FTL-like Void War hit with DMCA over 'oversized convex shoulder pads'

Void War is an FTL-like space strategy roguelike that drew attention for its resemblance to Warhammer 40,000. Games Workshop issued a DMCA notice after the game went live on Steam.

The developer, Tundra Interactive, initially thought the email was a troll because it was signed 'Mal Reynolds', but the message proved legitimate. Tundra took the game down and asked what to change; Games Workshop said its concern was limited to a single trailer shot, pointing to "the oversized convex shoulder pads with a metallic rim." Tundra maintains the artwork was original but removed the trailer to avoid getting bogged down in the DMCA process.

Void War is back on Steam with that trailer removed. The contested image was described as strongly resembling a Chaos Space Marine, with Google Lens even suggesting a Warhammer Community post, and the backpack singled out as especially Warhammer-like. The game also adds a number of quality-of-life tweaks to the FTL formula and offers a demo.

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