The developer behind voxel sandbox Allumeria claims Microsoft have withdrawn a DMCA takedown filed against the game over alleged copyright infringement. According to an email posted on Discord by Allumeria developer Unomelon on February 10th, the strike accused their work of using content from Minecraft without Microsoft’s permission.

The section of the email from Valve notifying Unomelon of the takedown which details the claim read as follows: “Judith Woodward, on behalf of Microsoft Corporation, alleges that Microsoft is the copyright owner of the content found at https://www.minecraft.net/en-us and that your use of Minecraft content, including but not limited to gameplay and assets, without their authorization infringes their rights.” A comparison between a screenshot from Allumeria’s Steam page and an official screenshot of Minecraft was cited as an example of the alleged infringement. As is the procedure, Valve automatically yanked the game’s Steam page in response to the takedown notice being filed.

That brings up to today, February 11th. In another post to Allumeria’s Discord server, Unomelon shared another email from Valve’s DMCA team which notes that Microsoft have “withdrawn the copyright claim”. Naturally, the developer’s happy with that outcome. “This is the best case scenario,” they wrote. “I just woke up from a nap so I am still not sure about the details, but whatever happened, it worked. The steam page and game has been fully restored, and I did not need to file a counter claim, meaning there will be no chance of a lawsuit!”

I’ve reached out to Microsoft for comment. Currently, it looks like the issuing of the takedown might have been an instance of automated flagging prompted by Allumeria’s visual resemblance to Minecraft. The game certainly does look a fair bit like Minecraft, but so does every other voxel sandbox which has riffed on the premise of a blocky world players can survive or build in at will. Hytale is a recent example. That resemblance, of course, doesn’t prove actual bits of Minecraft have been used to create such games.

So, Allumeria’s Steam page is back up, with the game set for release at some point this year. Currently, it has a demo released in January you can give a go, or at least should be able to once Unomelon has managed to sort out some “license errors” which have reportedly begun popping up for some folks who’ve tried to grab it following Steam page’s return.