John Paul M. Joaquin Tech 10.31.2022 02:Oct AM EDT

IKEA's Cease and Desist Notice Forces Indie Game Dev Forced To Revamp Their Game

IKEA isn't happy with being compared to a video game, much less a horror video game.

The furniture giant had recently sent a cease and desist notice to the indie game developer behind The Store is Closed for committing copyright infringement.

Although Ziggy, the game developer in question, is seeking legal advice as of press time, he is certain he will have to revamp the game to avoid a lawsuit.

IKEA Cease And Desist Notice Details

IKEA detailed many "infringements" Ziggy committed while developing The Store is Closed in its cease and desist notice. According to Kotaku, which was able to review the notice, the furniture giant said that the game's store uses a logo similar to theirs and that it features a Swedish word, much like their own.

Additionally, the store featured in the game is located in a blue-box-like building.

The company added that the uniform the game features is identical to the ones its personnel wear and the store's interior. Not only that, but IKEA pointed out that the store the game is set in has a gray path on the floor, sells furniture that looks similar to the ones it is selling, and the furniture signages look like their own.

IKEA argues that the store in the game is enough for their stores to be compared to it, as evidenced by the game's press coverage. This coverage allegedly threatens the company's brand.

Examples of these are The Gamer's and PCGamesN's headlines for their respective articles about the game.

"All the foregoing immediately suggest that the game takes place in an Ikea store," the company said in the notice.

A quick look at an early alpha version of The Store is Closed does indeed show that the store has a yellow and blue logo and sports the word "STYR," which is either a joke spelling for "store" or the Swedish word for "controls."

Interestingly enough, IKEA isn't a Swedish word. According to House Beautiful, it consists of the initials of its founder, Ingvar Kamprad, the farm he grew up in, Elmtaryd, and the village where the farm is located, Agunnaryd.

Furthermore, Ziggy mentioned that the furniture in the game's store came from furniture asset packs that he bought, meaning he didn't design them at all.

However, there is some merit to IKEA's notice. The company has a trademark for the blue and yellow color combination so that customers know they are in IKEA, and not a similar store.

Similar companies, like Tiffany, also had their logo's color combination trademarked for similar reasons.

However, everything else in its notice, such as its gray floor and signages, is commonplace for furniture stores.

IKEA gave Ziggy only ten days to change everything that the company pointed out or be at risk of receiving a lawsuit.

Ziggy's Response To The Notice

Ziggy is not happy about IKEA's notice, as the game recently reached its final stretch goal, and he was about to prepare an update for all the new alpha testers, per Eurogamer.

"... Now I've got to desperately revamp the entire look of the game so I don't get sued," Ziggy added.

Although he is seeking legal advice on what to do with the notice, Ziggy is certain he will have to spend some time revamping the game to avoid IKEA's lawsuit.

He explained that he doesn't have the financial capabilities to challenge IKEA's lawsuit should he release the game as originally intended.

This revamping could mean that the release of The Store is Closed may get delayed as a result.