Press release from publicist Janos Honkonen
The creators of the Finnish-German-Australian dark sci-fi comedy Iron Sky were surprised to found out late last week that a game company called Ziiso that’s apparently operating in China is creating an iPad game based on their film. This Thursday the game called Iron Sky: The Last Territory (or IRON SKY for iPad) was published in iTunes App Store. It use some Iron Sky ship designs, some character likenesses, the back story and even the tagline – none of which are authorized.
“This is very unfortunate for us. We use crowd funding and merchandize sales to actually fund making this film in a very concrete way”, said the director of Iron Sky Timo Vuorensola. “Moreover these guys are trying to make the game sound like it’s our official product, even adding it to our Wikipedia page. This means it’s not only an intellectual property grab, but a downright scam. Yes, it makes us angry that these people are riding on the coat tails of our hard work and taking money from unsuspecting fans who might think they are funding the film by buying the game.”
“We have absolutely nothing against unofficial fan products and fan art, though – we love seeing what kinds of amazing and crazy things people come up with. That’s a completely different thing from taking money from our fans with unauthorized Iron Sky products – money that was meant to be used to fund the film.”
The game has been reported to Apple and the team is waiting for the resolution to their complaint.