Automobilista Subject to Copyright Claim

[Paul Jeffrey]

Reiza Studios' newest title Automobilista has been temporary removed from the Steam digital distribution platform due to a copyright infringement claim. The title was removed from the Steam storefront Tuesday night.

Reiza Studios made the following statement to their fans and customers today:

"The Steam store page for Automobilista has been taken down due to a copyright infringement claim which had been submitted to Valve.

As is known, Automobilista packages a variety of officially licensed cars & brands alongside fictionalized, originally created content. The claim in question does not make any specific reference to content present in Automobilista supposedly in infringement of the party´s copyright - until it does, our belief is that it has no merit.

We have already taken the appropriate measures to resolve the issue ASAP, but in accordance to Valve´s policy, the process may take a few days to be completed.

In the meantime time we will continue to progress with the development of Automobilista, and intend to release another Early Access update shortly. The game is available for purchase as part of our Membership packages from our forum store.

Please understand that until the matter is fully resolved, we may not be able to discuss it."​

If you previously purchased and installed Automobilista through Steam, you will still be able to play the current Early Access build 0.8.7r both off- and online.

Dont forget to check out the RaceDepartment Automobilista forum for discussion and news on the Reiza title. Why not have a go in one of our daily Club Races run across a number of tracks and cars with large grids and close racing.

Update April 5th: Renato Simioni made a statement that can be seen here

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Wouldn't be surprised if Codemasters think there F1 games dont sell well because off mods and ''F1'' cars in other games.

You can rule Codemasters out as gamers will buy their official formula one game anyway, regardless of mods being available in other games. I know I do.

 

[Martin Larsen]

You can rule Codemasters out as gamers will buy their official formula one game anyway, regardless of mods in other games. I know I do.

Yeah, as I told later I don't think Codemasters have anything to do with it, dont think AMS will hurt there sale that much... But still, in game world these days with the licence wars then I wouldn't be surprised..

 

[Chris]

You can rule Codemasters out as gamers will buy their official formula one game anyway, regardless of mods in other games. I know I do.

I'm not buying another Codies F1 game until they bring back Rob the Geordie Race Engineer. I loved that cheeky bastard. #BoycotCodemasters #WeWantRob #IfItAintGeordieIDontUnderstandIt

 

[ThatRacingGuy]

How will crowdfunding refunds work if F1 finds out they took other peoples money to build a car that violated copyright laws?

Who Don't even know if it actually was FOM who maked the claim..

I think it is Stutgard

 

[Austin Ogonoski]

These reputable sources are just copy / pasting the same incorrect information that our pretend journalist is spreading.

Were tons of mods removed? Yes. Did they fill 30 pages when merged into a single thread? Yes. Was the FOM behind it? Yes.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Were tons of mods removed? Yes.

Do some fact checking for once. There haven't been 30 pages of mods removed.

Edit: just checked it again. 78 mods have been removed out of a total of 9000.

78 / 9000 x 100% = mega clickbait drama

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

Did they fill 30 pages when merged into a single thread? Yes

Does that = 30 pages of mods? No.
There is a difference there, though, we all know what get's the clicks.

Oh, and I cannot wait for this post to be used in one of your articles, most or being quoted, halfway or something.

 

[heresy666]

So, the FOM is jealous that Reiza was able to make better top-tier open wheeler content than anybody they've ever licensed could have ever done. Definetely F1 is the greatest example to see how to piss off your fans. Just because they own the rights of the Formula 1, doesn't mean that you own the rights of the concept "top-tier open wheeler".

 

[Leonardo Chaves]

Reiza might've flown too close to the sun with it's mock F1 liveries and names, Pcars seems safe.

FOM's attitude with the F1 license is all wrong honestly, games and the internet shouldn't be used as quick cash ins, they should be a way to bring new fans to the sport and get them hooked.

F1 games went downhill since they went exclusive, and guess what? They aren't even top sellers anymore, something like Pcars outsells them easily, never mind GT and Forza which are established franchises.

How great would've been a world where we get F1 games from Reiza, S3, Kunos, SMS... and Codemasters (they would do much better if there was competition).

 

[Austin Ogonoski]

Do some fact checking for once. There haven't been 30 pages of mods removed.

Then why weren't you guys (and others) touching this story when it was fresh to ensure maximum accuracy? Six major sim racing news outlets, and while Formula One is literally attacking our community, a Kunos press release and R3E trailer are somehow more important?

 

[Kurei]

In the meantime, anyone wanna trade some V10-skins behind closed doors?

We can make it like prohibition again, "screw you FOM, I'm taking the red top-tier open wheeler, and racing it against my buddy in the blue one"

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Then why weren't you guys (and others) touching this story when it was fresh to ensure maximum accuracy?

So because you choose to run a tabloid filled with mainly speculations, wrong facts and outright lies we need to correct your stuff because you don't check your facts? No thanks.

We have been under attack for many years and never felt the need to public bring this as news as it isn't news. It is just an agency bullying the internet (in the mod cases mostly rightfully and in other cases not rightfully) and by blowing it up to epic proportions (clickbait ftw right?) you are giving them exactly what they want to achieve: spreading fear among the F1 community, premier league community, dakar community etc.

So great job done in facilitating them

 

[Austin Ogonoski]

So because you choose to run a tabloid filled with mainly speculations, wrong facts and outright lies we need to correct your stuff because you don't check your facts? No thanks.

We have been under attack for many years and never felt the need to public bring this as news as it isn't news. It is just an agency bullying the internet (in the mod case rightfully and in other cases unrightfully) and by blowing it up to epic proportions (clickbait ftw right?) you are giving them exactly what they want to achieve: spreading fear among the F1 community, premier league community, dakar community etc.

So great job done in facilitating them

I did my best to check my facts.

 

[Yapci]

Just sell a vanilla game.
Give the mods for free.
Don't do skins.
Don't call them barrari, panoult, boxer cup...

This is stupid but...money makes the rules.

FOM is scared that a small company did a real simulation of their cars...that's how good Reiza is!

 

[paracletus]

Slightly concerning for the game.
Probably nothing to worry about.

 

[fortyfivekev]

At worst I guess Reiza may need to change some names and liveries but you cannot copyright the idea of a single seater car and who really cares whether the cars look like real life ones it's how they drive that counts.

 

[MoerasGrizzly]

This is great news! Automobilista is now so popular that it's getting into legal trouble

 

[budlix]

meh. uh. rewriting my wrong post.
So we know it was FOM who complains or are we only rumoring or it is public secret?

 

[Paul Bennett]

This is great news! Automobilista is now so popular that it's getting into legal trouble

They say there's no such thing as bad publicity

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

I did my best to check my facts.

And what answer did you receive on that request? Indeed: none. As it's none of your business. Just like other media who contacted us through the right channel (email and not a private profile on facebook). If we want to say something about it (which we don't as there is nothing to say) we can do that ourselves.

Go make screenshots of stuff that actually contributes to our little sim racing niche instead of trying to break it down and make it smaller as it is already.

And this is the last comment on this off topic stuff and I advise you to do the same.