Automobilista Store Page on Steam now reinstated (UPDATED)

The Steam store page for Automobilista has been taken down due to a copyright infringement claim which had been submitted to Valve.

As is known, Automobilista packages a variety of officially licensed cars & brands alongside fictionalized, originally created content. The claim in question does not make any specific reference to content present in Automobilista supposedly in infringement of the party´s copyright - until it does, our belief is that it has no merit.

We have already taken the appropriate measures to resolve the issue ASAP, but in accordance to Valve´s policy, the process may take a few days to be completed.

In the meantime time we will continue to progress with the development of Automobilista, and intend to release another Early Access update shortly. The game is available for purchase as part of our Membership packages from our forum store.

Please understand that until the matter is fully resolved, we may not be able to discuss it.

 

As previously reported, Valve & Reiza had received a DMCA notice for Automobilista, which resulted in the game being taken down from Steam for a couple of weeks according to the regulated standard procedure. The matter was discussed and clarified with the complaining party who withdrew the complaint, shortly before it was due to elapse.

We have in any case elected to modify several of the fictional cars in the game to feature different designs, and will continue to update them as a preventive measure to avoid similar confusion about whether part of the content in the game presented & branded as fictional / unofficial is indeed so. Many of these changes have already been introduced in the latest v0.8.9 update.

While current US jurisprudence regarding application of copyright / trademark law in videogames indicates the legal validity of such claims may be debatable, ultimately it shouldn´t really matter as we feel the inherent value of Automobilista does not relate to the visual accuracy (or lack thereof) of some of its unofficial cars, but rather to the quality and realism of the racing experience that it provides and which we produce.

With this hopefully established, we´d like to thank everyone for your continuing support - rest assured we have been and continue pushing hard towards getting Automobilista ready for full release!