A popular city-building game in Steam Early Access called Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic is currently unavailable due to an ongoing credit dispute between developer 3Division and a once "respected" member of the community.
As the developer explains in a Steam post, a player who wrote a guide detailing how to play the game more realistically has reportedly taken issue with an official, in-development game mode that does much of the same. As a result, that same player has allegedly leaned on their expertise as a lawyer to launch a bevy of DMCA claims, impacting the developer's website, YouTube, and Steam page. Naturally, it's proving an issue in the game's ongoing development.
"He thinks he invented it or made it possible," 3Division owner Peter Adamcik says. "Well, if he had kindly asked, we would have added him into the game's credits, we would probably do it (together with other guys who made various guides/challenges or contributors), but first we need to finish the game, then we can update the game's credits!
"But he decided to contact us as a lawyer, and started to abuse the YouTube report system issuing copyright strikes to one of our most helpful influencers bbaljo, prior to getting our opinion on this issue. As he chose to use extortion and abuse, we became angry about this, and decided to never mention the name of the challenge he allegedly 'invented' again, and ignore him."
Adamcik goes on to say that the DMCA strikes have been successful as multiple platforms leave reports to be handled by bots. GamesRadar+ reached out to Adamcik for an update regarding when the city builder might be available once more, and was told the developer is "working with [its] legal representatives to defend [itself] against those absurd claims".
If you've been out of the loop, Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic is a hardcore city builder focused on urban and industrial planning during the Cold War era in Eastern Europe. Initially released in 2019, it has been in Early Access since.
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