Nintendo’s pulled a Last of Us clone from the eShop after Sony’s copyright claim

In a nutshell, Nintendo was recently forced to remove a game from their digital entertainment platform, the Nintendo eShop, due to copyright infringement claims made by Sony. The game in question, SuburbanAutoCombat, was developed and released by the independent studio, ‘Divine Robot’. It seemed to have striking similarities to Sony’s popular game The Last of Us.

Upon the game’s launch, the similarities to The Last of Us were quickly noted by the general gaming community, most notably the main protagonists were almost identical. This appeared to draw the attention of Sony, who then issued a copyright infringement complaint to Nintendo, prompting the video game giant to respond by taking down the game from their digital store.

However, it has not been clear if Sony requested that the game be taken down permanently or just temporarily. Given the fact that Nintendo was swift to comply with the request and remove the title from the eShop makes it seem like the latter.

At the moment, it seems that Sony is content with just getting the game off their platform. Whether or not they will take legal action against the developers is yet to be seen. Regardless, the game’s removal serves as an important reminder about the importance of intellectual property rights.

Since the game was pulled from the eShop, both Sony and Nintendo have yet to make a statement about the situation. Divine Robot has expressed their disappointment but remain strong in the fact that none of their games infringe on anyone’s copyright rights.

In any event, it’s clear that Sony won’t tolerate any type of copyright infringement of its highly acclaimed title. With digital distribution becoming more popular, this case serves as a warning to all independent developers that special attention must be given to avoid any copyright violations. In the end, copyright laws always seek to protect the original creation from being copied and repurposed without permission from the proper owners.