Epic Games requests logo removal from ultraviolent game Hatred

The company behind Unreal Engine 4 has demanded that the tech’s logo be removed from the beginning of a new game’s trailer.

Hatred, developed by Polish studio Destructive Creations, is a shooter title in which players slaughter policemen and innocent civilians, and has courted controversy with its ultraviolent content.

The debut trailer, which depicts various brutal executions, originally featured the Unreal Engine 4 logo at the beginning as a nod to the tech behind it, but Epic Games is keen to distance itself from the title, according to Polygon.

"Epic Games isn’t involved in this project," the firm said in a statement. "Unreal Engine 4 is available to the general public for use ‘for any lawful purpose’, and we explicitly don’t exert any sort of creative control or censorship over projects.

"However, the video is using the trademarked Unreal Engine 4 logo without permission from Epic, and we’ve asked for the removal of our logo from all marketing associated with this product."

Polygon reached out to Destructive Creations for a response, with creative director Jaroslaw Zielinski offered the following:

"Epic Games has all the legal rights to issue such a request. They’ve contacted me in a friendly manner and asked for the logo removal. Following their request I’ve removed it from the YouTube version and will remove it from the press version of our trailer ASAP so everyone is happy.

"It was actually my oversight. I worked on titles and trailers in the past with the Unreal Engine license, that is different from the current EULA. Putting the Unreal logo at the beginning of our trailer was an obvious choice for me, as the engine is an amazing tool and in fact I considered it mandatory. So I guess I was simply wrong thinking it’s a must."