On Friday, the indie dev behind co-op survival horror shooter Misery uploaded a post to its Steam community hub page with an image of a crying cat as its header. Titled "We are under attack!", the post outlines something you may have noticed if you've played the game or tried to buy it today: it's been delisted from Steam following a DMCA strike initiated by Stalker developer GSC Game World.
The post features screenshots of an email from Valve sent to Misery's 19-year-old, largely solo developer Maewing, and publisher Ytopia. It states that GSC Game World reported Misery for "use of [its] game content without [its] authorization" and includes a handful of screenshots showing similar scenes from both games, two of which show a group of survivors with scavenged gear and gas masks playing a guitar by a campfire.
We have reached out to GSC Game World for comment, and will update this article if we hear back.
As a complete layperson when it comes to the legal details of copyright infringement, it really seems like this claim is going off vibes more than anything. The email notes that the screenshots are only there for illustrative purposes and don't show all the infringing assets, but you'd think GSC Game World would go for something more damning than a couple of scenes that, while superficially similar, don't seem to use the same models or textures.
Misery's Steam community blog post argues the developer's case: "We do not pose any threat to GSC or their IP, we do not compete with their games, nor do we use any of their IP. Of course, Misery was inspired by many things, including games, movies, and books, but filing a DMCA strike for that is wrong. We also want to remind GSC that their games draw heavily from Roadside Picnic and the Stalker movie by Tarkovsky, and they do not own the copyright on depressive Soviet-era buildings, playing guitar, vodka, radiation, or abandoned locations, or even the poo.
"Misery uses no characters, plot, storyline, assets, monsters, music, code, etc., from their games. It is all either originally created or legally licensed. We also think that this is an abuse of power against small independent developers by a large corporation, and it should not be a thing."
Developer Maewing allegedly shared a far less diplomatic first reaction on the game's Discord. Reddit user AcceptableAttitude13 posted a screenshot Friday on the Stalker subreddit of a post from Maewing that reads, "FUCKING GSK GAY WORLD SEND US STRIKE FOR WIERD AHH SHIT, JUST LOOK AT THE CLAIMS OF THOSE [r-slur]. We will fight rn to return our game back!!!"
The post has since been edited and isn't quite as inflammatory, still referring to the Stalker studio as "GSK" Game World, but containing no slurs. I can't fully verify what it might have said before, but Maewing subsequently addressed the issue.
The new post reads: "[After the DMCA strike], some people found my old posts and comments that included inappropriate and offensive statements. Many are rightfully upset, and I completely understand why. First of all, I want to acknowledge and take full responsibility for my past words. What I wrote was immature, thoughtless, and wrong. It does not represent who I am today or what I believe in, and I deeply regret posting it.
"I do not support any form of extremism, violence, or discrimination against any group of people. I truly value and respect our players and friends from all countries and backgrounds," his follow-up post reads. "As for the DMCA strike we will handle it calmly and professionally. There is no basis for it, and I believe Valve will review the situation fairly."
Some users on the Stalker subreddit are speculating the takedown is in response to alleged support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine by Misery's developers, as discussed in this thread full of screenshots from the Misery Discord. I was unable to verify this, with the only evidence so far being screenshots of various Discord posts, some of which are attributed to volunteers who worked with Maewing.
Misery's Discord appears to have been thoroughly scrubbed following the DMCA request, and a new post from Maewing states that inflammatory talk related to the conflict will result in an instant ban: "If someone spams Z’s or ZOV or any Ukrainian symbolic, swastics (sic) and so on in reactions or messages, just ban him without hesitation." While it's not clear this motivated the takedown, even in part, it would go some way to explaining why the more popular Stalcraft, another Stalker-inspired survival game, remains unaffected.
