Square Enix is suing SNK Playmore
After SNK sued Square and instigated a police raid at its HQ.
Earlier this summer King of Fighters publisher SNK Playmore filed a lawsuit against Square Enix for using its characters and game names in a manga series called High Score Girl, which depicts the arcade gaming scene in the 90s. Now, Square is suing SNK Playmore for... being dicks about the whole thing.
According to a statement made by Square Enix, the SNK Playmore lawsuit was a little more than just a standard issue copyright complaint: it was a criminal complaint. As a result, Osaka Prefectural Police conducted a domiciliary search at the publisher's headquarters on 5th August.
Outraged by such a strong overkill to the mere mention of some of its materials in a comic, Square Enix is now seeking a "declaratory judgment" proving that it in fact does not infringe on SNK's copyright.
According to Square's statement, the publisher "has been cooperating fully with police investigations since the domiciliary search, and will continuously maintain the cooperative stance with good faith."
SNK's original complaint stated that it sent "repeated demands" to Square to address this matter, but the publisher "failed to sincerely respond to SNK Playmore's requests," and continued to publish the offending materials.
We've requested comment from both Square Enix and SNK Playmore on the matter.