IKEA Sends Cease-and-desist To Indie Horror Game That Takes Place In Furniture Store 'STYR'

You may feel a strange, unnerving sensation walking through IKEA's maze of affordable furniture in-between plates of Swedish meatballs, but the furniture chain definitely doesn't want that creeping dread to be so literal.

IKEA has recently sent a cease-and-desist to solo indie video game developer Ziggy, whose game The Store Is Closed just passed $61,000 in its successful Kickstarter campaign. The game would find players stuck overnight in an evil furniture store that also contains some SCP labs and some creepy ghoulies who serve as the staff.

The setting is clearly inspired by IKEA, notably the logo and storefront. The trailer's opening shot shows the exterior of the game's store, called STYR, rendered in big yellow letters on a blue warehouse, just like a typical IKEA. The inside somewhat resembles an IKEA as well, with its big open floorplan and a seemingly endless supply of furniture. The trailer's narrator even mentions a "café" in the store.

Still, is this enough for IKEA to say Ziggy is clearly infringing on their copyright? It apparently seems to think so. According to the cease-and-desist reported on by Kotaku, IKEA's New York lawyers have written to Ziggy saying:

“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 suggest that the game takes place in an IKEA store.”

Among other issues cited by IKEA is the fact that multiple news outlets writing about the game have used IKEA's name in their headlines. IKEA cites publications that ran headlines like "Someone Has Made a Survival Horror Game Set In IKEA."

Ziggy has 10 days to alter these assets lest he gets sued. As IKEA is a billion-dollar enterprise and Ziggy is more or less "some guy," he tells Kotaku he plans on complying, as he cannot afford a lawsuit of any kind, even if his argument against a lawsuit would be sound.

"I was going to spend the last week of my Kickstarter preparing an update for all the new alpha testers," he said. "But now I’ve got to desperately revamp the entire look of the game so I don’t get sued."

Still, though this situation is crushing for a solo indie game developer, there may be a silver lining for Ziggy. At the time Kotaku reported on the cease-and-desist Friday, The Store Is Closed was reported to have reached $49,000 on Kickstarter. At the time of writing this article, three days after Kotaku's report, that number is now up to $62,000.