Vlambeer's Wasteland Kings becomes Nuclear Throne

The roguelike-like top-down shooter Vlambeer announced in August as Wasteland Kings has received a new name, Nuclear Throne, lest anyone think it somehow related to Wasteland 2. It's also shown off more of the game, which sees mutants battling to evolve and rule a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

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The roguelike-like top-down shooter Vlambeer announced in August as Wasteland Kings has received a new name, Nuclear Throne, lest anyone think it somehow related to inXile's RPG Wasteland 2. The Ridiculous Fishing and Super Crate Box creator also shown off more of the game, which sees mutants battling to evolve and rule a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Vlambeer's Rami Ismail explained in a blog post that inXile reached out personally, rather than through lawyers, with concerns that people might mix the two up.

We've been through a lot of trouble with people riding on things of ours, and we understand that American trademark law is pretty strict in that not defending a trademark weakens it. We realize that both games are set in a similar setting, that the names are similar and that InXile obviously felt the need to reach out. Although we aren't sure Wasteland Kings and Wasteland are confusing enough for this to be an issue, both us and InXile really don't want to spend development time on arguing over trivialities.

He added, "This is the way business should work nowadays: between people, not companies, not lawyers, not departments. There's so much paperwork between one and another that it's easy for people to forget that they’re dealing with people instead of numbers and dossiers."

Nuclear Throne will launch in beta on PC at $12.99 some time in October. PlayStation 4, Vita, and Mac versions will follow. Ismail showed the game off at Eurogamer Expo in London last week too. Skip to 25 minutes in for Nuclear Throne, though the rest is interesting too:

From The Chatty
  • reply
    September 30, 2013 8:45 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Vlambeer's Wasteland Kings becomes Nuclear Throne.

    The roguelike-like top-down shooter Vlambeer announced in August as Wasteland Kings has received a new name, Nuclear Throne, lest anyone think it somehow related to Wasteland 2. It's also shown off more of the game, which sees mutants battling to evolve and rule a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

    • reply
      September 30, 2013 9:45 AM

      Props to inXile and Vlambeer for handling this nicely. I bet inXile would have felt forced to go the lawyer route if this hadn't worked, but at least they went the nice route first and this time it paid off, saving both parties time, money and headaches. Win-fucking-Win!

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