Byterunners said in a statement that they do not consider the TVGS game to be a major competitor to the similar style of Schedule 1.

Byterunners, the developer behind Drug Dealer Simulator 2, has said that it would not take any form of legal action against Schedule 1 if it were responsible. The drama has been ongoing since Schedule 1 was released in late March. This game is about drugs: Making, Branding, Selling… A few weeks later, Movie Games S.A., the publisher of Drug Dealer Simulator 2, launched an investigation against Schedule 1 for possible copyright infringement. In response, the public piled on the negative reviews of DDS2 on Steam, as many immediately jumped to the conclusion that they had sued Schedule 1’s developer, TVGS. Movie Games S.A. released a statement shortly after the many negative reviews claiming that there was no lawsuit (we wrote about this as well), but it doesn’t seem to have helped much.

Dear fans, here’s our updated statement regarding the ongoing legal controversy involving our publisher, Movie Games, and Schedule I. pic.twitter.com/oWFT7G5Cv8

— Byterunners (@ByterunnersGS) April 15, 2025

Byterunners has now responded to the whole thing with a statement. The gist of it is that Byterunners does not own the IP and is not ultimately responsible for such decisions. But if they did, they wouldn’t do this – even if they saw some similarities between the two games. Sometimes the interests of the developer and the publisher don’t necessarily align, and this is one such story. Even if there are similarities to Schedule 1 here and there, Byterunners just wants this to be over and done with. But let’s have a look at the announcement:

“Dear fans and communities of both Drug Dealer Simulator (DDS) and Schedule I (S1), after managing the ongoing drama on our side, analyzing the situation, listening to various opinions and feedback, and having multiple discussions both internally in the studio and with our publisher, we wanted to provide an update on our stance regarding the Schedule I infringement investigation launched by our publisher – Movie Games S.A..

We would like to state that despite the fact that we see many similarities between the games, and that some aspects of Schedule I were probably heavily inspired by DDS, we as developers do not feel that we are being robbed by anyone. Keep in mind that we are not lawyers, and the following is based on our personal feelings on the matter. In our opinion, S1 has its own vibe, freshness, and ideas that come from the concept of DDS1, but expand on it and bring it into its own form and style. Frankly, we don’t care how this relates to copyrights and fair competition laws, but we think this kind of inspiration is abundant in game development, creates and improves genres, and – even if it sometimes crosses a few lines – is generally a good thing for the industry and gaming as a whole.

Our stance is based on our personal opinions as developers and gamers. If we had a choice, we would not pursue legal action against Schedule I in any form. As we do not own the DDS IP, we have no direct influence on the decisions made by the investigation or the policies of our publisher; however, we have expressed our concerns and opinions directly to them. We will be actively working to voice our position during this investigation. We want this to end well for everyone, and we do not want anyone involved to face this kind of negativity, fear, or hate. It’s not why we make games and it’s not what we stand for,” Byterunners wrote.

Meanwhile, TVGS just kept quiet, which was probably the best possible idea for them, as it might be a way to get to the bottom of this in a shorter amount of time…

Source: PCGamer