A new seminar was held at the Paris Gaming Campus for aspiring third-year video game developers (Gtech). Under the umbrella term “digital law,” the seminar focused on presenting various aspects of the digital media sector, including online liability, intellectual property, software law, and online consumer access platforms.
The emphasis was placed on the video game industry and its esports counterpart, allowing students to choose and work on particularly interesting topics: CD Projekt RED’s disastrous marketing strategy for the release of Cyberpunk, the rise of gacha systems in video games, the keys to the success of “Valorant,” business models and risks involved in launching a video game studio, the use of assets in video games, and more.
Below, you will find our additional information highlighting the legal issues related to these topics.
Intermediate platforms for accessing video games
Online access to video games is currently regulated through intermediary platforms such as Epic Games and Steam, which traditionally include publishing fees and commissions on generated revenue.
Integrating with these types of platforms requires compliance with the Platform Regulations, administrative verification of the studio’s identity, adherence to general rules, and adherence to specific terms that may apply depending on the game type. This often involves a submission and review process.
Online app stores offer similar models, sometimes with subscription systems for publishing and maintaining applications online.
Anti-steering, practiced by some platforms, is at the heart of a significant legal issue, highlighted in 2024 by a lawsuit initiated by Epic Games against the Apple App Store. On January 16, 2024, the Supreme Court ended part of the litigation requiring Apple to stop anti-steering practices, which consist of prohibiting application developers from redirecting their users to a website to make a purchase or subscribe to a service.
This decision echoes the European Commission’s €1.8 billion fine imposed on Apple for abusing its dominant position in the music streaming market, a market pioneered by Spotify. The Commission ruled that the obligations imposed on developers using the Apple Store were neither necessary nor proportionate to protect Apple’s commercial interests.
Read our previous article on this topic.
Image rights in video games
The video game industry now offers content as rich and sophisticated as audiovisual and cinematic productions. An increasing number of games incorporate images of real people in the form of digital avatars or through techniques such as motion capture to realistically reproduce human movements.
These technologies allow for the creation of characters that can include public figures such as actors, politicians, famous gamers, or even influencers.
This is particularly evident in video games adapted from major cultural franchises, such as Marvel, Batman, or Harry Potter, where creators can use images of celebrities or real people to enrich the game’s content.
When individuals, whether real or fictional, are represented in a video game, several legal issues must be considered, including image rights and copyright.
- Copyright protects the creative elements of a video game, such as characters, environments, music, and other artistic elements. The creators of the video game therefore hold exclusive rights to these works.
- Moral rights allow creators to object to any use of their work that could harm their reputation or the integrity of their work. For example, a creator could refuse to allow a character they created to be used in a degrading way or in a manner diverted from its original purpose.
A new issue, amplified by technological advances, concerns the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, such as deepfakes, which make it possible to create highly realistic images or videos of people, often without their consent. These tools make the manipulation of faces and voices much easier and raise ethical and legal questions about image rights and the protection of privacy.
The use of images of public figures in video games could become problematic if they are manipulated without their permission, especially since AI makes it possible to recreate representations of people in a very realistic and potentially abusive way.
Online content moderation by publishers
Related to the video game itself, publishers now offer numerous communication tools within their titles for players to interact in-game or on online platforms. Moderation of these tools is a new challenge in ensuring a positive gaming experience: text content and voice chats, moderation of images and videos shared via screenshots or custom creations within the game or livestreams, and the control of prohibited, violent, or pornographic messages and symbols.
Transformed into content hosts and subject to the obligations of the LCEN (French Law on Confidence in the Digital Economy), video game platforms must manage a multitude of textual, visual, and voice content while ensuring a safe and respectful environment.
To achieve this, studios combine moderation based on automated tools, including AI, monitoring software, and anti-cheat systems, with human moderation and co-regulation through community reporting tools.
Legally, content moderation is subject to a wide variety of international, EU, and national legal standards, both statutory and contractual, which vary from country to country.
Publishers must therefore ensure compliance with specific provisions regarding the protection of personal data, freedom of expression, and the protection of minors.
Assets in video games
IIncluding 3D or graphic models, shaders, scripts, audio content, and more, their use is legally regulated under three main license categories:
- Exclusive ownership (creation of a personal asset for the client); open license (via Creative Commons – open source systems);
- Commercial licenses (assets purchased via marketplaces);
- Abuses of these assets can have disastrous consequences for the video game’s commercialization after development: lawsuits for copyright infringement, unfair competition, privacy violations for assets using images or voices of individuals, injunctions, etc.
In summary, it appears that preparing a list of licenses and assets is essential for the video game studio, allowing it to retain proof of purchase, control, and document their use. Training teams in the use of such content is also indispensable.ble.
Twitch & nudity
Twitch, a social network characterized by live streaming audiovisual content, owned by Amazon, quickly faced the challenge of moderating its content. Several categories—ASMR, drawing, inflatable pools, and others—soon featured nudity, the authorization of which became subject to complex discretionary power by Twitch.
In December 2023, streamers faced moderation actions, including temporary bans and warnings, for behavior deemed to violate the platform’s rules regarding nudity and indecency.
Read our previous analysis on this topic.
Valorant: The successful launch of an FPS
Valorent, a tactical team-based shooter developed by Riot Games and released in 2020, enjoyed immediate and considerable success.
A more in-depth analysis reveals several factors that together justified the game’s legitimate success:
- Riot Games’ extensive expertise in multiplayer games, honed over a decade of experience, notably with the title “League of Legends”;
- The creation of a game with diverse and evolving content, incorporating mechanics and innovations from competing products such as Counter-Strike, Call of Duty, and Overwatch (2);
- The game’s accessibility, both through its particularly forgiving minimum system requirements and its free-to-play model;
- A complex marketing strategy highlighting not only the gameplay, its characters, and its lore/universe, but also through a massive diversification of related content: trailers of all kinds, merchandise, a Spotify playlist, and, of course, esports competitions.
