Ion Maiden Renamed, Given a Release Date

If you’ve been keeping up with gaming news outlets lately, you’ve likely heard at least a small handful of details about 3D Realms, the developers behind such games as Bombshell. 3D Realms landed in legal hot water due to certain aspects of their newest game, formerly titled Ion Maiden. The game’s title, as well as the typeface in which the game’s logo appears, attracted the attention of legal staff representing the legendary British heavy metal band Iron Maiden.

The band’s lawyers used these similarities as justification for filing a trademark infringement lawsuit against 3D Realms this past May. I discussed my initial thoughts on this whole situation when the lawsuit was first brought to my attention. However, it seems that there have been some new developments within the case since the filing of the lawsuit first came to light.

Details of the lawsuit’s progress are currently scarce; the lawsuit is still reportedly considered as “pending” before the California court in which the suit was filed. Several sources have reported that the band’s lawyers have asked within the suit for at least two million dollars in statutory damages, and possibly more than that for what the suit refers to as “compensatory damages.”

The band’s legal team have also called for 3D Realms to immediately stop using the Ion Maiden name and logo. Additionally, the band’s representatives have called for either the removal of Ion Maiden’s website domain name or the transference of said domain to the band.

It appears that the band’s representatives are making significant progress toward getting what they want out of the suit. News broke just a few days ago that Ion Maiden has now been officially renamed Ion Fury as a result of the suit; the aforementioned Ion Maiden website now redirects users to a new website bearing the Ion Fury name.

As far as I’m currently aware, there hasn’t yet been any word as to whether the band and/or their lawyers will receive any of the aforementioned monetary compensation from 3D Realms. As I mentioned a moment ago, however, it seems as though 3D Realms have complied with certain demands in the lawsuit; that tells me there’s a decent chance that the studio will end up handing over the cash at some point.

According to a statement released by 3D Realms’ Mike Nielsen, it appears that the developers may very well attempt to settle the lawsuit out of court if that option happens to be on the table. Nielsen said in his statement that he believes “it would be a disservice to our loyal fan base and the fantastic developers to drag out a long lawsuit.”

As you might imagine, 3D Realms and its employees want the company out of this legal hot water as soon as possible so that they can return to focusing on game development. I suspect that’s the main reason 3D Realms have acquiesced to some of the demands made in the lawsuit; although two million dollars may constitute a considerable hit to 3D Realms for all I know; it seems they may have to meet such a demand to avoid a potential catastrophe.

On a final note, in the wake of Ion Maiden’s renaming to Ion Fury, the game’s official PC release date has been announced. The game has been in Steam Early Access since February of 2018, and is slated to leave Early Access on August 15th, 2019. That date only applies to the PC version, however; console launch dates have not yet been officially announced.