Studio Wildcard and their game, Ark: Survival Evolved appeared out of nowhere last year. It came, saw and reaped success. However, we might have to bid adieu to it shortly – their developers are getting sued!

Trendy Entertainment, developers of Dungeon Defenders, sued Studio Wildcard back in December because they claim their former employee, Jemery Stieglitz worked on Ark without respecting his contract’s non-compete clause.

Kotaku got the court documents. These mention that Stieglitz had a three-year non-compete clause which was reduced to a single year that ended in August 2015. However, Trendy claims that Stieglitz contacted them to join a new project. Despite asking Stieglitz not to contact his former employers anymore, he still performed a brain drain, moving people towards Studio Wildcard.

Trendy claims that their game, Dungeon Defenders is a direct rival of Ark: Survival Evolved and Stieglitz „have had a devastating impact on Trendy’s business,” also mentioning that he took trade secrets and technology. In response, Wildcard brings up that Stieglitz was not a key player in Ark’s development, mentioning that this lawsuit is no more than a salacious tabloid story. (While reports say that Stieglitz’s wife is co-founder of Studio Wildcard…)

The case will go to court on April 27. If Trendy wins the lawsuit, they might end up forcing Studio Wildcard to take off Ark from PC and Xbox One, or, at least, halt their development.