Star Control: Origins has been pulled from Steam after copyright infringement complaints
The game Star Control: Origins has been pulled from the game platform Steam after the makers of the original dos game Star Control 2 sent a notice-and-takedown request to Valve. The company behind Steam has responded to this.
The developers report that Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford, the creators of the original dos game, have sent a notice-and-takedown request to Valve, requesting that Star Control: Origins be removed from the platform. Valve has responded to this; the game is no longer available on Steam. Valve says that anyone who has already purchased the game can continue to play it. The makers of Star Control: Origins report that they are disappointed that Reiche and Ford have evaded regular legal process by choosing the means of “vague takedown requests.”
The title can still be found on the website GOG.com, although it is obvious that the game will also disappear from this website, since GOG has also received a request. Such removal requests, which are based on the American Digital Millennium Copyright Act, are usually honored; Steam and GOG have a policy of honoring DMCA requests without a detailed review of the request.
Currently, only downloadable content for Star Control: Origins is available on Steam. However, additions such as the season pass and dlc may also be removed from Steam in the long run; one of the creators of Star Control: Origins indicates in a message on Steam that an alternative distribution method may need to be found.
The makers of Star Control: Origins have been inspired by the original dos game with their company Stardock, but state that it is their own creation, without having based on the work of Reiche and Ford. The developers state that they have been working on Star Control: Origins for five years. According to them, the game plays like a Star Control game, but that has nothing to do with copyrights; they report that the game has its own story, setting, plot, and all-new characters, including an all-new universe.
Stardock got the rights to the franchise in 2013 and the beta of Star Control: Origins came out in 2017. The development studio also owns the trademark to Star Control and the copyright to Star Control 3, but apparently that does not apply to Star Control 2. The studio says it is now forced to fire people because it is losing revenue due to the disappearance of Star Control : Origins. The developer hopes that the game will be back on Steam as soon as possible.