Square Enix is suing Ten Tree for infringing copyright by releasing Front Mission: Borderscape as Metal Storm
Square Enix has been revealed to have filed a lawsuit against HK Ten Tree, accusing the latter of copyright infringement by releasing Front Mission: Borderscape as Metal Storm or Mecharashi without the former's approval. Anime Corner was the first outlet to break the news, as there are still no official announcements from Square Enix as of yet. However, we have since confirmed that some of the documents sent to the US District Court for the Western District of Washington have been made available online via Court Listener.
The first document filed on March 13 confirmed that Square Enix had terminated the license agreement for the development of Front Mission 2089: Borderscape with Shanghai Zishun Information Technology Co., Ltd.—likely the company behind BlackJack Studio—on October 4, 2022; exactly 3 years after the agreement was made. That would also be roughly half a year after Square Enix formally revealed Borderscape for the first and only time in April. The Japanese company also insists that all rights to the terminated game shall remain with them.
However, unbeknownst to Square Enix, BlackJack Studio and ZLONGAME opted to "salvage" Borderscape and release it in China with the rebranded title Mecharashi in Winter 2023. Square Enix did not seem to be aware of it yet despite a Japanese news outlet picking it up. Things would eventually take a massive turn when Ten Tree decided to step up and bring the "salvaged" game worldwide, starting with Japan via the exclusive localized title Metal Storm in October 2024. This title is also the one Square Enix ended up using in their lawsuit, even though the Chinese companies have opted to use the initial title Mecharashi for the upcoming global release.
When the Japanese release of Metal Storm came out last October, some may have thought whether Square Enix had any objection to that. The US lawsuit confirmed that Square Enix did object to the release. The Japanese company sent a formal removal demand to Ten Tree on December 16, but the latter only responded roughly a month later on January 17, and Square Enix also claimed that the measures taken were not satisfactory enough.
The following month on February 21, Square Enix claimed that Valve had taken down the game's Steam page. However, just as a note, the URL Square Enix provided in the lawsuit actually pertains to the Japanese and South Korean versions of the game, which are also geo-locked to the respective countries and separated from the upcoming global English and multi-language build.
Nevertheless, Square Enix eventually took the legal route and filed the complaint in both Japan's Tokyo District Court and the US' District Court for the Western District of Washington. The plaintiff also included comparison images between the original Front Mission 2089: Borderscape trailer and the release build of Mecharashi/Metal Storm that show almost the same assets in the interface, maps, and weapons, with the pilot character artworks being the few ones with actual changes.
As of this writing, Mecharashi is still set to have its global build released for iOS, Android, and PC via Steam, with pilot character and ST mech introductions posted frequently, as recently as March 17. SteamDB charts for the active East Asian releases is also still showing some player activity, despite being geo-locked to only Japan and South Korea.