Free-to-play browser title Project Tank, a World War II-based tank fighting title, has apparently come under fire from World of Tanks publisher and developer Wargaming. According to a recent statement from Gamebox, Project Tanks website and Facebook page were recently been taken down. The message cites a Wargaming intellectual property infringement claim as the reason. The Project Tank website and Facebook app page now display the following message:
Wargaming.net LLP (developer & publisher of World of Tanks) has recently launched a series of underhand actions against Project Tank, including using their connections to shut down our facebook page (http:/www.facebook.com/projecttankofficial), over PTs purported infringement of their intellectual property rights.
Continuously sabotaged by Wargaming, Project Tank and Gamebox have never intended to pose a threat or compete at any platform with World of Tanks. The graphics used in Project Tank are our efforts to reconstruct WWII battle scenes. We feel truly shocked and bullied by Wargaming, a giant company of the gaming industry who is apparently threatened by a closed beta phase browser game aiming to provide a cheaper, fairer, and more accessible war game to players around the world.
As we are dealing with this issue with legal measures to protect this game, the PT closed beta has now come to an end. The open beta server will be open in approximately a month.
Its hard to deny that there are some similarities between the two games, but is it a case of infringement? Tell us what you think in the comments below.
Weve contacted Gamebox and Wargaming both for further comment.
Source: Gamebox Press Announcement