Misery Delisted from Steam After DMCA Strike by STALKER 2 Dev GSC Game World

Indie horror shooter Misery has been delisted from Steam after receiving a DMCA takedown notice from S.T.A.L.K.E.R. developer GSC Game World.

The small-scale co-op survival game, developed mostly by a 19-year-old solo creator known as Maewing, was removed from the platform late Friday.

STALKER in the left images, Misery in the right.

According to the official Steam post shared by the Misery team, the delisting came as a surprise. The message claims the DMCA was filed by GSC Game World for “use of [its] game content without authorization.”

The notice, sent to both developer Maewing and publisher Ytopia, includes a few comparison screenshots showing survivors around campfires in gas masks, with guiter, a common theme in both post-apocalyptic survival games.

In their Steam community post, the developers pushed back strongly:

“MISERY is a completely different concept, happening in the fictional Republic of Zaslavie, and it has nothing to do with the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe, Chernobyl, etc. MISERY uses no characters, plot, storyline, assets, monsters, music, code, etc., from their games. It is all either originally created or legally licensed.”

They even took a jab at GSC’s own roots, pointing out that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. draws heavily from Roadside Picnic and Tarkovsky’s Stalker film, neither of which are original GSC creations. The devs concluded by calling the takedown “an abuse of power against small independent developers by a large corporation.”

However, things took a turn when Maewing’s initial reaction on the Misery Discord surfaced. Screenshots shared by Reddit users showed the developer lashing out in an angry rant filled with slurs and insults toward GSC. The post has since been edited, and Maewing later issued an apology, calling his earlier comments “immature, thoughtless, and wrong” (Thanks PC Gamer).

Some fans on Reddit have speculated that the DMCA might be linked to allegations of pro-Russian sentiments within the Misery Discord, especially given the ongoing war in Ukraine and GSC’s stance as a Ukrainian studio. As per reports circulating online, screenshots from old Discord chats suggested politically charged messages, though these claims remain unverified. The developer has since cleaned up the Discord server and added new rules banning any inflammatory or nationalistic symbols, including “Z” or “ZOV” reactions.

Despite all this, no official statement has been made by GSC Game World yet.