In the middle of last December, Myth of Empires studio Angela Game fired off a lawsuit against Snail Games and Studio Wildcard, demanding that the claim of copyright infringement that removed the game from Steam be heard in a jury trial. Thanks to reporting from MMO Fallout, we now know the latest step in the legal scuffle, and that step is Snail Games firing off countersuits of its own.
The primary countersuit from Snail Games does more than claim that Angela Game “scrambled to cover its theft” by revising or changing the game’s code; it also goes after Imperium Interactive Entertainment Ltd., the company that made the distribution agreement between Angela and Valve to put Myth of Empires on Steam, accusing Imperium of making the deal despite being aware of the stolen code. Snail Games has also put forth an additional lawsuit against Tencent, accusing the publisher of ignoring a DMCA takedown of Myth’s servers because Tencent allegedly “directly or indirectly owns a substantial interest in Angela,” which according to the filing could make Tencent liable for contributory copyright infringement.
Snail Games is seeking all the damages, including disgorgement of profits from Tencent and the game’s sales; statutory damages; a permanent injunction on Angela, Imperium, and Tencent on future infringement; and legal and attorney fees, among other restitution demands.
Angela Game had filed an injunction against the DMCA takedown in order to get the game back on to Steam, but the court denied the move, citing “a plethora of circumstantial evidence” from Snail Games that supports the copyright infringement claim.
