Indie game maker fires designer for copying CoD weapons

Indie studio Trek Industries has kicked out a designer for ripping Call of Duty weapons and other items for the game The Orion Project. That game was removed from Steam after a dmca notification from Activision, but is now back online.

In a detailed statement on Steam, Trek Industries’ David Prassel reports that he has received evidence from Activision that the company has clearly ripped parts of Activision games for The Orion Project. The designer of this would have offered to change these parts, but was fired on the spot.

It’s unclear what parts of the evidence are involved, but Prassel admits that there were similarities between The Orion Project’s Auto Shotgun and Call of Duty weapons and that more similarities have now been found. Internet users already kept a list on Reddit of images of weapons that showed similarities.

On Tuesday, the game was pulled from Steam from Trek Industries after a dmca takedown notification from Activision. Trek Industries initially expressed anger at that removal. The report would be about taking over weapon art from Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. It would be the M8A7 rifle and the Bal-27 shotgun.

Prassel reports that in version 1.5.5 the controversial parts have been removed and that other items will be removed if Activision asks. In addition, the DevHelmets will be removed from the game. Some of these masks and helmets bore similarities to those worn by popular characters such as Boba Fett and Guyver. The game has since reappeared on Steam.

1. Visors Comparison 2. M8A7 Comparison 3. Bal-27 Comparison