Chinese game pulled from Steam over theft allegations

Myth of Empires,’ a popular Chinese sandbox strategy game, has been taken off the Steam store after the creators of ‘Ark: Survival Evolved’ claimed it used their source code, which had been stolen by a former employee.

Angela Game is a Chinese game developer founded in 2019 and consisting of “members with over a decade of experience in game development,” its website states. However, according to documents reportedly seen by PC Gamer, a takedown request has been filed against ‘Myth of Empires’ claiming that one of the founders of Angela Game came from the Chinese parent company Studio Wildcard, which developed ‘Ark: Survival Evolved.’ The complaint alleges that this employee had access to, and stole the Ark source code, which he later used as the foundation for ‘Myth of Empires.’

© Myth Of Empires

After noticing several “identical gameplay mechanics” Studio Wildcard developers compared the codes of the two games and allegedly found numerous overlaps such as matching class, variable and function names, leading the team to believe that their original code was heavily used for the development of ‘Myth of Empires.’ This was when the studio filed the copyright takedown request.

“Studio Wildcard and Snail Games USA Inc have a good faith belief that Myth of Empires was built by: (1) stealing the Ark: Survival Evolved source code and (2) using the stolen source code as the gameplay foundation for Myth of Empires,” stated the request filed to Valve, the company behind the Steam store. “Key employees of the developer of Myth of Empires worked at the Chinese parent of Snail Games USA Inc and at least one of them had the credentials that enabled them to access the Ark: Survival Evolved source code.”

Angela Game has so far denied the accusations and has stated it is working on reversing the takedown decision on Steam.

“Our development team solemnly declares: Angela Game fully owns all rights and property associated with Myth of Empires and will actively respond to any doubts or allegations on this point. We are in active contact with Steam and are doing our best to restore the game to their store.”

At the time of writing, the game remains unavailable for purchase on Steam, however, those who have bought the game can still play it, and according to Steam Analytics there are currently over 30,000 people still playing ‘Myth of Empires.’