FTL-like Void War hit with DMCA takedown from Games Workshop over Warhammer 40,000-style shoulder pads

Developer Tundra Interactive ran into an unexpected problem after Void War launched on Steam. Their FTL-inspired space strategy roguelike caught the attention of Games Workshop, the owners of the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

The issue was the visual similarities to the iconic franchise.

Games Workshop sent the developers a DMCA notice pointing to a specific scene from a trailer. According to them, certain elements created a false impression of a connection between Void War and Warhammer 40,000. As Tundra representatives told IGN, the company was particularly concerned about "oversized convex shoulder pads with a metallic rim." Initially, the email from the infringements department signed "Mal Reynolds" – the name of a character from Firefly – seemed like the work of a copyright troll, but it later turned out that was actually the person's real name.

The developers emphasized that all visual content in the trailer was created by their artists. However, they decided to remove the disputed trailer to get the game back on sale and avoid lengthy legal battles. When the image was checked through Google Lens, the system suggested a link to an official Warhammer Community post about the evolution of Chaos Space Marine design – the similarity was that obvious.

The game returned to Steam minus one trailer. Void War builds on the FTL formula with quality-of-life improvements and gameplay innovations. While massive shoulder pads appear in power armor across many games from Fallout to Starcraft, the disputed image was indeed remarkably close to the original Warhammer 40,000 design.

Games Workshop is known for actively defending its intellectual property rights, though the Warhammer 40,000 universe itself drew inspiration from Dune, Aliens, 2000 AD comics, and other science fiction works.

Void War is available on PC.