In December, Conrad Grindheim of Conradical Games defaced the Steam page for his latest release. (opens in new tab), The Outbound Ghost, and asked people not to buy on other platforms. This unusual move was the result of a dispute between the studio and publisher his Digerati. Conradical he accused Digerati of mishandling the console port of the game, selling the Steam version without approval, and demanded that they relinquish the rights to the game. Digerati filed a lawsuit against Conradical, accusing it of trying to breach its contract.
The Steam page is Restored (opens in new tab) A relatively short order, but this time it’s gone again due to a DMCA takedown request filed by Conradical. In a new video, Grindheim said he took steps after efforts to resolve the dispute amicably failed.
Grindheim repeated his complaints about The Outbound Ghost’s console port in the video and defended his past criticisms of Digerati. “The publisher tricked us into believing that the version to be released was up to agreed quality standards.”
“If I hadn’t warned players about the state of the console version, my reputation in the industry would have been ruined forever through no fault of my own.”
Grindheim also accused Digerati of not paying him “one dollar in royalties”, but admitted that the publisher owed the studio a certain sum, which he earned through a practice known as The Outbound Ghost. Allegedly underreporting income. “Sublicensing” is typically used when a publisher wants to release a physical version of a game or publish a game in highly regulated regions like China, where an external partner is often required. Grindheim said he was familiar with the practice, but he said he was unaware that publishers often receive an advance payment for signing such contracts.
“In short, the publisher sub-licensed the game to a third party without disclosing to us that it had received an upfront payment.” We have money and we are entitled to it.”
Grindheim said Conradical has not yet formally served time in the Digerati case and does not plan to file a countersuit.
“For this reason, we decided the best course of action was to issue a DMCA takedown request to the platform owner,” Grindheim says in the video. , showing the platform owners that the publisher has no right to distribute the game.They are committing copyright infringement by maintaining the page.”
However, the door remains open for further action if needed. “Legal action doesn’t necessarily mean suing them. Issuing a DMCA is legal action,” Grimdheim told PC Gamer on Discord. and we would like to resolve it amicably.”
For now, Conradical is working on a new game. soul stalker (opens in new tab)— “I need to make a living, especially since publishers aren’t paying my company,” Grindheim said in the video. kick starter (opens in new tab) and self-published. As for what to do next if the controversy surrounding The Outbound Ghost continues, Grindheim told his PC Gamer:
Outbound Ghosts have also been removed from GOG, but are still available on the Epic Games store for now. Grindheim said he had no communication with Digerati about the takedown since posting the video. He reached out to the publisher for comment. I will update if I get a reply.
