The indie studio chose not to fight Bethesda in court.
The upcoming Shadow of the Colossus-inspired survival game Prey for the Gods has changed its name to Praey for the Gods following a trademark dispute with Bethesda, according to the developer.
Developer No Matter Studios revealed in a recent newsletter that, after some consideration, it decided it “had” to change the game’s name, as shortly after applying for trademarks for Prey for the Gods, Bethesda parent company Zenimax allegedly chose to oppose No Matter Studios’ mark. According to No Matter, Zenimax believes the original title is too similar to its trademark for Prey, which it acquired from Id Software in 2009.
IGN has reached out to Bethesda for confirmation of the dispute and will update this story with any comment we receive.
In the blog post, No Matter Studios explains it could have fought Bethesda in court, but decided not to as “we didn’t want to spend our precious Kickstarter funds, nor did we want to have to ask for additional funds to fight this in court.” Ultimately, the team decided it wasn’t worth the risk of going to trial or potentially being “sued for millions on trademark infringement.”
“Using backer money towards something that doesn’t go towards the development or backer rewards felt horrible to us,” No Matter Studios explains in the post. “Even if we did win we’d have to spend a solid chunk of our funds and in our opinion it wasn’t worth it.”
The studio has reassured its Kickstarter backers that, despite this issue, Praey for the Gods will still release in December for Steam, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Check out IGN’s Praey for the Gods let’s play for a tour of the game from director Brian Parnell.
Meanwhile, Bethesda’s Prey from developer Arkane Studios will hit store shelves on May 5. Stay tuned to IGN for our review.
Alex Gilyadov is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.