Gun maker accused of stealing designs from video games
In a bizarre turn of events, a real-life gun maker has been accused of stealing the design from one video game and putting it into another.
The gritty shooting game Escape from Tarkov recently entered its fourth year, and it continues to attract new players quarterly despite still being in open beta. The title contains many memorable weapons, but a small indie studio is accusing Escape from Tarkov of using a stolen gun design. All of a sudden, it looks like the gun design wasn’t necessarily stolen by the developer Battlestate Games, but by the real-life gun manufacturer that licensed the gun to them.
Indie studio Ward B has shared highly detailed weapon designs for its upcoming title Ocean as of 2019. CEO Marcellino Sanceda believes that one of them – a futuristic shotgun dubbed the EPM28 Mastodon – has reappeared as a weapon in Escape from Tarkov and in real life the MP-155 Ultima.
Ward B was contacted by Maxim Kuzin, an individual claiming to be a “manufacturer of industrial projects” for various companies including Kalashnikov Concern. Although he expressed interest in adapting Mastodon into a real-life gun, which Ward B seemed to be quite excited about, he soon got dark and the indie studio deemed the deal a flop. However, Kalashnikov Concern revealed Ultima on August 21, 2020 without crediting the developers. Add salt to the wound, company New weapon licensing Escape from Tarkov.
Marcellino Saoneda says that the two weapons have some uncanny similarities including color, general shape, and aesthetic. More specifically, specific elements in the guard and receiver appear to have been copied from Mastodon for no good reason. What attracts it in Ward B, however, is a small, L-shaped dent on one side of Ultima that the indie studio has used as the visual texture on many Ocean guns.
When Ward B tried to contact Maxim Kuzin about the partnership proposal, he did not respond, leading the studio to assume that the weapon design had been stolen. After tensions continued to heat up, Maxim Kuzin finally announced that he had worked with another designer from Russia to design the weapon from scratch and then license the new creation. appeared in Escape from Tarkov.
Kalashnikov Concern has started taking pre-orders for the MP-155 Ultima, which sells for $1,700 / £1,300. The independent studio dropped a formal legal case due to the complexity of an American company suing a Russian company. As of writing, Marcellino Saoneda said he simply wanted to raise awareness that Ward B’s work is currently on display worldwide without credit.
The source: IGN
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https://gamerant.com/ward-b-escape-from-tarkov-kalashnikov-stolen-design-ultima-shotgun/ Gun maker accused of stealing designs from video games
