Trenched becoming 'Iron Brigade' everywhere; getting survival mode
Double Fine's tower defense-shooter Trenched is being renamed Iron Brigade worldwide, not just in Europe. A new wave survival mode is also incoming, as is paid DLC.
Legal difficulties saw Double Fine's Trenched renamed 'Iron Brigade' in Europe for its launch later this month. However, technical troubles will see that name change made everywhere. The Xbox Live Arcade mech tower defense-shooter's also getting a new survival mode for free, plus paid DLC.
The workings of XBLA meant that Trenched players would not be able to play with Iron Brigade players, and vice versa, if the game had two names, Double Fine's Greg Rice and Brad Muir explained to Giant Bomb. To remedy this, Iron Brigade will become the official name everywhere when it launches in Europe.
The European name change was mandated by a trademark challenge from the maker of "abstract strategy" board game Trench.
Though only the name is changing, Iron Brigade also had to go through the ESRB ratings process again for North America.
To ring in the change, soldiers in the Mobile Trench Brigade are also being treated to a new wave survival mode. Individual waves are semi-randomized, so it'll differ with each play, and online leaderboards will track how many waves players can survive.
Ten new pieces of loot can be unlocked by playing survival, rewarded every five waves. These include new weapons, such as an area-of-effect slowing gun, plus medical garb for your avatar to equip in the form of doctor's scrubs, a head mirror, and an unpleasant single-finger probing gesture.
On top of that, Iron Brigade's getting paid downloadable content with new levels, hats, jackets, and more. Rice and Muir couldn't say much on Friday, but promised more details in the future.
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replyAlice O'Connor posted a new article, Trenched becoming 'Iron Brigade' everywhere; getting survival mode.
Double Fine's tower defense-shooter Trenched is being renamed Iron Brigade worldwide, not just in Europe. A new wave survival mode is also incoming, as is paid DLC.-
Dude, have you read up on this? We ain't talking an "Edge/Langdell"-style toll here. This guy made a legitimate boardgame, and is currently trying to get a videogame version of it developed, so he has a point. The fault here lies with MS, who failed to check trademarks in Europe prior to release...
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Uh, no. It isn't a legitimate complaint. "Trench" is an obscure, poorly recieved boardgame that has been out of print for well over 30 years. The guy only recently just mentioned he was planning a "video game" version as part of his attempt to build his case (providing no details), hoping Microsoft would rather just pay him off instead of bothering with a lawsuit. Unfortunately for him, MS called his bluff and are just deciding to rename it.
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I don't think popularity or success should be decisive factor here, or anybody smaller than EA and Acti-Blizz might as well stop applying for trademarks. Fact is, there exists a product called "Trench", which is more than can be said of anything Langdell claimed in the past 20 years
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Trademarks require aggressive defense to be maintained. Given there has likely been no really challenges in the game's name (board, video, or otherwise) doesn't mean the claim is invalid as in fact the publisher responded pretty quickly that aspect.
Yes, its a shame that they refused to yield, and/or that MS did not consider/overlooked the board game space. But the board game publisher is completely in their right here.
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