Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
PC Gamer
PC Gamer
Justin Wagner

Stalker dev GSC Game World DMCA'd a Stalker-inspired indie off Steam⁠, and the devs are crying foul: 'This is an abuse of power against small independent developers by a large corporation'

A player smokes a cigarette in first person while their comrades drink vodka and play a guitar in Misery.

On Friday, the indie dev behind co-op survival horror shooter Misery uploaded a post to its Steam community hub page with an image of a crying cat as its header. Titled "We are under attack!", the post outlines something you may have noticed if you've played the game or tried to buy it today: it's been delisted from Steam following a DMCA strike initiated by Stalker developer GSC Game World.

The post features screenshots of an email from Valve sent to Misery's 19-year-old, largely solo developer Maewing, and publisher Ytopia. It states that GSC Game World reported Misery for "use of [its] game content without [its] authorization" and includes a handful of screenshots showing similar scenes from both games, two of which show a group of survivors with scavenged gear and gas masks playing a guitar by a campfire.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.