The heavy metal band demands two million dollars because the game’s name, Ion Maiden is too similar!

Iron Maiden is a British heavy metal band whose biggest success might be the Number of the Beast album, released in 1982. What about Ion Maiden? It’s an FPS, which has been in early access on Steam since February 2018, resembling some of the 90’s biggest hits. There’s not much relation between the two of them, aside from the latter taking out an R from the former’s name.

However, Blabbermouth reports that the holding company behind the Iron Maiden trademark has filed a lawsuit, demanding two million dollars from 3DRealms, the publisher (the game is developed by Voidpoint). „[The] defendant’s Ion Maiden name is nearly identical to the Iron Maiden trademark in appearance, sound and overall commercial impression,” the lawsuit reads, which characterises the infringement as „incredibly blatant” and as a virtually identical imitation.” They also say that Shelly Harrison, the protagonist of Ion Maiden, copies the name of Steve Harris, one of the founding members of Iron Maiden, plus the lawsuit also claims Ion Maiden has the same „look and feel” as Legacy of Beast, Iron Maiden’s smartphone game, which came out in 2016. 3DRealms would not only have to pay the two million dollars, but they also have to stop using the Ion Maiden name, and they’d be required to hand over the ionmaiden.com URL, too.

However, the game is a good concept, but it’s still in development for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch (although who knows what its name will be). It’s a prequel to Bombshell (another recent 3DRealms title), and it’s also the first Build engine game using in twenty years that would be commercially sold. The Build engine was previously used by someone called Duke Nukem in Duke Nukem 3D, too…

Source: PCGamer