Myth of Empires removed from Steam after allegations of stolen code

Myth of Empires removed from Steam after allegations of stolen code

Launched less than a month ago, Myth of Empires was removed from Steam on December 3rd after a DMCA takedown request was filed. Although the party who filed the request is unconfirmed, documents related to the takedown that PC Gamer reportedly reviewed suggest that it was Studio Wildcard and Snail Games, developer and publisher of Ark: Survival Evolved. Their post goes into much more detail including Angela Game’s counter arguments but I think this quote sums up the initial cause for takedown:

“The takedown request says Angela Game was founded in 2020 by at least one former employee of Snail Games China, Studio Wildcard’s parent company, who had access to the Ark source code. When Myth of Empires was released in November 2021, Studio Wildcard grew “understandably concerned” because of similarities between the two games, including identical gameplay mechanics, which it felt went beyond the possibility of coincidence.

Comparing code headers in the Myth of Empires executable, Studio Wildcard developers claim to have found hundreds of matching class, variable, and function names in a preliminary analysis, which they say confirms that the Ark source code was used in Myth of Empires. A summary of the findings was presented to Valve on December 1, which responded by removing the game on December 3; hosting services have also been asked to stop supporting the game.”

PC Gamer post

If the allegations turn out to be true it could mean, at best, a long absence for Myth of Empires. The game would need to be rebuilt without the code in question or at least licensed by Studio Wildcard for the components it is using. That’s not to speak of the potential months or years of legal action that either party could take against one another no matter what the truth turns out to be. For right now, Angela Game remains hopeful that they will be able to “resolve this situation in a timely manner and make the game available to everyone again”.