Ikea sued the creator of the horror game The Store is Closed, which takes place in a furniture store. It is true that the similarities with the Swedish brand are immense.
Don’t talk about the video game The Store is Closed at Ikea. The furniture specialist has decided to take on this horror project, with a formal notice sent to the Ziggy studio. As Kotaku reports in an article published on October 28, 2022, the Swedish company finds the game too similar to its brands.
On reading the document sent by the lawyers, Jacob Shaw, the creator of The Store is Closedhas ten days to change his game and remove all items associated with Ikea stores “. “ I was going to spend the week preparing an update for the Alpha testers. But, now, I have to redo the whole design so as not to be condemned in court “laments Jacob Shaw, who has no plans to launch The Store is Closed before 2024.
What’s wrong with The Store is Closed video game, according to Ikea
When we look at the Steam page of The Store is Closed, funded on the Kickstarter platform, we can quickly see what displeases Ikea. Jacob Shaw was, it seems, inspired by Ikea stores to design the environments of the game. We navigate in a huge blue building with a big “STYR” logo in yellow. You can find catalogs with labels showing exactly the same look as at Ikea.
These similarities could hardly have escaped Ikea, which believes that The Store is Closed is in a copyright infringement situation. “ Your game uses a blue and yellow logo with a Scandinavian name on the store, a blue building, clothing with vertical lines for staff, a gray path, furniture that looks like Ikea furniture, and signs that look like directions Ikea. All of these hints that the game is set in an Ikea store. », State the lawyers. Jacob Shaw denies this, claiming to have ” bought generic item packs to make this game “, but he will hardly be able to argue against the very powerful giant.
The fact is that many people could make the link between this video game and Ikea, thinking that it is indeed the multinational which is at the origin. Some outlets made the comparison in their article featuring the game (e.g. The Gamer headlined “Someone Made A Co-op Horror Game Set In An Ikea”). The problem? The Store is Closed is a horror game, which may not be good publicity for Ikea. « The Store is Closed is a cooperative survival game that takes place in a furniture store. When the lights go out, the staff attack “, we read on Steam. We understand that Ikea refuses to be associated with it.