Microsoft briefly pulls Minecraft-like indie "Allumeria" from Steam before reversing DMCA takedown

Microsoft has withdrawn a DMCA copyright claim that temporarily forced indie voxel sandbox title Allumeria off Steam following a wave of community backlash and scrutiny of automated copyright enforcement tools.

The details:

• Earlier this week, Valve removed Allumeria’s store page and demo from Steam after receiving a DMCA notice issued on Microsoft’s behalf, alleging that the game used content from Minecraft, including gameplay and assets. However, the claim highlighted a single in-game screenshot used on the game’s store page.
• It was soon speculated that the claim appears to have been filed using Tracer.AI, an automated enforcement service Microsoft and Mojang have previously used against similar projects, raising concerns that Allumeria was entirely flagged by a machine-learning system due to its visual similarity to Minecraft.
• After being informed of the claim, Mojang chief creative officer Jens “Jeb” Bergensten took to Bluesky to state that the strike was being investigated internally. Within roughly 24 hours, Microsoft has withdrawn the DMCA claim, restoring Allumeria’s Steam page and demo. Developer Unomelon has since taken to the game’s Discord server to confirm the reversal, referring to it as “the best case scenario,” while noting that they would still have preferred the situation to not happen in the first place.