Old School Rally gets hit with a DMCA and taken down from Steam

Showing just how tough game dev can be for smaller teams and solo devs, Old School Rally has been hit with a DMCA and the Steam store page is gone. This is hopefully only a temporary situation, while the developer of the game works through the issue.

Writing in a Steam forum post the developer noted how they sourced certain car models from Sketchfab, a website where people can share and buy 3D models. The game developer said they spoke to the original uploader to verify approval for use in the game. All of that was agreed, so the game developer continued using the models and released the game with them. Unfortunately, a week ago the game developer received a claim of ownership over the car models from someone else. The original uploader of the car models maintained they own them, and the game developer reached out to the claimant to explore solutions. Sadly, "on Monday Old School Rally was abruptly issued with a DMCA takedown notice, prompting Steam to temporarily remove the game from the store as per their policies (which is standard practice)".

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So for now the game store page is just gone. The game developer is planning to update the game to lock the models and note they will return, as they're working on "all-original car model designs that still show resemblances to the classic legendary rally cars that we all love as replacements in waves".

What a sticky situation. Dev grabs models with the author's permission, and it turns out they might not actually own those models. Just goes to show how difficult it can be for game devs sourcing art from elsewhere. And, with the rise of AI generation, that might only get more troublesome.