{"id":66143,"date":"2026-05-04T13:02:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T04:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=66143"},"modified":"2026-05-04T13:04:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T04:04:39","slug":"indie-developer-lands-in-steam-approval-limbo-after-being-flagged-for-ip-infringement-over-in-game-references-their-own-past-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/indie-developer-lands-in-steam-approval-limbo-after-being-flagged-for-ip-infringement-over-in-game-references-their-own-past-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Indie developer\u00a0lands in\u00a0Steam approval\u00a0limbo\u00a0after being flagged for IP infringement over in-game\u00a0references to\u00a0their own past work\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A Japanese indie developer says their game is stuck in review on Steam&nbsp;due to alleged copyright concerns over assets they themselves created&nbsp;and own, creating a situation that\u2019s&nbsp;tricky&nbsp;for them&nbsp;to navigate as a small-scale creator.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As reported by&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamespark.jp\/article\/2026\/04\/30\/165894.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Game*Spark<\/a>,&nbsp;Daikichi_EMP,&nbsp;developer&nbsp;of&nbsp;the&nbsp;upcoming&nbsp;3D anime-style action game&nbsp;<strong>WIRED TOKYO 2007,<\/strong>&nbsp;apologized for&nbsp;a delay in the game\u2019s&nbsp;planned free&nbsp;demo&nbsp;release&nbsp;on April 30, sharing&nbsp;details of the holdup. According to screenshots of&nbsp;their&nbsp;correspondence&nbsp;with&nbsp;Steam\u2019s support,&nbsp;the platform&nbsp;seems to have&nbsp;flagged&nbsp;certain elements of the game&nbsp;as potential third-party IP violations.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">Steam\u4f53\u9a13\u7248\u306e\u5be9\u67fb\u304c\u9045\u308c\u3066\u3044\u3066\u7686\u3055\u3093\u3059\u307f\u307e\u305b\u3093\u3001WIRED TOKYO 2007\u306e\u30b2\u30fc\u30e0\u5185\u306b\u914d\u7f6e\u3055\u308c\u3066\u3044\u308b\u904e\u53bb\u306b\u81ea\u8eab\u304c\u5236\u4f5c\u3057\u305f\u30dc\u30fc\u30c9\u30b2\u30fc\u30e0\u306e\u30e2\u30c1\u30fc\u30d5\u304c\u7b2c\u4e09\u8005\u306e\u77e5\u7684\u8ca1\u7523\u3067\u4e00\u751fSteam\u5074\u306b\u5f15\u3063\u304b\u304b\u3063\u3066\u3044\u307e\u3059\u3002<br><br>\u7b2c\u4e09\u8005\u3067\u306f\u306a\u304f\u79c1\u81ea\u8eab\u306e\u77e5\u7684\u8ca1\u7523\u6a29\u3092\u79c1\u81ea\u8eab\u304c\u5229\u7528\u3057\u305f\u3044\u3060\u3051\u306a\u306e\u3067\u5168\u304f\u610f\u5473\u304c\u5206\u304b\u308a\u307e\u305b\u3093\u3002 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/XuFvlUVRgH\">pic.twitter.com\/XuFvlUVRgH<\/a><\/p>&mdash; WIRED TOKYO 2007 (@Wired_Tokyo) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Wired_Tokyo\/status\/2049639540441403496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 29, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>However, as&nbsp;Daikichi_EMP&nbsp;claims, WIRED TOKYO 2007 does not reference any third-party IPs, only the board games Second Best and Dyno Stone,&nbsp;both of which&nbsp;Daikichi_EMP&nbsp;themselves created and owns&nbsp;the rights to.&nbsp;The developer&nbsp;explained as much and&nbsp;submitted&nbsp;links and evidence to prove it&nbsp;(showing that both board games were published under the same handle), but Steam\u2019s position&nbsp;on the matter&nbsp;didn\u2019t&nbsp;change.&nbsp;The response shared by the developer&nbsp;continued&nbsp;to cite&nbsp;possible similarities&nbsp;to existing works, such as \u201ca dinosaur-themed card game\u201d&nbsp;(referring&nbsp;to Daikichi\u2019s Dyno Stone).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It seems that the proof provided by Daikichi did&nbsp;not hold enough&nbsp;legal&nbsp;weight, as&nbsp;they were&nbsp;asked to provide&nbsp;assurance&nbsp;either&nbsp;in the form of license agreements&nbsp;to the IPs,&nbsp;or a&nbsp;legal opinion from their&nbsp;attorney analyzing the intellectual property issues and explaining why&nbsp;they&nbsp;don\u2019t need licenses.&nbsp;\u201cWithout such assurances, we don&#8217;t plan to ship your app,\u201d said&nbsp;the response from Steam.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1403\" height=\"787\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1403px) 100vw, 1403px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260504-65449-001.jpg\" alt=\"Wired Tokyo 2027\" class=\"wp-image-66145\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260504-65449-001.jpg 1403w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260504-65449-001-380x213.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260504-65449-001-768x431.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>While it\u2019s&nbsp;entirely&nbsp;reasonable for&nbsp;Steam&nbsp;to be vigilant about potential IP violations&nbsp;in&nbsp;the&nbsp;games it hosts and sells&nbsp;on its platform,&nbsp;Daikichi_EMP&nbsp;expressed&nbsp;frustration with the lack of options&nbsp;they were left with,&nbsp;explaining&nbsp;that hiring a lawyer&nbsp;was not financially feasible&nbsp;for them&nbsp;as an indie creator.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to an&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Wired_Tokyo\/status\/2050353897550811327?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">update from May&nbsp;2<\/a>, the developer has&nbsp;attempted&nbsp;to resubmit the game for review after&nbsp;writing up a signed document that grants them permission to their own creative works, including Second Best and Dyno Stone, and awaits a response.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>WIRED TOKYO 2007, a 3D action game&nbsp;in which you&nbsp;climb a mysterious structure floating in the skies above Tokyo, is currently in development for PC (<a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/4218700\/WIRED_TOKYO_2007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Steam<\/a>),&nbsp;with a planned release window in 2027. A free demo is (hopefully) coming soon.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Related:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendo-switch-store-blocks-indie-devs-release-over-in-game-advertising-for-including-references-to-previous-titles-in-series\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Nintendo Switch store blocks indie dev\u2019s release over \u201cin-game advertising\u201d for including references to&nbsp;previous&nbsp;titles in series<\/strong><\/a>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Daikichi_EMP, the indie developer behind the 3D action game WIRED TOKYO 2027, has found themselves in an unusual predicament after referencing their own board games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":66144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[64,62,3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-66143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-development","category-indie-games","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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