Spiral Games got hit today with a DMCA takedown of their game ORION by Activision today, and the title is no longer available on Steam. The takedown was issued after claims that several assets were lifted from Call of Duty Black Ops 3 and Advanced Warfare. Spiral Games has responded on many outlets that the claims are false in this statement:

So apparently Activision has removed ORION from Steam. This was done via a DMCA takedown request stating:

“on behalf of Activision, who alleges that the game Orion uses weapon art content from Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. The weapon art in question includes the M8A7 rifle, the Haymaker rifle, and the Bal-27 rifle.”

I’ve uploaded comparisons of the weapons in question, from both games. I had to guess on weapons as no specific assets or images were provided to me, nor was I contacted by Steam/Valve or Activision prior to having the game removed from Steam.

(Comparison 1 – Auto Shotgun)

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(Comparison 2 – Auto Rifle)

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This is extremely serious that a DCMA request has removed our entire game from sale, during the biggest sale event of the year. Apparently no cross-checking was done by our Partner, who we’ve been with for over 5 years and I have seen better and would expect better from them. At minimum, to contact us regarding our assets/defense before taking any action.

While you can see a couple distinct similarities in the weapons featured in the statement, that’s to be expected with the nature of the how guns are designed and developed. However, Spiral Games has omitted several examples where the similarities are less than coincidental.

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Regardless of the controversial nature of the statement Spiral Games has put out, it’s important to note that the DMCA takedown happened seemingly without Spiral’s prior knowledge. If that’s true, it sets a dangerous precedent for larger companies to remove competition without the means of legal recourse from Steam or any other platforms. While it’s doubtful this was the case as Spiral Games’ “#LookWhosScared” hashtag would suggest, it’s still potentially harmful to the ecosystem independent developers rely on in order to continue working on their games.