Regarding Drug Dealer Simulator & Schedule I situation

[michal.puczynski]

Hey everyone,

We’d like to address the Drug Dealer Simulator / Schedule I situation and its factual reasons, stage, and future.

What’s going on exactly?

Due to repeated opinions that Schedule I is very similar to DDS, we were obliged to request a legal analysis from an intellectual property specialist. It has indicated that there might have been an infringement by the Schedule I developers in relation to Drug Dealer Simulator.

Now we are obliged to follow up further, but we are yet to contact the Schedule I developers. Our goal at this point is discussing the situation with them and we have an open approach.

Is there a lawsuit?

No.

So why is everyone saying there’s a lawsuit?

Probably due to misinterpreting or overinterpreting an information which was originally in Polish.

What’s next?

Like we said, we need to start a conversation. It is not our intention to prevent TVGS from selling or developing their game.

Overall, our goal is to support all devs, but we need to consider our legal obligations if law specialists determine that there are grounds to claim infringement. We even contacted TVGS via email just before the release, when the game was already huge, and wished them all the best - but that was before that legal analysis. Back then no one expected it to be needed, not to mention that it would bring these results.

This is a very serious situation for us. We’re not a big corporation, but a relatively small indie publisher. There are other drug simulators out there with very positive scores and good sales. These are A-OK in regards to DDS according to lawyers.

What we know is we have to be very careful in all proceedings.

What’s the DDS developer’s - Byterunners - role in all this?

Absolutely none, and please don’t bring them into the conversation. They manage the game, not the IP (intellectual property). They don’t make any decisions in this matter.

I hope this clears things out. If you know gamers outraged by this situation who aren’t on this channel, please share this message with them.

Have a good day, and enjoy your favorite, and your second favorite, drug dealing games, whatever the order is for you. :)

Michal from Movie Games

[klukva]

>we are obliged

No, you're not

[zoeren]

🔥 wow you start moving when enough people are pissed? Interesting.

[KronicGoose]

Thanks to this fiasco I bought Schedule 1, you killed your game on your own accord. You are a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ loser.

[Mazda Rx-8 Driver.]

michal.puczynski lähetti viestin:

Hey everyone,

We’d like to address the Drug Dealer Simulator / Schedule I situation and its factual reasons, stage, and future.

What’s going on exactly?

Due to repeated opinions that Schedule I is very similar to DDS, we were obliged to request a legal analysis from an intellectual property specialist. It has indicated that there might have been an infringement by the Schedule I developers in relation to Drug Dealer Simulator.

Now we are obliged to follow up further, but we are yet to contact the Schedule I developers. Our goal at this point is discussing the situation with them and we have an open approach.

Is there a lawsuit?

No.

So why is everyone saying there’s a lawsuit?

Probably due to misinterpreting or overinterpreting an information which was originally in Polish.

What’s next?

Like we said, we need to start a conversation. It is not our intention to prevent TVGS from selling or developing their game.

Overall, our goal is to support all devs, but we need to consider our legal obligations if law specialists determine that there are grounds to claim infringement. We even contacted TVGS via email just before the release, when the game was already huge, and wished them all the best - but that was before that legal analysis. Back then no one expected it to be needed, not to mention that it would bring these results.

This is a very serious situation for us. We’re not a big corporation, but a relatively small indie publisher. There are other drug simulators out there with very positive scores and good sales. These are A-OK in regards to DDS according to lawyers.

What we know is we have to be very careful in all proceedings.

What’s the DDS developer’s - Byterunners - role in all this?

Absolutely none, and please don’t bring them into the conversation. They manage the game, not the IP (intellectual property). They don’t make any decisions in this matter.

I hope this clears things out. If you know gamers outraged by this situation who aren’t on this channel, please share this message with them.

Have a good day, and enjoy your favorite, and your second favorite, drug dealing games, whatever the order is for you. :)

Michal from Movie Games

Just do it by the book and leave it at that, I love the game that you guys have made i will be playing it again soon enough

[Deinsensai]

I played Shedule 1 now and DDS2, i honestly see no similarities.

