Any game designed for the iOS platform that is similar to titles made by Atari are either under threat of facing legal action or have already been removed.
It seems Atari has woken up after years of slumber and is taking action against developer who has a title out on Apple’s iOS (i Operating System, which is used in every product in Apple’s immense line up) that is similar to anything Atari have published.
To be more specific, any arcade game that resembles anything in Atari’s catalogue have either removed or are being threatened with legal action.
One such developer, Black Power Media, has spoken out against the move by the two giants. The studio behind ‘Vector Tanks 3’ which is a throwback to the Atari classic, Battlezone has gone on record explaining firsthand what is being done to developers like
themselves.
“Anything that has even a passing resemblance to an Atari classic has been issued a copyright infringement claim.”
The studio also claim that the move is supported by Apple who seem to have a “special relationship” with Atari.
“So – thanks to their (Apple and Atari) special relationship with Apple – Atari has successfully scrubbed the app store of their perceived competition. It looks as though Apple complied without so much as a rebuttal or independent evaluation.”
While opinion is torn as to whether or not this is a cruel move on Atari’s part, developers have complained that when they approached the video game giant for licensing they received no feedback whatsoever.
One such programmer, Peter Hirschberg, stated, “The cruel irony here is that I tried for years to get a hold of Atari to license their IP (Intellectual Property) but they seemed to have fallen off the planet. Now this. It’s very depressing.”
The move does raise a number of questions surrounding Atari’s sudden assault on the game developers and their titles. The most pertinent of which is why the company, which was changed to Atari Interactive in 1998, has launched this attack without any prior
warning and why Apple are being so supportive.
While infringing on copyrights is something no one would condone, it is the sudden aggressive and rather merciless nature in which everything is being done that has caught everyone off guard.
A number of titles have been pulled from the app store after threats of legal action were made, and many more are sure to be served similar warnings as the days go by.
As for Vector Tanks 3, well the homage to Battlezone has been taken off the store’s listings as well with the developers currently working on changing things in the game to reduce the similarities between itself and the cult classic.
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