Monster Energy sues indie game with “monster” in title, but developer goes on the offensive

The end of the legal dispute is open, but one thing it is likely to be, namely very expensive for the defendants.

Does anything about the title of this game bother you? Dark Deception: Monsters & Mortals. No? Then you’re clearly not working as a lawyer for Monster Beverage or its owner, Coca Cola.

Because the latter combination of concentrated corporate power is notorious for taking action against products that use the term Monster bear in the name or otherwise design the well-known energy drink cans from the point of view of the US-American mega-companies threaten, as reported by PCGamer.

Indie studio wants to fight

Now it has hit the developer Glowstick Entertainment, who released the above title on Steam at the end of 2020. He disclosed the case on Twitter:

link to Twitter content

As Vincent Livings explains in detail as head of the studio on Twitter, he throws notorious copyright troll troll suggested to his studio that the game bore a confusing resemblance to their drinks. But he is determined:

Then dishonest companies like Monster Energy depend on operating their bullying out in secret while outwardly presenting a clean image to their base – composed of athletes and gamers – true. Baring your real face is the only effective way to stop them, he continues.

However, he knows very well that they like trying to get game developers into extensive legal battles for large sums of money to go bankrupt.

He will share all the documents he has received so far to reveal how the group works. In his tweets he also calls for a boycott of Coca Cola products so as not to indirectly support such behavior.

Known monster victims

Monster’s trademark anger has hit other games in recent years, including those from publisher Ubisoft. He was forced to give up the title Gods and Monsters in Immortals Fenyx Rising to rename. There are numerous other cases on this list of a US agency.

One such actions get an ironic touchconsidering that gamers are the beverage manufacturer’s main target group. Sometimes deals are even made with publishers for advertising purposes. For example, a can of the energy drink found its way into the world of Death Stranding.

What do you all mean? Do you think Monster Energy’s behavior is justified or do you think it’s just harassment? And do you think the dev resistance has a chance of succeeding, or should they give up early and rebrand their game? Let us know what you think about this conflict in the comments!