Playdead, the studio behind indie hits Limbo and Inside, has demanded compensation and reimbursement from studio co-founder Dino Patti on claims of copyright infringement — an act that Patti describes as “bullying” from fellow co-founder Arnt Jensen (thanks for the heads up, Sport Developer).
The pair cut up shortly after Inside’s launch in 2016, with Patti leaving to type Somerville studio Jumpship and, this week, the feud between the 2 has gone public.
In a latest LinkedIn put up, Patti claims that he has “repeatedly” obtained “authorized love letters” from Playdead within the 9 years since his departure. The newest of which, the dev shares, is dated third March 2025 and threatens an IP lawsuit if Patti fails to pay 500,000 DKK (£56,000 / $73,000) in “compensation and reimbursement” for sharing an “unauthorised” Limbo image in a now-deleted LinkedIn put up.
In an announcement launched to Sport Developer, Playdead confirmed that it had, certainly, “submitted calls for” to Patti relating to copyright infringement. “We’ve discovered it essential to take this motion to guard our emblems and copyrights,” the studio continued, “that are important to Playdead’s enterprise and popularity”.
The put up in query, in response to the authorized letter shared in full on Patti’s LinkedIn, “constitutes an infringement of Playdead’s mental property rights” during which Patti was “falsely giving the impression that [he] performed a big position, together with a artistic position, within the improvement of the sport”.
Patti has since eliminated the LinkedIn put up with which Playdead seemingly took difficulty, although, posting the letter on-line, he shared the next “exhausting fact”:
• You recognize I used to be a big a part of constructing Playdead from the bottom up—I do know it too.
• These first years had been a battle like no different. We fought, constructed, and pushed by means of collectively.
• With out me, Playdead wouldn’t have existed. That’s not ego. That is a truth.
After stating that he’ll “by no means erase [his] personal historical past”, Patti concludes, “Arnt, please cease the bullying. I cannot cease being who I’m.”
