Egyptian indie video game developer Anas Abdin is suing CBS Corp over allegations that their All Access series ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ included plot elements unique to a game he created.
Abdin first posted the game in 2014 on Steam Greenlight, which is a website that lets game developers get early feedback from players. In his point-and-click adventure game, titled Tardigrades, a giant blue Tardigrade could transport people across the galaxy instantaneously.
Star Trek Discovery was announced in 2015. A major storyline of the first season featured the crew encountering a giant Tardigrade and subsequently using its abilities to transport the ship across the galaxy. In addition to this element, Abdin also claims similarities between characters on the show and his game characters.
An excerpt from Abdin’s blog:
“The last 10 months were so hard on me and the development of the project. I tried every possible way to have a respectful and reasonable discussion with CBS but they treated me in disrespect and just dangled me around with postponing meetings due to their vacations and being busy. The first conversation turned into the last one. I gave them a lot of time to make things right. Unfortunately, I found myself at a dead end with them, and so I had to enforce my rights by filing a lawsuit to treat me seriously.”
Among the list of defendants in the lawsuit are CBS and Netflix.
Star Trek: Discovery’s second season is slated for early 2019.
Source: MediaPlayNews
