Bizarre finally tackles Grid Wars

Having shown creditable restraint up to now, Bizarre Creations has finally cracked down on the distributors of Grid Wars 2, a game that's spookily and - Bizarre reckons - actionably similar to Xbox 360 title Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved.

Grid Wars' hosts have now removed archives of the software, which allowed PC owners to play virtually the same game for free, and posted the email request they received from Bizarre. The developer's "starting to feel the effect", apparently, and has decided to "more robustly" protect copyright - by asking people nicely not to infringe upon it.

Bizarre later acknowledged that there are subtle gameplay differences, appreciated by hardcore players, between Geometry Wars and Grid Wars. As you'll know if you've followed both closely, Grid Wars' handling of multipliers and the manner in which players are able to manipulate that game's gravitationally intense black holes make for quite a different high-end experience.

However Bizarre felt it had to take action, it said in a forum posting, because of the clone game's "lack of originality - particularly on the visual front". "Only hardcore gamers will be aware of any differences between a clone and the original game beyond the visual level. This potentially takes sales away from our product and weakens our brand - especially if-and-when we decide to launch a version of GW:RE on a platform where a clone is already available. All too often we have seen people confused, calling our game by the name of a clone, and a clone by our name," the statement read.