Sometimes when you make a video game ,you forget to check if someone else beat you to the name. Such is the case with indie RTS Battlestation: Harbinger, who has received a cease and desist asking them to change their name in the next three weeks.
While developer Bugbyte has not named who has sent them the cease and desist, the likely culprit would be Square Enix. In 2007 Eidos developed and published Battlestation: Midway on the Xbox 360 and followed it up with its 2009 sequel Battlestation: Pacific. It's very likely Square Enix got the IP when they bought Eidos the same year. Bugbyte has noted that this was entirely their fault, and that the company that sent them the request did not press any financial actions and were very kind.
Bugbyte does have to change the name of their game though, and they're turning to the community for that. Asking for new suggestions on their forums, Bugbyte has laid out two requests: first that the new title can not use "Battlestation" in any way, but it can still use the word "battle" in some other way. Second Bugbyte says that the name should describe the game, and that extra consideration will be put into a unique name that can be used for future games in the same universe. It also sounds like they plan to keep the "Harbinger" part of the name, so the new name should flow well with that. While they are asking fans for something better, Bugbyte did note that they were considering two names of their own: "Battleversum" and "Astroverse".
While getting a cease and desist from a major company would usually but a bit of a sour note on your day, Bugbyte is instead choosing to have some fun by releasing a new update to go with the game. Titled "Trademark Update", the updates adds a new human ship to the game called the "BSE Trademark", which will have the letters TM written all over it. The update also allows the player to unlock and play with alien ships, something that has been a request for a long time it seems. Finally, they are adding some of the unlockable ships to the reinforcements ship list as well.
Battlestation: Harbinger is available right now on Steam for $9.99, or iOS and Android for $3.99
