Dev who sued Steam users drops lawsuit, citing money problems

Arizona-based game dev Digital Homicide appears to be (at least temporarily) out of business, as studio cofounder James Romine last week filed a motion to delay or dismiss without prejudice the ~$18 million lawsuit he recently filed against a group of Steam users because he can't afford the cost of litigation.

What's notable here is that Digital Homicide was delisted from Steam last month because it was, in the words of a Valve representative, "being hostile to Steam customers" by suing a group of them over allegations of everything from stalking to harassment.

The fact that Romine has now effectively dropped that lawsuit because "[my] business was destroyed completely" (according to last week's filing) speaks to the financial impact such delisting can have on a studio.

Incidentally, this also seems to mean that Romine's efforts to subpoena Valve for information identifying the ~100 Steam users named as defendants in his lawsuit will not come to fruition. 

Romine's motion to dismiss the case without prejudice was granted by the court last Friday, but the court did not see fit to grant Romine's request for a refund of the lawsuit filing fees and his motion for leave to "File court order for early discovery subpoena...on Steam/Valve Corporation in regards to anonymous defendants" was deemed to be no longer relevant.