legal
PUBG Corp. is suing over the Chinese term for Chicken Dinner as Update 28 goes live
PUBG Corp. is back in court, and this time it's suing not another game company or clone but the Chinese bureaucracy itself.
As MMO Culture...
China reveals new regulatory system for online video games after more than a year of confusion
For the last year and change, we watched in slowly dawning horror during China's big game "freeze," when bureaucrats shut down avenues for game...
City of Heroes’ first new rogue server shut down over a fake legal threat, but admins say it’s coming back
 It appears that the City of Heroes rogue server that was up in testing all weekend has already run into trouble with what the...
Heroes of the Storm player arrested for making terrorism threats in chat
On today's episode of Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes, a Heroes of the Storm player has been arrested and charged with making terrorist...
Lawful Neutral: Is it safe to play on City of Heroes’ inevitable rogue servers?
You CAN play on the City of Heroes rogue servers you're about to see springing up. But should you? Our law columnist looks into the legalities of the City of Heroes emulation situation.
Fortnite and PUBG are banned by the Iraq parliament
Yet another country has decided to ban online games over fears of addiction and negative influence on youth. The Iraqi parliament voted this past...
Nepal has outright banned PUBG over addiction concerns
With Fortnite and then Apex Legends eclipsing PUBG here in the west and its own original lead designer departing for greener pastures, it might...
Red Dead Redemption 2 and The Pinkertons have settled their legal feud, no shootout required
One of the stranger lawsuits we've seen - not just this year, but ever - involved The Pinkertons. Yes, the real Pinkertons, the modern-day...
Valve and ZeniMax are among the publishers under EU investigation for illegal geo-blocking
A number of major games publishers are under a spotlight cast by the European Commission for breaking EU competition rules. Valve, ZeniMax, Bandai Namco,...
Lawful Neutral: The future of MMO game design in a streaming gaming world
It’s been an interesting few weeks for gaming. We saw the announcement of Google’s game streaming service, Stadia, and then Apple’s subscribe-to-access game service,...
Call of Duty swatter receives 20 years in prison
The so-called Call of Duty swatter, Tyler Barriss, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for his 2017 swatting call that resulted in...
MMO Business Roundup: Philly’s Overwatch arena, the PUBG Netease settlement, and GDC’s record showing
Welcome back to the MMO Business Roundup!
Remember about a year ago when the battle royale industry started trying to sue everyone into oblivion? PUBG...
Lawful Neutral: Dancing around Fortnite’s copyright lawsuits
Welcome friends to the inaugural post of Lawful Neutral on Massively OP. I'm Andy, but you know me better as Serrenity, writer of comments...
Daybreak’s definitely-not-owner Columbus Nova is back in national news again
Does it ever seem weird to you when companies involved in gaming show up in big political dramas in the real world? Because it...
Indian police arrest 10 over PUBG ban
Four cities in the Indian state of Gujarat have instituted a ban on PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds over concern that the game causes violent behavior. The...
Legal proceedings between Crytek and Star Citizen’s Cloud Imperium move to alternative dispute resolution
Just when we all thought the matter had seen a major roadblock in the proceedings, a new chapter in the game engine lawsuit between...
Third law firm joins the chorus threatening suits against Activision Blizzard over the Bungie split
Stop me if you've heard this one: In the wake of the split between Activision Blizzard and Bungie, with the latter regaining full rights...
MMO Business Roundup: Fortnite’s lockbox lawsuit, Riot’s diversity boss, Take-Two’s stock, Acti-Blizz’s investor warning
Business business business! What's on the weekend agenda? Oh heck, let's just throw Fortnite, lockboxes, and a lawsuit in one sentence. It's like catnip.
Fortnite's...
Call of Duty swatter requests the minimum 20 to 25 year prison sentence
The Call of Duty player whose 2017 swatting call resulted in an innocent man's death is now facing sentencing in federal court, where he...
ZeniMax Media is hit with a trademark dispute over a filing for ‘Redfall’
What is "Redfall?" We don't know just yet, beyond the fact that it's a trademark filed by ZeniMax Media (the parent company of Bethesda...
