One day you’re a small indie studio with a game on Steam. The next day, you’re staring at a ban notice that might put you out of business. No warning. No appeal that seems to stick. Just – gone.

That’s exactly what happened to Emika Games, a tiny three-person studio based in France. Their game, Tenjutsu, got pulled from Steam after what Valve called “a trademark dispute.” The problem? Emika says they own the trademark. They’ve got the paperwork to prove it. And now they’re watching their entire livelihood circle the drain because, well, Valve says so.

Here’s where it gets messy. This isn’t just about one game getting yanked from one platform. It’s about the terrifying amount of power that sits in the hands of digital storefronts – and what happens when there’s basically no recourse if they decide you’re done.

The Ban That Came Out of Nowhere

Tenjutsu is (was?) a competitive card battler that launched on Steam. Nothing fancy, nothing that would raise eyebrows. Just a small studio trying to make their mark in a brutally competitive space. Then in early 2025, Valve dropped the hammer.

According to Emika Games, Steam pulled Tenjutsu over a trademark complaint. The studio’s founder says they received notice that someone else claimed to own the “Tenjutsu” trademark. Except – and this is kind of important – Emika actually holds registered trademarks for the name in both the EU and the US.

When Documentation Doesn’t Matter

You’d think having official trademark registrations would be a pretty solid defense, right? Apparently not. Emika submitted their trademark documentation to Valve multiple times. They provided evidence that they own the rights to the name. They did everything you’re supposed to do when someone makes a false claim against your intellectual property.

Valve’s response? Radio silence, mostly. Or rather, responses that didn’t actually resolve anything. The studio says they’ve been stuck in a loop of submitting the same evidence, getting vague replies, and watching their appeals go nowhere. It’s like yelling into a void that occasionally yells back with corporate non-answers.

The studio posted about their situation on social media (because where else do you go when a tech giant won’t listen?), and the response was… well, a lot of people sharing similar stories. Turns out this kind of thing happens more than you’d think.

The Real Cost of Digital Distribution

Here’s the thing that keeps me up at night about this whole situation. Steam isn’t just a marketplace for PC games – it’s the marketplace. Sure, you’ve got Epic Games Store, GOG, itch.io, and others. But Steam has something like 70% of the PC gaming market. Maybe more, depending on who you ask.

For a small indie studio, getting banned from Steam is basically a death sentence. You lose access to your primary audience. Your revenue stream dries up instantly. And if you’ve built your whole business model around that platform? You’re kind of screwed.

The Platform Power Problem

Emika Games says they’re at risk of shutting down entirely because of this ban. Three people might lose their jobs – their entire careers in game development – because of what appears to be a wrongful trademark claim that Valve won’t properly investigate.

Think about that power dynamic for a second. One company can essentially decide whether your business lives or dies. There’s no real oversight. No independent arbitration. No way to force them to actually review the evidence you’re submitting. They’re judge, jury, and executioner, and their decision is final whether it’s right or wrong.

“We provided all the necessary documentation proving our ownership of the trademark, but it seems like our appeals are just being ignored.”

That quote is from Emika’s public statement, and honestly, the frustration is palpable. You can almost feel the helplessness of a small team that did everything by the book but still got steamrolled (pun sort of intended) by a much larger entity.

Who Actually Filed the Complaint?

Here’s where things get even weirder. Emika hasn’t publicly identified who filed the trademark complaint against them. Maybe they don’t know. Maybe they’re avoiding legal complications by naming names. But the whole situation raises some pretty obvious questions.

Is this a legitimate dispute from someone who believes they have a claim? Is it a competitor trying to eliminate competition through spurious legal threats? Is it just someone being a jerk because they can? We don’t really know, and that ambiguity is part of what makes this so frustrating to watch.

The Trademark Troll Question

Trademark trolling is definitely a thing in the gaming industry. People (or companies) will register trademarks for common words or phrases, then go after anyone using those terms. Sometimes they’re hoping for a settlement. Sometimes they’re trying to clear competition. Sometimes it’s just chaos for the sake of chaos.

But here’s what makes this case different – Emika actually has registered trademarks. They’re not squatting on someone else’s IP. They’re not using a name that clearly belongs to another company. They filed the paperwork, paid the fees, and secured legal protection for their game’s name. You know, the right way to do things.

And yet, here we are. One complaint – possibly fraudulent, possibly just mistaken – and an entire studio is on the brink of collapse.

What Valve Could Do (But Probably Won’t)

Look, I get that Valve processes thousands of complaints. Maybe tens of thousands. They can’t manually review every single dispute with a team of lawyers. That would be impossibly expensive and slow.

But when a developer provides actual trademark registrations from official government offices? That seems like it should trigger something more than an automated response. That should get a human being to actually look at the case and go, “Huh, wait, they clearly own this trademark. Maybe we should reinstate the game and investigate the complaint instead.”

The whole situation highlights a massive flaw in how these platforms handle disputes. It’s too easy to file a complaint, too hard to defend yourself, and too devastating when you lose access to the platform. There’s no balance. No protection for the little guys who are doing everything right.

The Broader Implications

This isn’t just about Emika Games, though their situation definitely sucks. It’s about what this means for every indie developer trying to build a business on someone else’s platform. You’re always one false accusation away from losing everything.

That kind of instability makes it really hard to justify investing in game development as a small studio. Why pour years of your life and thousands of dollars into a project when one bad-faith complaint could wipe it all out? It’s a legitimate business risk that has nothing to do with whether your game is actually good or whether you followed the rules.

• Platform dependence: Most indie devs can’t afford to avoid Steam entirely, creating a dangerous single point of failure
• Asymmetric power: Valve holds all the cards, and there’s no meaningful way to challenge their decisions
• Inadequate review processes: Automated systems and overwhelmed support teams mean legitimate cases get lost in the shuffle
• No real alternatives: Other platforms exist, but none have Steam’s reach or user base

At the time I’m writing this, Emika’s game is still banned. The studio is still fighting to get it reinstated. And they’re still facing the very real possibility that they’ll have to shut down because one platform made a decision they can’t seem to reverse.

Maybe Valve will eventually review the evidence and realize they made a mistake. Maybe there’s more to this story that we don’t know yet. But right now, it looks like a small studio got screwed by a system that’s supposed to protect intellectual property but instead became a weapon against the people who actually own it.

And if it can happen to them? It can happen to anyone.