IKEA sends solo indie dev cease and desist letter to change horror game setting

Furniture and homeware store IKEA has sent out a cease and desist letter to an independent game developer due to the game’s similarities with the furniture store. 

One Indie game has managed to get the attention of IKEA for all the wrong reasons. The furniture and homeware franchise has sent the game’s developers a cease and desist letter. The reasoning? Because the horror game takes place in a store that looks very similar to IKEA.

The game in question – The Store is Closed – is a co-op survival horror game. The game may take place in a furniture store. However, the official blurb of the game doesn’t exactly scream IKEA. As written on the official Steam page, the blurb for the game is as follows:

“When the lights go out, the staff attack. You’ll need to craft weapons and build fortifications to survive the night. Explore the underground SCP laboratories and build towers to the sky to find a way out.”

IKEA wants the game changed as soon as possible

As first reported by Kotaku, the IKEA legal team has taken action against the developer. Not only that but the furniture franchise wants the game to be taken down entirely. Developer Jacob Shaw has allegedly been given ten days to “change the game and remove all indicia associated with the famous IKEA stores.”

“Our client has learned that you are developing a video game, ‘The Store is Closed’,” the legal letter explained, “which uses, without our client’s authorization, indicia associated with the famous IKEA stores.”

The letter then explained the exact issue with the game, and what about the content IKEA has taken issue with.

“Your game uses a blue and yellow sign with a Scandinavian name on the store, a blue box-like building, yellow vertical striped shirts identical to those worn by IKEA personnel, a gray path on the floor, furniture that looks like IKEA furniture, and product signage that looks like IKEA signage. All the foregoing immediately suggests that the game takes place in an IKEA store.”

And while IKEA may believe that Shaw has designed the in-game furniture store to resemble the inside of IKEA, the developer revealed that he “bought generic furniture asset packs to make this game.”