"Hang tight": Minecraft-inspired sandbox game returns to Steam as Microsoft drops DMCA claim, but demo issues persist

In a remarkably quick turnaround, the Minecraft-inspired adventure Allumeria is back on Steam after being taken down due to Microsoft allegedly filing a DMCA claim. Developer Unomelon made the announcement today, February 11, with limited insight into the finer details for now.

"Microsoft has withdrawn the copyright claim with no action needed on my part," Unomelon claims on the game's official Discord server. "This is the best case scenario."

Allumeria Demo Trailer - YouTube

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Unomelon thanks everyone who spoke out about Microsoft's alleged claim, which presumably stemmed from an apparent likeness to Minecraft. The process rendered Allumeria inaccessible through Valve's marketplace, and oftentimes, the only option for rebuttal is to make a counter-claim, opening the possibility for litigation.

"My hope is that automated claims like this are investigated or prevented in the future. DMCA claims can do serious damage to independent creators like myself," the developer states. Allumeria is suffering a knock-on effect, as some users say they can't access the early access demo due to an error, and Steam support hasn't responded to inquiries on the dev side yet.

"No update on the demo situation yet, it's not office hours right now for Steam support," Unomelon says in a follow up message on Discord. "Hang tight."

The whole debacle is starting to look like a good case study in the flaws with the current systems for making DMCA claims. Hopefully, the Allumeria demo is back up soon, but in the meantime, if you've tried to get the demo and had problems, the best thing you can do is tell Steam and Unomelon.

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