Legal Former Aeon Must Die developers issue fresh demands to Focus and Limestone as game finally launches

Legal The group of former Limestone Games employees that claims ownership of its action game Aeon Must Die, and alleges that it was unpaid for work on the title, has come forth with more requests to resolve the legal dispute.A statement was posted yesterday, just ahead of Aeon Must Die’s launch today, reiterating various claims from the past year and calling for Limestone and the game’s publisher Focus Entertainment to release information that would disprove these.This is the latest development in an ongoing dispute between Limestone and its former employees, who have now formed Mishura Games. In August 2020, the ex-Aeon Must Die developers accused Limestone of putting them through “endless crunch,” stealing the IP, and not paying for all the work they did on the game. Focus said it was “carefully looking into these allegations.”A year later, the newly formed Mishura team claimed the issues were still unresolved as Focus and Limestone began promoting the upcoming launch of Aeon Must Die. Both companies claimed they co-own IP and denied reports of crunch.In its latest statement, Mishura Games acknowledged that Limestone and Focus “do own some of the IP” but maintain they do not have the full rights and authorisation to publish and distribute the game.”According to relevant laws, the IP of a creative product is transferred to the new owner based on a mutual contract which would include payment for rights and/or services,” the group claims.Mishura asserted that Aleksei Nehoroshkin — co-founder and former CEO of Limestone Games, now at Mishura Games — did not sign anything releasing the rights to the Aeon Must Die IP, which was “designed and written well before Limestone Games was established.” The studio is calling for proof from Limestone that he was paid for animation work that he did outside of office hours — allegedly up to 70% of the 3D animations in the game — which they reportedly agreed to do.Similarly, the trailer that prompted the re-emergence of this dispute back in August was temporarily taken off YouTube after a copyright strike issued by animator Arsen Shakhbabyan, who also was allegedly not paid for his work and therefore “the IP regarding Arsen’s work for this trailer still fully belongs to Arsen.”Again, Mishura requested Focus and Limestone to produce a contract signed by Shakhbabyan to prove they own the IP to his work, and proof that he has been paid.YouTube later restored the trailer, apparently as no legal proceedings followed the initial copyright claim. Mishura observes that while it has managed to spend €60,000 on legal fees to “[protect] ourselves from our previous employers,” it does not have the finance to pursue a full lawsuit against Limestone and Focus.Offering further information on the IP dispute, Mishura claimed it was attempting to negotiate with Limestone to fully transfer ownership to the studio, offering to publicly declare the dispute to be over when they are fully paid for their work.However, the group claims Limestone only offered a smaller sum and only on condition that its former
Game Industry source