UPDATE: In a statement to NME, Remedy Entertainment confirmed that Take-Two‘s legal filing is a “formality”, and a discussion between both studios was already “resolved amicably” in 2023. The studio’s full statement is below.
“There is nothing to see here – this was a discussion between our teams that was resolved entirely and amicably late last year. Unfortunately, it took a little longer to complete than we had hoped due to some holiday scheduling. The legal filing was simply an initial formality, and Remedy and Take-Two continue to work together in partnership.”
The original story continues below.
Grand Theft Auto parent company Take-Two Interactive and Alan Wake 2 developer Remedy Entertainment are engaged in a trademark dispute over Remedy’s logo.
Trademark claims for two different versions of the Remedy logo were filed in May 2023, but both of the claims are opposed by Take-Two Interactive.
As reported by RespawnFirst, the reason for this opposition is that Take-Two Interactive believes “there exists a likelihood of confusion on the part of the public”.
Both trademarks are currently in what is referred to as a ‘cooling-off’ phase which means Remedy has until May to file a counterstatement in opposition to the filing, unless a further extension is agreed before that time by both parties.
The Alan Wake developer’s new logo was revealed in April 2023, with a blog post at the time explaining the reason behind the change.
“As a game development studio, we have come a long way since 1995 when we got our start. Remedy is constantly evolving,” the post explained.
Remedy Entertainment and Take Two Interactive are in a trademark dispute over Remedy's logo.
Disputed Logo 1: https://t.co/wY29pyReIv
Disputed Logo 2: https://t.co/oOlzd47usG pic.twitter.com/FuIMLRtBdj
— Jake (@usemyhandle) January 15, 2024
“The bullet in the letter R in the old logo represented the era of Max Payne, but the Remedy of now is much bigger than a single game; we have a whole portfolio of games, new and old. It was time to update and redefine our visual identity to bring more consistency, showcase our evolution over the years, and better express our vision of today’s Remedy.”
The situation is especially curious as Remedy announced in 2022 that it was working on remakes of both Max Payne 1 and May Payne 2, with the announcement saying that Remedy has entered a “new development agreement with Rockstar Games”, and thus also parent company Take-Two Interactive.
In other gaming news, Cities: Skylines 2 developer Colossal Order has published a blog post calling out a “growing tendency of toxicity in our community”.