Light & Wonder executives have been overly cautious not to take another faux step involving the inadvertent or intentional copying of a competitor’s product. The saga started with the Dragon Train games, which were accused of having misappropriated intellectual property from Aristocrat and its products.
Second game targeted by Aristocrat is now benched by Light & Wonder
Aristocrat challenged the Dragon Train series with a complaint filed in February 2024, and eventually won an injunction against Light & Wonder, with the final matter remaining to be resolved, Casino Guru News understands.
The injunction ordered Light & Wonder to withdraw all of its Dragon Train games from North America, but the company did get a bit of slack after it won a similar case in Australia, where it was allowed to continue offering Dragon Train games.
Now, Light & Wonder has decided to preemptively and proactively withdraw a second title from the North American title – Jewel of the Dragon. This comes only several weeks after Aristocrat filed an amended complaint in mid-March, adding Jewel of the Dragon as one of the companies copied by its rival. Light & Wonder confirmed the news on Wednesday, April 2.
However, the company is also intending to respond to the amended complaint filed by Aristocrat on March 14 by April 11, as confirmed by Light & Wonder in a press statement.
Does Jewel of the Dragon point to a deeper issue at Light & Wonder?
Emma Charles, the designer of the Dragon Train series, left the company in 2024, and it’s not clear if she was also involved in the development of Jewel of the Dragon.
As to why the game was withdrawn Jewel of the Dragon is said to have been based on Aristocrat’s Autumn Moon, and Light & Wonder seems to not have been willing to fight this at least for now.
If anything, the company said that the impact from the withdrawal of the second game would not be very significant, seeing how there were only 150 units of the game installed, and revenue was barely $10m.
Light & Wonder has also remained confident that these events are independent and isolated accidents that do not represent the company’s ethos of developing original and bespoke games that are based on unique features and math.
Although Light & Wonder had to kill the development of at least one confirmed game, the company remains confident that the rest of its portfolio meet originality standards.
