Source
r/gamedev•
Starchitect

Are there any problems that could arise from giving my game the same name as an existing game?

I have been struggling to come up with a name for my work in progress planet-hopping survival crafting game. I've finally thought of something that I really like, but there are 2 other games on the steam store with the exact same name. Both have under 20 steam reviews (3 and 16) so don't show up on the store without searching really deeply. Both are in wildly different genres from mine (first person horror and 2d rogue like dungeon crawler). Release dates were 2016 and 2019.

Does anyone for see any issues if I was to use the same name?

Posted Jul 7, 2022, 8:40 PM UTC

09
f_augustus•

Do you really want someone googling your game and finding other games which don't have anything to do with yours?

28
Mumbolian•

You obviously know the answer to this. You just want someone to tell you that doing something stupid is ok.

24
StarchitectOP•

Is that so much to ask? In other news if internet strangers tell me to jump off a cliff I'd probably do it.

-5
PatoramaCommercial (AAA)•

Release date and genre don't matter. Basically it's an issue of if your product could be confused with theirs, and in this case the category it falls under is "video game". Could your game be confused with another game, which it seems like the answer is fairly clearly yes. So you're taking a risk that both of those games are small enough that their team either didn't trademark the product or are too small to care about filing an action against you.

If you are 100% set on the name, for sure check with a lawyer who can also check against existing trademarks. But for peace of mind, the easiest path forward would be to choose something else.

12
RealNamek•

Yes, lawsuits, potential loss of income, confusion when marketing to your audience, etc.

6
klausbrusselssprouts•

I think you should be very careful about this. I’m pretty sure you could get into trouble by this.

But as always when it comes to legal issues: Ask a lawyer, not Reddit.

5
wineblood•

Use a suffix if you're that keen on the name. So if the name is <thing>, you can call yours <thing>: <extra bit>

1
morganbarrett•

no, it's actually a misconception that names are used to uniquely identify things

0†
M0romete•

I am in the same boat. The name is fairly simple and used by one other game on steam with a very different genre that’s bassicaly an asset flip. I did my research on the topic and there’s nothing bad that could happen if the other game is not registered with a trademark. After a certain point all the common names are used and it’s ridiculous that someone using the name for something done in a week could be in a state of forever dibs.

-6