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Square Enix
I've seen my fair share of DMCA notices, but never quite so bizarre. If you missed the news, Square Enix released Life is Strange: Double Exposure, a direct sequel to the first game, about a month ago, and it hasn't been smooth sailing.
The game has a Mixed rating on Steam, and while there are several moments players don't like, one of them is the absence of Chloe Price, the protagonist Max Caulfield's love interest in the original title.
One community took this especially hard: the Pricefield subreddit is dedicated to, you guessed it, the Max/Chloe ship, and naturally, fans there weren't happy with Chloe vanishing. They voiced their opinions in what they thought was a safe space, but suddenly, their posts and comments started disappearing: Reddit began taking them down due to copyright violations, as GameCentral first reported.
The issue is those deleted posts contained public information, like the one with a bunch of developer comments on Chloe, so there is absolutely no reason for complaints by Square Enix.
Square Enix
In an open letter to the company, the community expressed their frustration over Square Enix trying to editorialize the subreddit.
"It’s been both deeply saddening and incredibly frustrating to see how Deck Nine and Square Enix have treated us – one of the most enthusiastic and outspoken offshoots of the fandom," moderator HoHoey told GameCentral. "Not only are they trying to silence genuine criticism and snuff out the voices of rightfully disgruntled fans, they’re also making attempts at intimidating members of the community with DMCA takedown notices and abusing copyright law to control the reach of publicly available information."
So what does Square Enix think about it?
"In relation to DMCA notices, all steps taken were in accordance with appropriate legal requirements and Reddit’s own procedures for reporting intellectual property violations. These processes apply to infringing content shared prior to a game’s release, including leaks or confidential information due to breach of non-disclosure agreements and datamined content. No DMCA notices were sent regarding any posts outside of these circumstances," it said in a statement to the outlet.
Square Enix
I have to say, it's tragic that a big publisher would go after a small group of its fans that will probably stay with the fandom the longest. Hopefully, publicity will help Pricefield find the answers to this unpleasant situation and a positive resolution.
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