Iron Maiden, the band, has filed a trademark lawsuit against Ion Maiden, the game

Ion Maiden is a 2018 first-person shooter indebted to the genre classics of the '90s. Iron Maiden is a British heavy metal band best known for its 1982 album The Number of the Beast. You can probably see where this is going: the names attached to these two different things are similar, and feathers have been ruffled.

That's according to a story in Blabbermouth, which reports that the holding company for Iron Maiden has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit to the tune of $2 million against 3D Realms, the publisher of Ion Maiden. "Defendant’s Ion Maiden name is nearly identical to the Iron Maiden trademark in appearance, sound and overall commercial impression," the lawsuit reads. It characterises the infringement as "incredibly blatant" and as a "virtually identical imitation".

Another of the lawsuit's claims, according to a copy obtained by Blabbermouth, is that Ion Maiden's protagonist, Shelly Harrison, is itself a copy of the name of Steve Harris, one of Iron Maiden's founding members. It also claims that Ion Maiden has the same "look and feel" as the Iron Maiden smartphone game Legacy of The Beast, which released in 2016.

In addition to the $2 million in damages, the lawsuit also wants 3D Realms to cease using the name, and to hand over ownership of the URL ionmaiden.com. Whatever ends up happening, it's a shame that two of the world's greatest things — British heavy metal and Build engine FPS games — can't just get along.

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.