Say what you will about Hammerpoint's (formerly) The War Z, but this game just keeps on tickin'. It's survived bad reviews, hacks, removal from Steam, a suspended trademark, and more recently, been forced to change its name to Infestation: Survivor Stories.
The change in name comes from the result of a copyright claim according to a forum post from the game's official site, citing "confusion and trademark issues with a similarly titled property," though the forum post didn't provide a name for the who filed it, or over what specific property.
It's speculated that the property in question is "World War Z," the zombie apocalypse movie starring and directed by Brad Pitt, based on the book of the same name, set to hits theaters this weekend. Ironically, the movie has gone through just about as many hiccups as The War Z.
"While we were reluctant to rename the game so long after launch, especially with nearly 1 million registered players, it was ultimately decided to be in the best interest of our existing community as well as future players in order to eliminate confusion," read the post.
The change itself is purely in name only, and developers are promising that it will in no way affect players, only the game's logo and website.
The War...excuse me, Infestation: Survivor Stories has been plagued with problems even before its so-called "Alpha" release. The game was widely regarded as something of a rip off from the Arma II mod, DayZ, for which a standalone title is on the way. On the first day of the release, players were already calling for the game's removal from Steam, declaring the developers guilty of both false advertising and fraud. Accusations were made primarily over changes made in the game's descriptions, lack of game modes, abuse from the game's moderators, and more.
Eventually, the gamers crying for action were ultimately granted just that, and the game was removed from Steam a day after its release. Within days, its trademark was suspended, and the game's head developer Sergey Titov mustered an apology to the players. But the damage was already done, and the game wouldn't return to Steam until late February. A hack took the game offline in the beginning of April. The game has been struggling and limping along ever since.
Maybe a change in name could help the game escape some of its awful reputation, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
