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Gamekult | Bigben/Nacon & Cyanide sued the creators of Paranoia: Happiness is Mandatory after they DMCA'd the game adaptation for "premature release"

Maxime

Maxime

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,990
Wild story. Sad to report that Nacon is at it again.

French translated through DeepL with a few tweaks so sorry in advance:

If you remember Paranoia: Happiness is Mandatory, released in late 2019 and itself based on a successful paper role-playing game, you're probably among the overwhelming majority of gamers who learned about its brief existence through bruising reviews, such as the one published here. Two months after Gautoz's harsh words that "Black Shamrock and Cyanide were clearly not ready for an early release", the title disappeared from the Epic Games Store where it was sold, without any explanation from the developers or the publisher. Two years later, it is through a legal procedure that we learn what really happened.
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On October 22, 2021, Bigben Interactive (the company that includes video game publisher Nacon) and its development studio Cyanide, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. court against the creators of the paper game Paranoia, Eric Goldberg and Greg Costikyan, on the claim that they had it withdrawn from sale shortly after its release.
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On September 6, 2016, Eric Goldberg and Greg Costikyan, holders of the rights to the license, signed a contract to adapt their role-playing game into a video game with the French studio Cyanide. While it was supposed to be released within the year, Cyanide delegates the development to the Irish studio Black Shamrock in the summer of 2017, before being bought out by Bigben Interactive, which takes over the contract. After being pushed back to April 2017 a first time, the game's release is set for late 2019, on December 10 at the latest. If the distribution was planned under the terms of the contract on all PC distribution platforms, Bigben asks in August 2019 the permission of Eric Goldberg and Greg Costikyan for an exclusive distribution contract on Epic Games Store, dated October 3, 2019. Problem: this is the first time that the two rights holders are aware of the release date of the game, while they have, according to their contract, a right of review on the title, which can be published only with their agreement. The two creators therefore refuse to approve the publication of a press release on the imminent release of the game, and according to them, Bigben is breaking the contract for the first time by issuing this press release anyway.
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They both only had access to a first version of the game on September 10, 2019, which they were contractually required to evaluate to motivate their pre-release approval. Instead of the six weeks stipulated in the contract, they only need two weeks to officially reject this version of the game, which is riddled with so many bugs that they believe it would damage Paranoia's brand image. Bigben nevertheless wanted to proceed with the publication of the title as is, pushing back the planned October release to November 14, 2019. After once again refusing to issue a press release on the new release date, Eric Goldberg and Greg Costikyan refuse the commercialization of the new version of the game received, in which they identify 74 minor and major bugs combined. While they remain open to the proposal to continue working on the game without breaking their contract, they oppose a premature release of the game in this unfinished version.
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However, Bigben Interactive would have proceeded to release the game in secret and without the agreement of the rights holders in order not to exceed the deadline of December 10, 2019 set in the contract. The sum of $21,704 was even paid to Eric Goldberg and Greg Costikyan, who wanted to return it to the publisher, believing that no payment was due. Seeing that the game was available for sale, they wrote to Bigben to demand the removal of Paranoia: Happiness is Mandatory from the Epic Games Store. After several refusals, they finally contacted Epic directly with a DMCA request, explaining that publishing the game without their consent was contrary to the publishing agreement and therefore an infringement of their rights to the intellectual property of the license. Three days later, on January 24, 2020, Epic withdrew the game from sale even though they still had exclusive rights to it. It has never reappeared anywhere since.
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As we do not have access to the complaint of Bigben Interactive and Cyanide, but only to the side of the story of Eric Goldberg and Greg Costikyan, we do not know on what grounds or for what amount of money the French companies are attacking the creators of the license. However, it is easy to imagine that it is the interpretation of the contract that is at stake, and that the damage for the publisher and the developers is considerable, as the game has only been on sale for a month and a half while Epic had signed an exclusivity contract for an amount of "several million dollars". Perhaps the publisher was forced to reimburse Epic for some of the money, and perhaps they are citing the obvious loss of revenue due to the short time the game was on sale? For their part, the two creators of the license are claiming breach of contract and $150,000 in compensation for their loss.
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Source:
www.gamekult.com

Cyanide et Bigben Interactive attaquent les créateurs de Paranoia : Happiness is Mandatory en justice

Encore une histoire de conflit contractuel pour l’éditeur français
www.gamekult.com www.gamekult.com

If the words 'Nacon' & 'DMCA' ring any bell:
www.gamesindustry.biz

Frogwares issues DMCA takedown to remove The Sinking City from Steam

The Sinking City has now been removed from Steam, following an ongoing dispute between developer Frogwares and publishe…
www.gamesindustry.biz www.gamesindustry.biz

As for Paranoia: Happiness is Mandatory, the game's reception was lukewarm to say the least:
opencritic.com

Paranoia: Happiness is Mandatory Reviews

Paranoia: Happiness is Mandatory is rated 'Weak' after being reviewed by 14 critics, with an overall average score of 48. It's ranked in the bottom 5% of games and recommended by 8% of critics.
opencritic.com opencritic.com

 
PsionBolt

PsionBolt

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,299
Whoa, this is not the game I thought of upon reading the title -- my brain got it confused with Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness. It's a similar enough title that, now that I've read this story, I'm halfway surprised there wasn't a weird backward lawsuit on that front too!
 
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