One developer embroiled in a reported legal beef with Square Enix wants to resolve the lawsuit, and it's even remaking assets in its new game to do so.
For context, Square Enix tried to revive its somewhat dormant mecha-strategy series when it announced Front Mission 2089 in collaboration with developer BlackJack Studios. That project was scrapped that same year, but BlackJack instead made another mech-based strategy game called Mecharashi, which came out in some markets last year and was due to be released worldwide sometime soon.
Square Enix then recently filed a lawsuit against both the developer and publisher of Mecharashi, claiming that BlackJack used assets from Front Mission 2089's production in the new game. Essentially, even though BlackJack might have made all the mechs and maps and textures in Mecharashi, Square argued that they're still stolen because they were made under the publisher's contract while working on an IP under its ownership.
Mecharashi publisher HK Ten Tree has now addressed the lawsuit, explaining it wants to "resolve this matter amicably" and is sorry "for any concern and inconvenience caused to our users." (Good spot, Automaton.)
Some Redditors even spotted that some of Mecarashi's allegedly copyrighted assets have also been updated, as several icons and textures have been redesigned. That said, Square Enix reportedly supplied 11 pages worth of comparative screenshots to US courts, so Mecharashi might need some more dramatic changes before the Final Fantasy publisher is satisfied.
On Steam, Mecharashi is still listed as 'Coming Soon' and the developer was promoting it via online blogs as recently as March 17.
Here are some of the best strategy games you can play while you wait for the legal kerfuffle to end.
