A month ago, US game publisher eigoMANGA released a public statement claiming exclusive ownership of the Vanguard Princess IP in both the US and Japan. This post was subsequently deleted without any explanation (possibly in response to criticism from Japanese media and fans of the series), but it seems eigoMANGA is changing its story once again. As spotted by Japanese game publication Game*Spark, eigoMANGA has recently been making similar assertions on Steam, but with key differences in wording.
In one of their comments on a Steam Discussion regarding the controversial claim about the licensing of Vanguard Princess, eigoMANGA stated that they own the rights to the English version of the game (which was allegedly licensed to them by original creator Tomoaki Sugeno) via trademark and copyright applications granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office. This is consistent with their retracted statement from May. On the other hand, the publishers say they have been granted “usage rights” for the Japanese version of the game, as opposed to the previously asserted “ownership.”
Looking at other General Discussion threads on the Vanguard Princess Steam page, it seems like eigoMANGA has been sharing the exact same message in all of their customer support replies, regardless of the actual topic of the thread. Furthermore, they claim to have been modifying threads on Steam in order to communicate what they refer to as “the straight facts of their usage rights.”
As Game*Spark points out, this change in messaging brings up a contradiction – if the game was actually licensed to eigoMANGA by the creator, there would be no need for them to obtain usage rights through arbitration. To clarify, the Japanese copyright arbitration system allows you to legally use orphaned copyrighted works if the rightsholder is not reachable, given that you obtain a ruling from the Agency of Cultural Affairs – which is something eigoMANGA referred to in their original claim of ownership of the IP. However, with the company’s previously published statement deleted and information being shared via Steam threads, it is yet to be seen whether an official clarification on the matter will be issued.
Currently, eigoMANGA are working on Vanguard Princess Mobile alongside a PC port, with a Kickstarter Campaign launching soon.
