So I came across these articles:

http://www.pcgamer.com/areal-devs-are-back-want-money-for-stalker-apocalypse/

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/12/12/stalker-kickstarter-2/

So basically, a studio is trying to make a s.t.a.l.k.e.r. game without having the rights to it, jumping the copy right by removing some dots and then going to some crowdfunding website saying they want 600k.

Am I the only one that kinda feels like this is a scam?

Is it ok, for developers to proclaim their games as the soul successor of a game that they have no rights to?

And is having such a similar name a good thing, or is it false advertisemant?

Watching their video all I could think of was https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjviMVTRqRc

I personally think this is [censored], if you want to make a post-apocalyptic game, that's chill, if you want to say that you got your inspiration from another game that is chill, but ripping off a title that is not yours is just wrong, especially a great series like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Especially when the logo has convenient bolts that kinda form dots.

Any thoughts? Are you in support of this game and what it's doing or do you disagree?

It's not a matter of copyright. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a trademark, and the setting is intellectual property. Copyrights only cover the copying of data (be it by internet, print, or whatever), nor ripping off ideas.

Note, these are the same people who tried to make a "spiritual successor" to S.T.A.L.K.E.R called Areal and were shot down for, among other things, stealing concept art.

Which is copyright infringement.


And yeah, they're thoroughly dodgy bastards.