Eximius: Seize the Frontline - scandals are here
The DMCA is the copyright law in the digital age. It allows you to claim copyright infringement without lengthy litigation: Steam, for example, has a special DMCA complaint form. The developers of Eximius: Seize the Frontline came up with an original way to use the system: they filed a copyright infringement on Eximius (that is, on their own game!) To deal with their publisher.
Ammobox Studios - a studio of 10 people, located mainly in Malaysia. Jeremy Choo, the head of the company, in a discussion on Reddit, assures that Ammobox has worked on Eximius: Seize the Frontline - a mixture of shooter and strategy - for eight years. But they needed the publisher only closer to launch in Steam's early access, which took place on September 27, 2018.
Chu says that the big publishers did not want to get involved in Ammobox: they didn’t trust the new team without any released projects behind them. As a result, Ammobox despaired so much that it contacted the unknown British publishing house TheGameWall Studios. Like, if industrial outsiders make friends with industrial outsiders, something can turn out. Chu admits that the decision was very stupid, and takes all the responsibility on himself.
TheGameWall at first looked very solid: a representative of the publishing house was pouring out plans for the development of the game, identifying ideas for marketing, mentioned the names of large streamers that would cover Eximius ... In general, he tried his best to prove the seriousness of intentions. As a result, the contract was signed.
However, after the launch of Eximius in early access, TheGameWall began to break promises, did not transfer money, and in November 2018 completely disappeared from the radar. Ammobox did not see a single penny of payments for three months, although the game had already participated in four sales: during the launch in early access, on Halloween, as well as in the seasons of autumn and winter discounts. The studio found itself in a sad financial situation: not only do you need to pay salaries to developers, you also need to have servers for Eximius multiplayer.
Desperate, Ammobox resorted to extreme (very sophisticated) measures: at the end of December, the studio filed a DMCA complaint about its own child and thus stopped selling the game on Steam. The step proved successful: the company managed to attract the attention of Valve, take Eximius from TheGameWall and intercept publishing duties on Steam.
The game was sold on other sites - GreenManGaming, Fanatical and Humble Store. But, as Chu complains, only Valve responded quickly enough. At the time of writing the news, Eximius cannot be found on GreenManGaming and Fanatical (apparently, the platforms have already removed the game from the digital shelves), but sales are going on at the Humble Store, and the publisher still indicates TheGameWall.
During the discussion on Reddit, it turned out that not only Ammobox suffered from the actions of TheGameWall. The authors of the game Slinki tried to work with this publisher in the area of 2015, but also did not receive the required payments. Is that TheGameWall voluntarily returned the rights to the publication of Slinki, when the contract expired.
As GamesRadar writes, TheGameWall has only one active employee. Most likely, the Eximius and Slinki developers communicated with him. The phone number specified in TheGameWall profile is disabled, and the company's social networks have not been updated since September 2018. It seems that the only employee of TheGameWall just silently “cut cabbage” from gullible and inexperienced indie developers.
In a discussion on Reddit, Chu writes that he cannot deal with TheGameWall through the courts. Firstly, the publisher did not have gross violations of the law or even manipulations with the contract. Secondly, the case is complicated: the Malaysian studio opposes the British company under American law. Thirdly (which is probably the most important), a lot of money and time are needed for the trial, and Ammobox doesn’t have such luxury. But the studio will try to do everything possible to TheGameWall out of business.
Now Eximius: Seize the Frontline is back on sale on Steam and costs 515 rubles. Publisher listed Ammobox Studios.
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