This company is accusing No Man’s Sky of using its world creation formula without permission


Image: gamespot.com

There is just one more month before No Man’s Sky is set to release, and the ambitious game has been involved in another litigation battle. Prior to this, the developer, Hello Games, was involved in some legal discussions with UK’s BSkyB corporation so that they could use the word ‘Sky’ in the game.

Image: blog.us.playstation.com
Image: blog.us.playstation.com

According to a report of Telegraaf.nl (translated using Google Translate) the patent of the ‘formula’ used by Hello Games in creating 18 quintillion planets in No Man’s Sky is with a Dutch company named Genicap. It also further added that Hello Games isn’t even licensed to use that particular patent.

Jeroen Sparrow of Genicap said, “We haven’t provided a license to Hello Games. We don’t want to stop the launch, but if the formula is used we’ll need to have a talk.”

 

Image: www.polygon.com
Image: www.polygon.com

Sparrow added that Genicap is also using the formula to make a game of their own, and they would love to share the knowledge with Hello Games. However, Hello Games hasn’t really responded to any of the calls by Genicap, yet.

We are not sure how strong Genicap’s claims on the ‘superformula’ are, but they haven’t seen the source of No Man’s Sky for sure. In an interview with New Yorker back in 2015, Sean Murray, the creator of No Man’s Sky, mentioned that he discovered an equation by Johan Gielis known as ‘Superformula,’ which helped him in prevailing over some shortcomings in the game. Johan Gielis, a Belgian plant geneticist, published that ‘Superformula’ back in 2003.

Image: peoplecheck.de
Image: peoplecheck.de

The thing which makes the complaint look legitimate is that Johan Gielis is the Chief Research Officer and a member of the board at Genicap. With reports citing that No Man’s Sky is based on the ‘Superformula,’ its patent being with Gielis or Genicap could turn the events in another direction.

Hello Games hasn’t made a comment in this matter yet, and we hope that Hello Games hasn’t used the ‘Superformula’ inappropriately. We don’t want another issue which could keep out Man’s Sky from releasing next month.