At the end of November we cast a spotlight on the recent Steam early access launch of the game Myth of Empires, a combination real-time strategy and survival sandbox MMO that we’ve been following since the start of 2021. Last week, Steam had suddenly ripped the game from its storefront, prompting no shortage of assumptions among players.
Shortly after the surprise takedown, developer Angela Game shared a post outlining that Myth of Empires was delisted due to allegations of copyright infringement, resulting in a DMCA removal of the game from Steam. “Angela Game fully owns all rights and property associated with Myth of Empires and will actively respond to any doubts or allegations 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 players,” reads part of the post.
Angela Game has otherwise been very mum about the matter other than releasing a statement asking players to not entertain or spread rumors and explaining that legal reasons prevent the studio from speaking further, but new reporting from PC Gamer states that the infringement claim is coming from ARK: Survival Evolved developer Studio Wildcard and publisher Snail Games.
According to a document, a former Snail Games China employee who founded Angela Game in 2020 had access to ARK’s source code, and when Myth of Empires was released in November 2021, Studio Wildcard found “hundreds of matching class, variable, and function names in a preliminary analysis,” leading to a “good faith belief that Myth of Empires was built by: (1) stealing the ARK: Survival Evolved source code and (2) using the stolen source code as the gameplay foundation for Myth of Empires.”
As of right now, Myth of Empires is unavailable for purchase but is still playable for those who currently own the game.
Regarding the rumours of involved parties in the delisting incident, please read this announcement. pic.twitter.com/oxKALUWyeB
— Myth Of Empires (@MythOfEmpires) December 8, 2021
