14 DAY TRIAL // Video game publisher Microsoft has announced that it will be publishing the Double Fine developed Trenched title on the European market under the name Iron Brigade in order to avoid a conflict with a company that creates board games.
Microsoft says that the new Iron Brigade name will be applied globally in order to eliminate any confusion among the player base, although it's not clear whether the copies of Trenched that have already been downloaded from Xbox Live Arcade will be patched in order to reflect the new name and how the experience of those who own it at the moment might be changed.
Trenched was initially launched in the United States during the month of June and there were plans to also get it to Europe during the same month.
They were derailed by Rui Alipio Monteiro, who is a designer of board games based in Portugal and the creator of a board game called Trenched which shared the World War I theme with the video game.
Brad Muir, who is a producer working at Double Fine, has stated at the time that the developers were working with Microsoft to find a way to also launch Trenched in Europe and suggested that a name change was the likeliest option because a trademark legal battle would take much longer and would not necessarily be resolved in Double Fine's favor.
Trenched was well received by the public and by critics, got good reviews and managed to sell more than 50,000 digital copies on XBLA during its first two weeks.
The game uses an alternative history take on WW I, with two veterans gaining super intelligence and battling over the fate of the world using mobile platforms called “trenches”.
The gameplay combines traditional tower defense with some light role playing and a lot of third person shooting.