After being sued by lawyers belonging to the band Iron Maiden, 3D Realms changed the name of their game Ion Maiden to Ion Fury.
Back in May of this year, the British heavy metal band sued 3D Realms for $2 million over trademark infringement that caused fans to confuse the two properties. Here is some actual text from said lawsuit: “Defendant’s misappropriation and use of a virtually identical imitation of the Iron Maiden trademark creates a likelihood of confusion among consumers. Customers who view Defendant’s video game and merchandise are likely to believe that Iron Maiden is somehow affiliated with Defendant.”
There are a lot of things I could say about this, but we’re just going to move on. The female-led first-person shooter is a throwback to old action-packed 90s’ FPSs like Duke Nukem, which 3D Realms was formerly known for. They passed the long-struggling Forever off to Gearbox, and, uh, that didn’t end so hot. Regardless, Ion Maiden, now Ion Fury, looks to recapture the old DOOM-esque shooter magic, and now it can do so free of legal trouble. We hope.
Ion Fury will release on PC on August 15th digitally, and with a “Big Box” physical edition. With any luck, this affair will have given them a nice publicity boost. And as for Iron Maiden, their brand will continue to exist into the foreseeable future.