All looks a bit fishy
[Update: It appears as though this may well have been an unfortunate misunderstanding, as the save location on the version of Big Fish Legend available from Alawar actually mentions Igry.ru. This screenshot showing the location has been tweeted to us:
While this still doesn’t confirm Igry.ru have the distribution rights to Big Fish Legend, it makes it much more likely they they didn’t simply copy and upload the game to Greenlight as was suspected.
This also still does not answer their actions while going through the Greenlight process. We are currently still waiting for a response from Alawar.]
A game recently released on Steam called Big Fish Legend may have been stolen from its original developers, according to message recieved by Destructoid. According to claims sent privately to Destructoid, it may not be being sold by the true developers.
The Steam page claims it is developed and published by a company called Igry.ru, and is being sold for $6.29/£4.49. All seems above the board at first, but the claims we received do have weight to them.
Igry.ru isn’t a known developer, instead it is a free flash game website in Russia, hosting a whole load of games with dubious copyrights. Big Fish Legend is its only game released on Steam.
It’s also worth pointing out the only reason Big Fish Legend even got through the Greenlight process is due to promising keys for votes, a practise slammed by Valve a while back.
Big Fish Legend is also available as a free demo on the site of Russian developer and publisher Alawar. It already has a presence on Steam, having released quite a few games already. Companies registered as publishers on Steam don’t need to use Greenlight, and can simply release games themselves.
If Alawar wanted to put its free title Big Fish Legend on Steam, why would it be doing a Greenlight under the name of a totally different company? A company which is already known as hosting Flash games?
Now this could all be a big misunderstanding. It is worth pointing out this is based on claims and rumours from unconnected parties at the moment. Igry.ru might well be making a push into the publishing space, and this could all be totally above-board.
Destructoid has contacted Alawar for comment, and we will update should we hear from them.
