It’s been quite some time since The Repopulation was in our collective radar, but that was because development of the game was ended in January 2023 according to TGS Tech, the dev group contracted by Idea Fabrik to put the sci-fi sandbox together.
Of course regular readers know that wasn’t the end of the story, as dirty laundry began flapping in the breeze between TGS Tech and the company Laniatus, which claimed in a Discord server to have purchased Idea Fabrik and the HeroEngine that powers the game while accusing TGS of fraud. And this all came to light as a result of Laniatus’ attempt to revive 2009’s Magic to Master, which itself got mired in its own controversies.
It looks as if Laniatus and its fight regarding The Repopulation is not done despite months of silence, as the 2023 announcement from TGS Tech got a surprise response from Idea Fabrik aka Laniatus last week that laid out several claims: chiefly, that The Repopulation is back online, that the HeroCloud and HeroEngine builds have been reinstalled, and that TGS Tech is attempting fraud.
“The Repopulation is undoubtedly the property of Idea Fabrik; this is absolutely true. However, The Repopulation is not the only thing belonging to Idea Fabrik. The engine on which this game was built—its software, audiovisual content, and intellectual property—belongs to IF. The statement that TGS does not own the game is absolutely correct, but it is incomplete. TGS does not own anything. TGS has hijacked the trademark rights of Idea Fabrik PLC, has not handed over The Repopulation driver, HeroEngineCorporate Perforce and, despite lacking the authority to develop, sell, or sublicense the HeroEngine source code, has seen itself as the IP owner.
“[T]he claim that The Repopulation was transferred to IF Studios and that the Facebook, Twitter pages were handed over is completely false. Nothing was handed over to us, not even the Steam page, which we had to retrieve from Valve with great difficulty. The woman in charge of TGS is a real scam artist. As Idea Fabrik PLC, we are preparing to sue this woman and everyone in the company. TGS has no rights to any new branding or to continue or maintain anything belonging to Idea Fabrik PLC.”
The announcement post goes on to reassert that Idea Fabrik is “the real intellectual property owner” of HeroEngine; accuses TGS of several crimes including trademark theft, corruption of databases, and IP theft; and finally closes with the claim that the sandbox MMO at the center of it all is “now back up and running with the latest recovery backup, along with a few more of Idea Fabrik PLC’s official games, and the HeroEngine/HeroCloud build has been reinstalled.”
However, there are no direct links to confirm this claim: The Repopulation’s Steam page still says it’s not available on the platform at the time of this writing, the game’s official site directs to an index that hasn’t been touched since November 2023, and its Twitter page has remained silent since 2021. Perhaps these accusations would hold more weight in a court of law instead of the court of public opinion.
