IKEA Takes Legal Action Against Horror Game Set In Furniture Store – Games – News

The developer behind indie horror game The Store Is Closed was instructed in a letter from IKEA lawyers to remove the visual similarities to the furniture store from the game. The game allegedly violated the Swedish company’s trademark.

The Store Is Closed is an unreleased horror game in which the player must survive in a menacing “infinite furniture store”. Be success Kickstarter project as correspondent Steam page they do not contain references to IKEA. However he knows Kotaku to report that the agreements with IKEA are too big according to the Swedish company. “Your game includes a blue and yellow logo with a Scandinavian name on the store facade, a blue square building, yellow T-shirts with vertical stripes identical to the IKEA staff uniform, a gray path running through the store, furniture that looks like IKEA furniture and product descriptions reminiscent of IKEA signs, “the developer was told.

In a statement to Kotaku, IKEA says she is flattered that the brand served as an inspiration for a game, but that the company must be careful that “IKEA brands are not misapplied.” The developer reports to the medium that he has understood the demands of the mobile giant and that he will make changes to the game. However, he points out that, among other things, they exist resources‘were used for the furniture of the game. Anyone can buy these models in-game and it would have nothing to do with the furniture store.

It is not the first time that the well-known furniture brand has served as inspiration for a video game. The construction game Höme Improvisåtion allows users to build IKEA-like furniture, although the game leaves out the literal references to the Swedish brand aside from the seemingly Scandinavian spelling of the name. The Russian shooter Escape From Tarkov is a little less subtle with the IKEA reference; part of the Interchange folder consists of a furniture store that IDEA is called. As far as is known, IKEA has not filed any lawsuit against other game developers.