In a bit of amusing news this week, legendary heavy metal band Iron Maiden is suing the developers of 2018 Steam game, Ion Maiden.
No this is not a joke article. The British rockers are demanding $2 million from Ion Maiden devs 3D Realms, because the game’s title will “cause confusion for consumers” while being “nearly identical to the Iron Maiden trademark in appearance, sound, and overall commercial impression”, and “is attempting to trade off on Iron Maiden’s notoriety”.
And that’s not all. Iron Maiden also claims that the game protagonist‘s name, Shelley Harrison, is obviously inspired by their bassist Steve Harris! And if that wasn’t enough, they also assert that the skull icons in the game are similar to their mascot, Eddie.
The Iron Maiden lawsuit, which was filed in Central District of California court on May 28th, has been described by 3D Realms as “frivolous”. The company posted their honest thoughts about the lawsuit on Twitter in a four-part thread. They claimed that they, alongside publishers 1C Entertainment and developer Voidpoint, would “review [their] options” once they receive official notice of the lawsuit. They ended off by assuring fans, “Regardless, everyone continues to work diligently on Ion Maiden to deliver the best possible experience later this year”.
Ion Maiden is an old-school first-person shooter, reminiscent of the original Duke Nukem. This should serve as no surprise since 3D Realms developed the aforementioned game. The game possesses the same fast-paced shoot-’em-up style of said game and has environments graphically similar to those of 90s shooters. Content-wise, it’s not similar to Iron Maiden!
Iron Maiden, on the other hand, is a British heavy metal band who’ve been active since 1975. They are considered pioneers of the new wave of British metal and have sold over 100 million copies of their albums worldwide. They are not a first-person shooter videogame.
That said, the names are amusingly similar.
Do you think the Iron Maiden lawsuit has some merit? Or do you find it ridiculous? Let us know in the comments below.
