Update: It appears that in response to this lawsuit, Valve removed Digital Homicide's games from their storefront.
Original Story below:
Digital Homicide developer James Romine has been granted a subpoena order against Valve over the identities of 100 Steam users.
Romine, who filed the lengthy subpoena on September 12th, showed evidence that 100 different users on Steam had made statements about the indie developer in the past. Romine, who collected numerous photographs of several Steam users speaking negatively about their products, is demanding $18,000,000 from these 100 Steam users in damages for "personal injury." Judge Eileen Willett sided with Romine, granting him a subpoena for "early discovery" to uncover the Steam user's identities.
The evidence presented included several scanned screenshots of Steam users accusing Digital Homicide of stealing assets for their games and accusing the company as being "con artists" who "stalk and harass" anyone who voices their displeasure with them.
Youtube personality SubAlpha posted a video heavily criticizing Digital Homicide and their current subpoena request, including posting the documents online for all to see.
The subpoena will be handed to Valve, who has the option to contest the subpoena with further litigation if they find it unreasonable. It is currently unknown if Valve will contest the subpoena at this time.
This is not the only lawsuit Romine and his studio have filed. Digital Homicide has also sued gaming personality Jim Sterling over false accusations of the developer stealing assets for their titles and assault because of subsequent harassment done to the studio on social media.
The lawsuit with Sterling is over the game The Slaughtering Grounds, which Sterling showed off on his channel and criticized for its poor quality. Digital Homicide has also been accused of doxxing Sterling on one occasion. Both parties have been quiet regarding the lawsuit, although Sterling has since posted several videos further criticizing the quality of all Digital Homicide titles.
Digital Homicide has eighteen games on Steam, many of which are poorly received by Steam users for their shovelware quality and bug problems. Some of their titles are also released within weeks of each other, with Steam users claiming that the games use stolen assets for faster production times or offering reskinned games and posting them on Steam Greenlight for approval.
What are your thoughts on this entire situation? Is Digital Homicide in the right with this subpoena, or is it a frivolous suit? Leave your comments below.
