Hasbro Sends Cease and Desist Letter to Fighting is Magic Devs

Yesterday, Hasbro sent a cease and desist letter to Mane6, the team working on My Little Pony: Fighting is Magic. Here's what they posted on their site:

Hello, everyone.
   
    We have what for most will be bad news, for us are terrible news, and for a selected few might actually be good news.
   
    We have received a C&D letter from Hasbro's Legal representatives, asking us to cease game development, remove any materials that might contain My Little Pony characters, names, locations or related elements from the sites we control (Our site, our youtube, our twitch), and "cease any further use of [their] MY LITTLE PONY property".
   
    Options have been considered, lawyers have been contacted, and resources have been (mostly) exhausted.
   
    We have attempted negotiating with Hasbro for the continued use of the property in our non-profit, voluntary project, but so far we haven't received an answer. As such, we're complying with the contents of the C&D letter until we receive answer from their PR and/or Legal departments.
   
    We also want to inform the general public of the final and irrevocable resignation of James Workman (Elosande) from the Mane6 DevTeam, effective February 6, 2013, as well as reminding of the final and irrevocable resignation of Prominence, effective January 30, 2012. The Mane6 DevTeam no longer represents their interest, nor do they represent ours.
   
    We'll keep everyone posted as the situation evolves, but be aware we might not be able to respond to comments and questions due to the delicate nature of the situation.
    Thanks for following our project so far.

It's a shame to see such a promising fighting game get shuttered by Hasbro after over a year of development, not to mention what also happened to MLP: Online a couple months ago. Hasbro should be supporting these projects instead of shutting them down. Sure, they're good at making toys, but games aren't really their forte. If they want to keep the bronies coming back to their content and not just the TV show, they need to start backing these projects up like Capcom did.

There is still hope for that though. As Mane6 said, their lawyers and Hasbro's lawyers are in talks to see if they can come to some sort of agreement. Here's hoping for the best.




EDIT: I should also note that Lauren Faust, the creator of Friendship is Magic, has also thrown her support to Mane6 by offering to make original characters for them for a new game.

SOURCE: Derpy Hooves News