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[LordOfLore]

Link.

On November 15, 2016, free-to-play MMORPG Chaos Saga launched in Japan. A day later, its service suddenly stopped after character design similarities between Chaos Saga Final Fantasy XI were discovered. The company behind Chaos Saga has publicly apologized.

Braeve, the publisher behind Chaos Saga, was able to confirm that the game had 24 copyright infringements of Square Enix’s characters and monsters from FFXI and FFXII.

Braeve and service provider DMM Games both issues formal apologies.

“Because of this work’s copyright infringement, we deeply apology for the significant trouble this has caused Square Enix,” Braeve said in an official statement. Braeve added that this was caused by insufficient staff to properly check the game’s assets. Braeve reflected on the trouble it caused and said it’s taking steps to prevent this from happening again.

In a statement Braeve put out late last December, in which it apologized to those connected to this release but not directly to Square Enix, it explained that the Chaos Saga was developed by a foreign studio named Lingyao. Braeve licensed the game to localize for Japan.

DMM Games, which released Chaos Saga, is also now apologizing, writing, “We would like to apologize from the bottom of our hearts to Square Enix and everyone at the company for all the trouble caused by violating Square Enix’s copyright.” DMM Games also stated it was taking steps to prevent this from happening in the future, ending its statement with another atonement. “Regarding this situation, we would like to offer another proud apology.”

Not sure why this has taken this long, but there you go.

 

[Jotaka]

This seems a problem of outsourcing your work to some other country lol

 

[Finale Fireworker]

It's not really related, but this reminds me of the time a Chinese(?) company made a game with a 3D Yoshi model and claimed they didn't know it was Yoshi and they'd simply found it in an asset bank.

It's basically impossible to believe the company they outsourced to didn't know what they were doing. Would they get sued?

 

[mieumieu]

This seems a problem of outsourcing your work to some other country lol

What? No. This is a problem if you don't verify your stuff. Square Enix uses a lot of outsourcing too.

 

[DukeLongfellow]

So, if I am understanding this correctly, they weren't legally contacted by SE in any way but addressed the problem and apologized due to word of mouth?

If that's how it happened then it is a nice example of taking responsibility.

 

[Spoony Bob]

FFXI seems to have a bad habit of getting its models snagged up. Friend that I used to play the game with sent me this one day.

If you've played FFXI, you'd recognize those crabs anywhere.

 

[Loona]

Odd delay... I can't help but wonder if it would have happened if SE promoted XI and its characters a bit more to make them and their general aesthetics more recognizable, so that something like this could have been caught and prevented earlier...

 

[kromeo]

Lol they didn't even bother changing the bastok logo on the apron