The head of the Mundfish studio responded to these allegations. Robert Bagratuni, noting that the situation, contrary to Lityagin’s words, “will not affect the release in any way.” According to Bagratuni, the demonstration of the video at E3 was agreed in accordance with all the rules, and the representatives of the NMI showed them the agreement, which indicated the right to rework and Lityagin’s signature was signed – all this was checked by a lawyer.
After that, a man named Cherkasov appeared, demanding to acquire the rights in another place, but without presenting legal grounds for this for two months. The developers tried to contact the composer, but the official representative simply said that “he is in hysterics”, and “NMI” is throwing up the creators of the game. The latter were given a choice – “either pay several times more than you have already paid to NMI, or ban”.
Bagratuni added that, again, contrary to Lityagin’s words, he did not contact them, and there were no comments from Top7 itself.
Once again: the composer did not get in touch with us, but at the same time claims that we put our heads in the sand.
Robert Bagratuni
Mundfish contested the claim on YouTube, after which the trailer was blocked, and Lityagin left a public comment that offended the developers. In particular, he called the required amount “a tip in the restaurant”:
As far as I understand, Mirage has been collecting tips for a long time: there have already been 3 or 4 lawsuits, constant carve-ups of rights, which we learned about only now after the fact, when they began to drag us into this swamp. We believe that we are doing a cool and important thing: we are not only trying to make a powerful AAA game, we are popularizing Soviet aesthetics, Soviet art and Russian music.
Robert Bagratuni
Bagratuni added that thanks to the trailer, the composition gained additional popularity in Spotify, iTunes and Youtube, and the group itself began to write positive comments, which made the developers happy too.
And for me personally, it’s surprising that instead of benefiting from this unexpected promo, the guys want to cut some additional royalties from us.
Robert Bagratuni
Bagratuni added that the dispute between NMI and “Top7” does not concern them, the developer’s task is to make the game, and not “worry about how much tip we still need in the opinion of the waiter.”
“How will this affect Atomic Heart?” The answer is “no way”.
Robert Bagratuni
The author called the behavior of the second side “toxic”, adding that after this no normal person would want to mess with it.
We give preference to authentic Soviet music of the 60s and 80s. And Mirage was, of course, one of our favorites. Up to this day.
Robert Bagratuni
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