No Man's Sky May be in Legal Trouble

No Man's Sky is looking to be a game-changer in the world of video games, promising massive worlds, a ton to explore, ship-and-ground combat, seamless travel, and the opportunity to bring real change into the digital world.

But things just keep getting in the way: first, a delay that pushed the game's release back, and now, a Dutch company called Genicap claims that the developers of the game are guilty of patent infringement.

Here's the deal: according to an article translated by a NeoGAF user, Genicap claims that the procedural generation program used by No Man's Sky is something called "Superformula", which was invented and patented by Johan Gielis, the Chief Research officer at the company. They determined this, according to the interview, by simply applying the formula to the game:

"When Murray and the rest of the team plugged the Superformula into the game, it worked. Things that didn't have natural variety all of a sudden took on varied but still possible shapes. It was what they needed, or at least a major part of it."

While there's no proof the Superformula was used, this does seem to be strong evidence supporting it, and according to their lawyers, enough to take to court. But that's the good news: according to the interview, they have no intention of doing that. Yet.

"We don't want to stop the launch, but if the formula is used we'll need to have a talk."

So. Not the end of the world, but still, a troubling accusation. Here's hoping it all works out for everyone involved before the August 9th launch... we don't want a repeat of what happened last time there was a delay.