Indie Developer Says Valve Is Blocking Its Game On Steam For…Infringing On Its Own IP

The processes behind-the-scenes at Valve are arcane and impenetrable, where the sloppiest rip-off products in the world seem to be able to release unhindered, while others find their games restricted for inexplicable reasons. The latter is happening to Japanese indie developer Daikichi, which says a demo for its forthcoming Wired Tokyo 2007 has been blocked from release because it violates the “intellectual property from third parties.” Except the party in this case is Daikichi itself.

As reported by VGC via GameSpark, a post to X from the developer lays out the situation, in which the developer explains that (via machine translation) “the motif of a board game I personally created in the past, placed within the game Wired Tokyo 2007, is getting caught by Steam’s side as third-party intellectual property.” As a result, Valve has blocked the release of the game’s promised demo which is currently listed as “Coming soon.”

Steam体験版の審査が遅れていて皆さんすみません、WIRED TOKYO 2007のゲーム内に配置されている過去に自身が制作したボードゲームのモチーフが第三者の知的財産で一生Steam側に引っかかっています。

第三者ではなく私自身の知的財産権を私自身が利用したいだけなので全く意味が分かりません。 pic.twitter.com/XuFvlUVRgH

— WIRED TOKYO 2007 (@Wired_Tokyo) April 29, 2026

Wired Tokyo 2007, due at some point in 2027, describes itself as a “vertical 3D action game where you climb toward the vast skies above Tokyo,” where new abilities are unlocked by diving back down. “A climbing game where falling has meaning,” it says. The free demo seems set to contain a full third of the game, which it should be noted says will use AI-created 3D models and sound sources in “less than 1%” of the final build.

The copyright-violating aspects, as claimed by Valve, include a “dinosaur themed card-games (sic) shown on the environment within your app in gameplay,” which refers to a board game called Dinostone, created by one Daikichi. In Daikichi’s response, they link to the Board Game Geek page for their table-top game which lists the same developer name.

“It’s not a third party,” says Daikichi on X, “it’s just me wanting to use my own intellectual property rights myself.” They add, “I have no idea what the meaning of this is at all.”

Valve wants “license agreements, or a legal opinion from your attorney analyzing the intellectual property issues and explaining why you don’t need licenses,” and says without that “we don’t plan to ship your app.”

Daikichi is left bemused asking, “Where on earth does a public document exist that legally proves I own the rights to my board game works that I released online under anything other than my real name?” before pointing out, “So basically, I just need to hire a lawyer and get an opinion letter? Where’s that kind of budget supposed to come from for an indie game?”

Then over the weekend, rather wonderfully, the developer says they “created a signed document granting myself permission to use all of my created works, including board games, and resubmitted it for the demo review.”

今朝、自分の創作したボードゲーム等の一切の作品の使用を自分に許可します。という内容のサイン付き書類を作成して体験版の審査を再提出しました。

さて、これで行けるといいな。

— WIRED TOKYO 2007 (@Wired_Tokyo) May 1, 2026

We’ve reached out to Valve to ask for comment on this situation, and to see if the company will be able to resolve the issue.