Void War’s Epic Encounter: DMCA Drama from Games Workshop

When Your Game Looks Too Much Like Space Marines

Imagine pouring your heart, soul, and a generous amount of caffeine into creating an awesome game only to get slapped with a DMCA notice because it vaguely resembles another franchise. That’s exactly what happened to the developers of Void War, a game that’s basically a love letter to the roguelike genre and a space strategy sim, but with a whole lot of metallic characters and oversized shoulder pads. Spoiler alert: it’s a lot like Warhammer 40,000, and folks at Games Workshop caught on pretty quickly.

The Shoulder Pad Saga

So here’s the deal: after launching on Steam, Tundra Interactive received a cease and desist from Games Workshop, citing that their game included some seriously recognizable elements. The email signature? Signed by someone named “Mal Reynolds” – yes, that Mal Reynolds from Firefly. At first, the creators thought they were getting pranked by a copyright troll! But lo and behold, it was the real deal – Gamers Workshop is really Miss and Mr. Rights Protection.

Tundra Interactive took the hint and pulled the game down, scratching their heads over how they could get back up in the gaming cosmos. Games Workshop was cool enough to clarify that their beef was about a particular scene in a trailer that made it seem like Void War was an undercover agent for the Warhammer universe. Their primary concern? Those infamous shoulder pads that many would recognize as the hallmark of a Chaos Space Marine.

The Tundra folks decided to avoid a long, drawn-out DMCA saga and simply removed the controversial trailer. And guess what? Void War has happily landed back on Steam with one less trailer in its fleet! While oversized shoulder pads have been a staple in gaming’s power-armored armory, that one image was so on-point that even Google Lens couldn’t help but suggest links to the official Warhammer community posts!

Let’s not pretend that Warhammer 40,000 is an original work either! It takes inspiration from everything from Dune to Aliens and so many more creative sources. But there’s a line between inspiration and outright imitation, and that’s a boundary the developers were eager to keep clear. Despite the hiccup, Void War adds some juicy twists to the FTL formula and gene reloads it with quality-of-life improvements, making it worth checking out if you’re curious about the intergalactic adventure.
So go grab the demo, see for yourself, and maybe try not to think too much about those shoulder pads!