Graphics, Music, Story literally everything is different, the only thing thats the same is the Gameplay, guess what, you trade with Drugs and produce them in a "Drug Simulator Game", so what the hell is wrong with you Devs??? Shedule 1 is just ridicilous successful and you do anything to get a bite from that big tasty Cake, but the only thing you will get is the Anger from the Community, GG.

[DetectiveRicey]

good work keep it up

[MadLeeTKG]

You guys stole your entire idea from Weed shop 1.

Drop the lawsuit, or drop your plans to continue making/developing these games further.

[Smketreez]

michal.puczynski lähetti viestin:

Hey everyone,

We’d like to address the Drug Dealer Simulator / Schedule I situation and its factual reasons, stage, and future.

What’s going on exactly?

Due to repeated opinions that Schedule I is very similar to DDS, we were obliged to request a legal analysis from an intellectual property specialist. It has indicated that there might have been an infringement by the Schedule I developers in relation to Drug Dealer Simulator.

Now we are obliged to follow up further, but we are yet to contact the Schedule I developers. Our goal at this point is discussing the situation with them and we have an open approach.

Fun fact for you - Game mechanics are explicitly not copyrightable. They are ideas, methods, or principles, and therefore not subject to copyright <-- source The American Bar Association.

Unless they stole your art, outside of Japan no country allows for the copyrighting of gameplay mechanics...

For instance, let's say a game where you buy cake supplies bake cakes, and then had deliver them to customers pops up on the market. The mechanics would be basically the same as they would for you running around delivering drugs, hence why the law doesn't allow that to be copyrighted. Otherwise we'd have 1 shooter game, 1 soccer game, 1 fighting game, etc.

They didn't steal your art, and you clearly cannot claim copyright over mechanics, so then what are your "lawyers" doing exactly? Other than destroying your reputation with YOUR customers, not theirs, YOURS.

[WickedDKS]

Think for yourself, your legal advisor needed to prove his pay grade. So "Possible Lawsuit" is a lie and you are being used. Congrats on killing your mediocre game and any game in the future. Might as well change your company name now.

[SepSlither]

The only thing that’s similar is drug dealing be for real. Drug dealers should sue you guys with that logic

[Johnny LaRue]

Do you really think it makes you look better when you say that you contacted and congratulated the TVGS on their success *while* you were actively investigating them for infringement?

But don't worry guys! They just want to 'start a conversation'! Maybe converse themselves a slice of that sweet sales revenue, I suppose.

[Smketreez]

Johnny LaRue lähetti viestin:

Do you really think it makes you look better when you say that you contacted and congratulated the TVGS on their success *while* you were actively investigating them for infringement?

But don't worry guys! They just want to 'start a conversation'! Maybe converse themselves a slice of that sweet sales revenue, I suppose.

Basically this. Someone in another thread pointed out the all time player numbers, where DDS and DDS2 didn't even break 10k, while the other game racked up nearly 37k in one day.

This entire thing wreaks of jealousy.

[Areola Grandé]

I'm sure your peak 1,000 players would be so sad if your games got outplayed. You're a third rate developer with a fourth rate game series. cope, Yugi-boy.

[Iziama94]

What I don't understand is that other games didn't launch investigations with other games. Did the the Dev for Lethal Company launch investigations against games like Repo?

Did devs who made Observation Duty launch investigations into other games similar to that?

Or how about the devs who made Exit 13, did they launch investigations into similar games?

The answer is no they didn't. This is solely because Schedule 1 devs did a similar game- but better. This is jealously at its finest. Your 14,000 all time peak players vs their 400,000 all time peak. I'm not going to review bomb your game but I will post this comment simply because jealously and lawsuits will end companies. The second you launched this investigation on the devs of Schedule 1 because they made a game about drug dealing is the second you started hammering the nails on your companies' coffin.

[REDBUSH27]

if this does go to lawsuit and s1 gets removed then you should remove your game to its actually such ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that i had to search the game to even know it existed and on top it was highly priced and was in no way or form, anything close to schedule 1 so this whole infringement case is a waste of time.