Indie studio Ward B said the Kalashnikov group copied a shotgun design from their game Oceanic to create the MP-155 Ultima. This was reported by the IGN portal.
According to the head of Ward B, Marcellino Sauceda, in early 2020, a Kalashnikov representative approached him with a proposal to recreate one of the fictional shotguns in reality. The developers were delighted with this opportunity. Sauseda said there have never been such collaborations between video game studios and gun makers. However, negotiations broke down and the deal was never concluded.
In the summer of 2020, the Kalashnikov concern presented the MP-155 Ultima smart gun. The weapon is equipped with an on-board PC with a digital display, clock, compass, stopwatch, timer, shot counter and cartridge remaining indicator. The Facebook page states that the design of the product is “inspired by the style of computer games.”
The developers at Ward B felt that the gun was a complete copy of the futuristic Mastodon shotgun from Oceanic. Concept art was released in February 2020. It was after this that negotiations began with the Kalashnikov, whose representative became interested in Mastodon and its embodiment on the basis of the MP-155.
According to Sauseda, after the MP-155 Ultima was announced, he first thought that the deal between Ward B and Kalashnikov had been struck. He even started looking for mentions of Ward B on the shotgun page, but they weren't there. The developers decided at first not to make a fuss in the hope that the verbal agreements would still be fulfilled, despite the fact that the deal was never concluded.
In a comment to IGN, a Kalashnikov spokesman confirmed that he had actually seen the concept art of Mastodon and spoke to Ward B about its MP-155 based design. He stated that after initial negotiations, he did research and found out that Ward B could not attract investment and that Oceanic will most likely never come out. Therefore, it was too risky to make a deal. In addition, at that time, the artist's work was still not paid.
A representative of Kalashnikov said that after the termination of negotiations with Ward B, the design was commissioned by an artist from Russia. He also provided journalists with a patent and an opinion on originality from the Russian Union of Designers.
Ward B sent a formal complaint to the Kalashnikov concern, indicating plagiarism. However, the company denied all charges. According to Sauseda, the developers abandoned the idea of suing, as it was too expensive for the studio.
Mastadon and MP-155 Ultima | Source: IGN