A version of Lemmings that had been ported to the iPhone and Palm Pre platforms in just 36 hours was shut down on Tuesday by a cease and desist letter from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE.)
Creator Aaron Ardiri was using code from a previous Lemmings port he had made for the Palm OS, and told IncGamers that he had attempted to find out who held the rights to the game in 2001 when that first version was being written.
“Back in 2001 when we did the Palm OS version, we were trying to find out who had the rights, we chased Sony, Take Two Interactive, none of them seemed to know what was going on …”
This time, however, SCEE has decided to forcefully defend its copyright and trademarks.
“Now we know SCEE own it, maybe now we can start talking with them about doing an official version” Ardiri told us. “We did it as a dedication to the original game, not for commercial purposes.”
With functioning code already written, and the game getting publicity across the internet, it seems Ardiri has somewhat forced Sony’s hand. Either the company do nothing and waste a good opportunity for some revenue, or they pursue a Lemmings port on various platforms sooner than they may have been planning to.
For his part, Ardiri hopes that this incident will encourage Sony to allow Lemmings to appear on non-Sony systems and “bring this classic to other platforms in the near future!”
