My game was deleted and put under review a week ago at about 2 AM EST. I received no warning prior to it being deleted, and I haven’t received any information about why it was deleted to this day. I went through the support form to see if I could get a reason for the deletion and to see if there was anything I could do to bring the game back, but I still haven’t heard anything after a week, and my community is very upset. I also contacted a member of developer relations four days ago to see what could be done, and he said he would be able to advance the ticket, but I still haven’t heard anything.
Fourteen hours after the game was deleted, I received a right to erasure request. This is strange because I haven’t received one in the past, and the game was already deleted at that point. Additionally, I found a similar post, however they received an actual reason for their game being deleted. I’d assume that the reason is the same for my game because it was based off of a popular anime, One Punch Man, but I can’t be sure. Still, I would think that I can change the copyrighted content and re-release the game as many games in the past have done, but doing so is difficult when there is a lack of communication between developers and staff.
I’d appreciate any feedback about this issue and ideas for what to do.
Edit: The situation has been resolved. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to restore the original game even if the copyrighted content was removed without getting in touch with Bandai Namco (who filed the DMCA notice). Major screw up on my part with deciding to make a game based off of someone else’s ideas. Obviously don’t use other people’s IP, and be patient because the support form responses can take a week or two.
well that is what i had to do, i sent a ticket to roblox a week ago and they have not responded, what people have been telling me is that if you remove whatever is copyrighted in your game and tell roblox, they will bring it back up, but considering your game is based of something entirely that might be copyright protected, i don’t know if the fate of your game will be too good
The interesting thing is that many One Punch Man games exist on Roblox, and they have never been taken down due to copyright before. Additionally, the game itself has been up for six months and hasn’t been updated in about three due to fears of this exact thing happening. I also don’t 100% know that the problem is copyright because I was never given any information about why it was taken down, although I don’t have any idea what else it could be.
So I checked out the game and looking at it I have noticed this was an Anime genre game which anime games are a heavily copyrighted subject you may have had copyrighted assets or names.
No, I received no warning whatsoever on any platform. The only piece of information I received relating to the game was the right to erasure request, which was after the game had been deleted.
It could have been a mistake or misunderstanding by the roblox moderators for them to delete your game, especially without a reason, so don’t blame yourself, as it might have been a mistake and your game might not had been copyrighted at all, but i suggest you send emails to roblox for what happened and if you can the game back up, but I hope that you don’t have to duplicate your game just like I did with mine, because your game has important data, so I hope roblox does something about your game.
Roblox has every right to close games that break the rules mistakes rarely happen, in the last period with the virus the answers have slowed down and it may seem that the roblox staff does not consider you, There are actually many other people waiting for an answer maybe just have more patience, for a big comunity like you,is frustrating, but roblox is the only one who can help you in this situation.
So my suggestion is just to wait a little longer.
Mistakes rarely happen? Sir Roblox moderation is horrible!
Just a few weeks ago they deleted a game because they thought it was scamming players when it was just an obstacle course game that has been up for years! They falsely ban players and the report system can be easily abused to get someone terminated. Yes I do believe they have every right to terminate games that break the rules. But removing without warning is honestly bad on Roblox’s part. Not to mention how bad their moderation is already. Trust me, Roblox makes mistakes all the time.
In the Roblox TOS, it states that Roblox doesn’t have to provide an actual reason to take down something so that can be apart of the case of them not providing a reason. I’m sorry your hard work got taken down but I’m sure that these companies apart of animations are just now starting to see these games with stolen assets mainly Bandai who is taking down multiple games.
The game doesn’t have any stolen assets, only names from One Punch Man. Roblox may not have to inform developers if they take down their game, but Roblox’s copyright guide states that if you receive a DMCA notice then they will tell you both in email and Roblox messages. I haven’t received either of those, or a moderation warning on my account.
If characters are too similar to copyrighted characters, even if you changed the name, or made very slight modifications, if its very obvious that its a copy of the design:
It will be at risk of a DMCA/copyright issue. Regardless of work arounds.
Safest bet would be to make your own characters and differentiate yourself from OPM
Based off searching through twitter posts, I can conclude that sadly, yes, this deletion was warranted.
Though honestly, It would be nice if roblox gave a heads up before deletion/similar issues
Notes:
Red circles indicating risks of copyright issues.
Yeah, I was initially foolish and just trying to create a game which was similar to an older One Punch Man game on Roblox. I’m not debating the validity of the takedown, and I understand why the game would be deleted for copyright infringement. It’s why I stopped working on it months ago, but I still think communication would be very nice to have. Even if it’s not a warning prior to the deletion, informing developers when their game is taken down is important. The purpose of the post was to ask about similar experiences and advice or ways I can communicate with Roblox staff to replace the game with original content and re-release it, as many games have.
I did get a response eight days after using the support form, but all it said was that the game was deleted due to copyright infringement, which I already assumed was the case. I responded with a few questions, but I’m still waiting as communication through support is understandably slow. I still don’t have any information about changing the game to use original content, or about why I never received a message which the copyright guide stated I would get if the game was taken down due to DMCA.
