Yes, People Do Steal Ideas

Second, if anything, this would be a publisher stealing a finished game. It's by no means a publisher stealing a game idea. Game ideas are cheap, it's finished games that might be worth something, as has been said here many times.

Even then, as was noted by many in the thread, it would have been suicide for the publisher... the hobby game market is just too small. The same rule wouldn't necessarily apply in the mass market.

And as far as I can tell the claim is based on "name + theme + fell through" and while the designer is concerned, has accepted the claim of "Nope, not connected" as probably true.

The thread has pretty much acknowledged "Probably not the case, but there's a vague possibility, but it will be easy to tell when more details on the game become public."

Although I still haven't received a contract from Phalanx, I've had personal meetings with them and corresponded with them for years over different game designs I submitted to them.

They always respond with great feedback, and they are very quick in playtesting and giving feedback.

Phalanx is a respected publisher in Germany, and there's no way they would risk that reputation by steeling a game design without due credit. Like all publishers in Germany, they don't have in-house designers and depend on outside submissions, and they do not want to jeopardize their great relationship with game designers (including me).

So do not be afraid to submit a prototype to them. I guarantee you'll hear back faster (either good or bad feedback) then with any other publisher, and the feedback you'll get will always be useful.
I even try to specifically design something for them because I want to work with them so much!

LOL! :)

It does sound like a bit of a tempest in a teacup. I'm sure it will be resolved equitably. It's an excellent example of the he said/she said type of arguments that can go into the business end of things though. In fact, it raises a very interesting point: if multiple games attempt to simulate the same thing, what are the odds that sooner or later some of them use similar mechanics? Especially if those multiple games are all of the same genre (Euro)?

I'll follow that thread for sure. Sooner or later someone will outright steal a game (because they're complete idiots) and I will have to amend my statement from "people don't steal games" to "people steal games once in a generation".

Right-o.

Yes, and the copyright on rules only cover the exact text used, not the mechanics or how to play (ie you can make a new game using the exact same mechanics as long as you write down the rules in a different way). Wouldn't be many new boardgames if the law was any stricter than it already is.