I have been working for over 2 years on my game and 4 months ago I finally released my demo. Yesterday, while searching on Steam I found a game with EXACTLY the same title and very similar premise. The page was created in May or June 2026 and they aim to release in August 2026. Here are some of descriptions I use on my Steam page:
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A first-person psychological thriller with a heavy atmosphere and elements of liminal horror.
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Uncover the stories of your subjects by studying their personal items and darkest secrets before making life-or-death choices.
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Will you sacrifice your own beliefs to obey HIS authority?
For comparison here is how they describe their game:
“Will you obey orders, or resist? In this first-person psychological horror game, you sit across from subjects and must investigate evidence to determine who is telling the truth, and decide their fate.”
My game is planned to release in October or whenever it’s completely playtested and polished. I’m not sure what I can do as this has never happened before, what do you think is my best course of action here?
For reference my game: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2719670/The_Milgram_Experiment
And the copy: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4777470/The_Milgram_Experiment/
You named your game after a well known psychological experiment and now you’re surprised someone else used the name and generalized gameplay related to said experiment? Not trying to be that guy but brother, what were you expecting? Did you have another in the tank called The Stanford Prison Experiment? The Rorschach Test maybe? Kinda comes with the territory I would think.
But for real, just call it Milgram. Conveys the same thing, no crossover with duplicate, I think it would show up first in a search on steam as well.
I guess I am upset that they didn’t check if the name is taken or not. When I create a new project (this is my 4th game) I always check for same name. Because even if it’s technically legal it’s not beneficial for both sides to have one game mistaken for the other
It’s been adjudicated before: you can’t. It’s the reason PUBG and Fortnite can coexist even though Epic completely ripped off PUBG after helping develop the game. It’s also why the “DOOM clone” genre was allowed to proliferate into the FPS genre, why there are so many FNAF-inspired games, and why Nintendo recently lost one of its Pokémon patents. You don’t own the concept of the Milgram experiment, you don’t own the trademark for the name, and the overall gameplay concept is not subject to copyright. Unless you can prove that the other developer stole code or art assets from you, or that it violated a trademark or patent that you own, there’s nothing you can do but hope that the better product wins in the end.
They may have done you a favour. The name just being the name of a famous experiment is not very SEO friendly. The less of your troubles is another game having the same name, you have thousands of references to that experiment to compete with for name placement.
You’ll need to add onto your tile, to distinguish it from the rip-off version, so people know.
And, doing what you’re doing here, getting the word out.
You’ll be fine.
Thank you
Unless you trademark the title you can’t do anything about it. And an international trademark cost a lot of money.
I wouldn’t worry too much about it. The copy doesn’t look like a game that can compete. It looks very barebones. The Steam algorithm will bury this game because it won’t sell. You probably gave this game more publicity than it ever got before. Just focus on your own game the more wishlists you get the more the algorithm will push your game to customers and they will never see the copy.
Thank you! Yeah I’m not sure my name can be trademarked, but just not worth the money spent. However I assumed Steam had a system that prevented using the exact same title
Unfortunately not. Just look up “SCP Containment Breach” or even just “SCP” on Steam and you’ll see a whole mess of duplicates.
I wish listed your game, I’ve been following it for some time, looks a lot better than the copy. I don’t think that copy will sell as much, and if you keep promoting and talking about it the way you already are, I think it’d be clear which one is the rip off.
I think it’d be a good idea to give keys to some streamers to show the game. I might tell a few steamers to stream this, it seems like it would be fun to do this with an audience.
Yeah, thank you! I am already sending my demo to streamers and of course when the full game is out I will send keys too
Yours looks way better, one small criticism that may be easy to adjust but could also just be the visual style you want: most surfaces look way too glossy and reflective.
While it’s nice to have detailed reflections, things like the wall tiles just seem nearly like mirrors when it comes to light reflections. There’s no diffusion. Maybe the face masks could stay as glossy, but I would diffuse/dull the rest a bit. The ceramic tile but especially the padded room. Padded room tiles would be fabric so there really shouldn’t be any gloss and very little reflection.
