio would re-brand and continue to work on its Harry Potter MMO in the hopes of gaining the license holder’s “respect.”
[Source: C&D letter, forum; via: MMO Games]
