ARK: Survival Evolved was a huge overnight hit when it first hit early access last summer. But now, the dinosaur taming survival game could be in serious trouble. Studio Wildcast, the game's developer has been hit by a lawsuit from Trendy Entertainment, creators of Dungeon Defenders. Kotaku has compiled a rather extensive report on all of the documents and emails passing back and forth, but the major point is that Trendy claims Jeremey Stieglitz, its ex-creative director, is in breach of his previously signed contract. Non-compete clauses are certainly nothing new, and Trendy's lawyers are alleging that Stieglitz agreed to several conditions when he left Trendy in 2014. Among these was an agreement not to poach staff from the company, and not creating direct copmetition.
Trendy is arguing that Ark is direct competition, and that its development has seen the movement of staff from Trendy to Studio Wildcard. Interestingly, the non-compete clause has been reported to have been just one year, instead of the standard three. In essence, the clause would keep Stieglitz from creating anything which would damage Trendy financially. A video game would certainly fall under this heading, though the clause would have expired in August of 2015. Trendy also alleges that Wildcard used technology and information from Trendy while developing Ark. This is a key point, because Trendy could make a case for Ark being their intellectual property and not Wildcard's.
In response, Wildcard has stated that Stieglitz wasn't a full time part of Ark's development team. Instead, they have pointed out that Wilcard's co-founder Jesse Rapczak went to college with Stieglitz and that Stieglitz was a consultant on Ark. There are several other bits of information involved in the case, but the most pertinent point for gamers is that this lawsuit could very well result in Ark being removed from sale on Steam. Wildcard are seeking for the case to be dismissed, but the case still has time before it appears before a judge. We'll know more on April 28th, but it seems that this could have serious implications for both studios involved.