I hope you don’t take that the wrong way, and I think your game will stand out as far superior to the copy
Make it easy on yourself
Find a new name for your game
“The Millgram Experiment: The Best One”
The Milgram Experiment 2: Electric (Shock) Boogaloo
Happened to bigger outfits. There is this board game “Settlers of Catan”, which should have been “Settlers” originally, until a computer game of that name got released just before they launched.
I added yours to my wishlist, though I don’t intend to play it cause horror doesn’t sit well with me on account of how I’m a giant wuss but I still support artists, and I put theirs on my ignore list.
Thank you! The game is not traditional horror with jumpscares and stuff, I think you will like it. : )
I wish listed yours so hopefully that helps the algorithm a tiny little bit
Oh wow! Thank you!
All I know is yours actually looks good. Theirs feels like one of those minis where it has 1/10th the heart and the whole fascist democracy ‘be a good citizen’ thing in theirs is trying to tap into something helldivers made popular for a surge and didn’t even do well. I’ll be getting your game when it drops if I can, but theirs isn’t interesting.
Wow, thank you for the support! Yes, I mean I’ve been thinking about my game’s premise for like 3 years, created a prototype and steam page 2 years ago and the demo dropped early this year. Hell, I’m still writing the script and re-writing the story even now. I’m just bummer that some people might search for the game if they found my trailer on some festival or something and then have this one show up…
You could maybe make a trademark complaint against them if you have been using the name of your game publically before they have, which from your steam page already existing I would assume you’ve been using it publicly for at least a little while now. As to how you would go about making such a complaint, I don’t know what to do other than talking with a lawyer if Steam doesn’t have any sort of option. This all assumes you live in the USA, if you’re in another country different options may or may not exist.
But that requires trademarking the name. Unlike copyright you don’t get that for free by law it cost a ton of money to get an international trademark.
In the US you have some protections automatically just by using the name publically. Of course you’d have a much stronger case if you have it registered, but I have a feeling with a name this specific it would be a little easier especially given that the product is incredibly similar as well. Technically the trademark could still be registered and you may even have to provide evidence that you were using the name at an earlier date, which the steam page would help a lot with.
The trademark question is the strongest - the name can absolutely be protected, especially if there are multiple timestamps everywhere (you posting about it, git, steam, your assets with the game’s name, whatever).
If your game was in some developer’s area on Steam for a long time, just go and write to them right now, explaining the stolen name situation. If it’s not like this, the name issue can be resolved in court in your favour, and you have a case.
But speaking of the game mechanics, story, or anything like that, it’s hard or impossible to prove anything, so you can only rely on your game being better and attracting more people. You do what you do, and the “thief” will give up eventuallyThank you! Yeah I don’t think I have the right to complain about similar gameplay. Let them do what they do, It was just interesting how similar it sounds, but having the exact same name is a problem. I was just in an indie fest and someone might see my trailer but then find their game instead. This is the part that I don’t like
I mean, large software developers are fighting over game mechanics, but they have salaried legal teams, and general need to “not look weak” in terms of protecting their IP. On your scale, I would only take sure-shots, such as protecting your IP’s name on basis of using it long before someone else.
Just in case, I’m not a legal specialist, but I have some general knowledge on this (some from uni, some from working in marketing agencies who create and develop brands, naming, copy, for others)
I love in Europe and the other guy, by his accent in his game trailer is in the USA
I don’t like assuming everyone lives in the USA, but its laws are the only ones I have had any real exposure to. Sorry my advice isn’t more helpful.
Let me just say your game looks awesome and I look forward to its release.
I think you should report it to steam, you’ve surely had a page with that name for longer. I wouldn’t change your game name now
Thank you! Yeah I’ve just found out and I am trying to think about the situation from all POVs. I haven’t contacted Steam or the dev yet… I will update if I do
I’m surprised that it’s allowed to have 2 games with the same name on steam (I guess their Steam IDs aee different). I wonder how steam handles their directories in the /steams/common folder if they have the same root folder name.







