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.

Despite how some received the beta, The Division seems to have been mostly well-received so far. However, like all new games it has some issues to work out, and some of those are being solved through patch 1.02, the first major one since release.

Among other things it does a number of things to discourage combat logging. Firstly the disconnect timer has been increased to 30 seconds to stop people logging out to avoid fights they were losing against another player. At the same time the rewards for taking down a rogue player and surviving a rogue status have been increased, as well the the XP and DZ penalties upon death being decreased slightly.

The other notable change is the that stun upgrade to turrets have been nerfed to stop the occurrence of PvP encounters being entirely stunlocked for periods of time.

The full list of changes can be found here.

Those of you who prefer to wait around for a sale before you pick up your games, a chance is just around the corner. Green Man Gaming are about to begin their Spring Sale which will last until the end of the month.

One of the big names involved in the sale is Bethesda’s Fallout 4, just about around the time when its first DLC Automatron is due to be released. The discount is only at 38% compared to some other games’ larger discounts, but a third off the price isn’t that bad if you’re planning to snap up the DLC tomorrow as well.

Other big names involved in the sale include Injustice: Gods Among Us (75% off), LEGO Jurassic World (50% off), The Elder Scrolls Online Tamriel Unlimited – PC (75% off), Total War: Attila and Company of Heroes 2 both at 75% off, Just Cause 3 (33% off) and Life is Strange: Complete (40% off). This is as well as discounts applied to many more games both big name and indie.

Go check it out and maybe you’ll spot a bargain.

After last year’s fiasco over the Skyrim Paid Mods idea, Valve decided that the time would be ripe to give the idea another go. However, this time they chose to do it through Dota 2 – one of their own properties and only through custom game modes which meant that an awful lot of the worries expressed last time would no longer be such a problem. However, it seems that one of the big issues last time  – mod makers ‘borrowing’ content off other makers – can still rear its ugly head.

The system was launched last week and within 48 hours it was discovered that one of the most popular modes added, Roshpit Champions, was using assets from other users and even Blizzard without permission. Itme models and icons have been traced back as matches to potential in-game cosmetics submitted by other members of the community for Valve’s approval, and the icon for crusader_boots is taken from a screencap of Darion and Alexandros Morgaine’s boots, characters in World of Warcraft.

The Reddit thread pointing this out has the mode’s maker, Ryan ‘ChalkyBrush’ Racioppo, attempted to defend his use of the other Workshop users’ content by saying that he had taken from the yet-to-be-approved voting queue: “Anything submitted to the workshop is Valve’s property and can therefore be used in Valve’s game. Roshpit Champions is subject to the same rules, making the game also a property of Valve’s.” He also defended the use of crusader_boots icon by saying “I didn’t think a low-res screencap of a screencap would be an issue. The picture is awful anyway and probably needs a replacement. Does blizzard [sic] care though? In the end, Blizzard is the only one with the right to complain about this low quality image existing in this little sub-realm of Dota 2.”

Luckily for Valve, Racioppo has since changed his stance, removing all the problematic assets from his mode in an update and apologising: “I want to apologize to all the artists who I did not consult in using their amazing works. They spend hours pouring their hearts into this creative content and it is unfair to showcase them within Roshpit Champions with no credit to them.”

Of course, the rules governing such things are clearly stated in the agreement made for those creating Workshop content: “With respect to Workshop Contributions, you represent and warrant that the Workshop Contribution was originally created by you (or, with respect to a Workshop Contribution to which others contributed besides you, by you and the other contributors, and in such case that you have the right to submit such Workshop Contribution on behalf of those other contributors).”

Of course, it’s possible that Valve has intervened behind the scenes to make this happen as otherwise the Dota 2 paid mods thing seems to be going much smoother than their last attempt. We’ll probably never know though.

The in-game economy of GTA Online is giving into March Madness this week as several of the stores are offering up to 75% off the customisation options they offer.

The Lowriders Custom Classics week also offers double GTA$ and RP opportunities for anyone jumping into the various events dotted about Los Santos until next Friday. You’ll be able to pick up a Lowrider custom chassis or bodykit from Benny’s and there’s 75% off Bobbleheads, Custom Gear Shifts and Plaques. Ammunation is having a 50% off sale on the ammo for shotguns and rifles and across the map there’s also 25% off motorbikes. And in case you need more storage space for those vehicles, Dynasty 8 is offering 10-car garage properties for 25% off.

There’s also a Snapmatic competition running through the week with a cool GTA$1m up for grabs. All you need to do is a take a cool hot shot and upload it to Social Club with the hashtag #customclassics to enter.