Steam has removed the page for MISERY, a cooperative shooter from Belarusian Platypus Entertainment, which gamers called a «STALKER clone.» The reason was a complaint from the copyright holder, namely the Ukrainian GSC Game World.
Steam has removed the page for MISERY, a cooperative shooter from Belarusian Platypus Entertainment, which gamers called a «STALKER clone.» The reason was a complaint from the copyright holder, namely the Ukrainian GSC Game World.
According to GameDev.DOU, after the GSC appeal, the platform applied a standard copyright protection procedure: the disputed material was temporarily hidden for the duration of the review. Simply put, when the copyright holder claims that unique elements of the brand or the game world have been copied, the store «takes down» the page, and then either restores it or leaves it closed (depending on the outcome of the review).
The developers of MISERY publicly deny the similarity to STALKER and promise to provide counter-explanations. At the same time, the community drew attention to the toxic background of the project: users recorded anti-Ukrainian statements and symbols of support for the Russian war in the official Discord, after which the server was quickly «cleaned». This only intensified the negative reaction around the game, which managed to be recorded among the «successes» of the October Steam Next Fest with a peak online presence of approximately 1,700 players.
In practice, closing the page will mean that the game loses visibility in the store, new players cannot add it to their wishlist, media interest drops, pre-orders and marketing activities stop. For the indie team, this is a direct financial loss and the risk of losing the community, even if the page is later restored.
GSC Game World owns the rights to the STALKER brand and content, so any project that «plays» on recognizable features of the setting, characters, or artistic language naturally comes under close scrutiny. The story with MISERY is indicative in two dimensions: first, the market is increasingly tolerant of «derivative» ideas without obvious originality; second, reputational markers such as pro-Russian rhetoric in the team’s official channels can instantly nullify any short-term success of the demo and festival screenings.
Previously, dev.ua wrote about how Ukrainian studio GSC Game World released a large-scale update for its game STALKER 2: Heart of Chernobyl, focused on improving AI, balance, and overall stability. The patch, which became one of the most significant since the release, introduced a number of changes that should make the gameplay more dynamic and realistic.
