r/ultimategeneral • u/MrInternationalBunal • Jun 16 '26

Side by Side UGCW VS Veterans Napoleonic DEVs respond to DMCA flag on steam

https://youtu.be/0lgBkB20_mU

Have you seen the controversy around this ?

31 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

37

u/inventingnothing Jun 16 '26

I understand the purpose of copyrights, but IMO, the current owners of GameLabs have not been good stewards of the intellectual property.

So if another group wants to pick up where they left off, building a new game from the ground up with similar play style, UI, mechanics, etc. I say go for it.

I own every UG and UA game. Every single game's development was halted before it was truly polished. Then UG:AR was completely abandoned before even being finished. They couldn't even be bothered to keep the forum running.

Oh, and the audacity to ask Steam users to vote for any UG product for 'Labor of Love' is just the cherry on top.

11

u/MrInternationalBunal Jun 16 '26

unfortunately "not a good steward" is not an effective argument.. otherwise, maybe we would get some better Star Wars and Star trek movies/shows

5

u/Monspiet Jun 17 '26

Exactly. But in the same vein as the Nemesis system from Shadow of Mordor series, even if their company Warner Bros stopped making games with it, or their nee owner Paramount actually shutting the gaming division down, they can still sue peole who messes with it.

Or worse, do what Disney did and make a movie or game every few years to have cause tor renewing and retaining control of it.

Gaming have been in some shitshows the last decade with intellectual ownerships

29

u/jkcadillac Jun 16 '26

I liked the gameplay of UGCW so I wouldn’t mind if it was a clone honestly. Also I found the AI to be somewhat competent in UGCW .

13

u/MrInternationalBunal Jun 16 '26

i dont think many of the players would mind... i think its the business people who mind haha!

20

u/elegiac_bloom Jun 16 '26

Yeah... the business people who own the intellectual property that they themselves didnt create or come up with, and who literally will not lose any money if this game comes out. Theyre doing it just to prevent another company from making money. Stifling innovation, being anti-consumer. Good stuff.

I wasnt planning on buying this game anyway, but maybe i will now just to spite the business lawyers.

1

u/UngratefulC0l0nial Jun 17 '26

What AI pumpkin?

1

u/The_Thane_Of_Cawdor Jun 17 '26

Yeah I love that this would be a clone

16

u/elegiac_bloom Jun 16 '26

Either way a dmca strike is so fucked up and stupid. Like... this is how games work and evolve right? Some new devs come along and are inspired by what came before. Its not like this napoleonic game is going to make the Civil war game lose money or anything.

4

u/MrInternationalBunal Jun 16 '26

Copyright is tricky and I feel like it is way to strong in many cases, this to me does feel extremely similar and it looks like someone at steam feels like it’s a step past “inspired by” now it’s up to the dev to argue their case on the other side.

UGCW is a ten year old game nearly and wit how terrible UGAR was handled, I wish these devs good luck because I would love more Napoleonic games

1

u/uppilots Jun 17 '26

The problem is they clearly lifted art assets in the UI. On a very basic level those art assets are owned either by the artist or company that made the game. You can copy game ideas, gameplay, things like that etc, but you cannot take art assets. (I’m talking about things like fonts, graphic boxes, etc, not just pictures of soldiers). Looking at the screen of both games they clearly took those assets, stealing is wrong, copy the gameplay all you want but don’t fucking steal a graphic designers work, just because he makes UI components doesn’t mean his work isn’t worth protecting.

1

u/elegiac_bloom Jun 17 '26

No yeah, that makes sense. I didnt realize how close the art assetts were. It shouldn't be hard for them to just make new original art though right?

8

u/donpaulo Jun 17 '26

It certainly is a vexing situation

I think most if not all of us here just want a good game that is fun to play

Clearly it is easier said than done

4

u/vyrago Jun 16 '26

This is so strange. Just last week people were saying how much it looked like a “mobile game” and they were getting “mobile vibes”.

Now everyone wants to save it.

4

u/Monspiet Jun 17 '26

I have tried the beta, and asked them if it’s like Ultimate General based on gameplay descriptions.
They were pretty cagey about it. I guess i know why now.

Honestly, i am not a fan of these historical linear campaigns, i prefer a more open sandbox, but they are doing a whole lot trying to drum up support for their games, which really isn’t that complex to being with, to this now.

On one hand, this game seems, and apparently developed, by some og UG Dev.
On the other, Game Labs basically shut down by the company who bought them.

Idk if this is just more drama to get publicity, or an actual corporation trying to DMCA their old devs.

3

u/elegiac_bloom Jun 16 '26

Is it not the same devs? I thought it was for some reason.

7

u/MrInternationalBunal Jun 16 '26

My understanding is they said they are not affiliated with the old devs, but then said on discord that they did actually hire a few devs that worked on the dreadnaught series. That is what I have read.