In December 2019, Paranoia: Happiness Is Mandatory was released to Epic Games Store, but two months later it was removed from sale with no explanation as to why. It seems the reason was because the intellectual property owner wanted it taken down.
PCGamer has found court documents that reveal a complaint filed by Bigben Interactive, now known as Nacon – the publisher of titles like Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong and Cricket 22. Nacon owns many studios, including Cyanide, one of the developers on Paranoia: Happiness Is Mandatory.
The complaint was filed against the rights-holders of the Paranoia property, Eric Goldberg and Greg Costikyan, who have answered the complaint against them and filed a counterclaim.
The problem started when a September 2019 release date was announced, as Goldberg and Costikyan had not approved it and had concerns about “advertising a potentially unrealistic release date”.
