Dead Or Alive Studio Pressing Charges Over Video Of Nude Mod Sold On DVD

Developer and publisher Koei Tecmo is filing charges against an unnamed suspect for allegedly selling an unlicensed DVD with nude Dead or Alive characters modded onto it, Siliconera reports.

Koei Tecmo has taken the complaint to the Kanagawa police. The studio said the suspect allegedly copied footage of an illicitly modded version of Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation onto a DVD and sold it on an online auction site. The DVD featured nude Dead or Alive characters, which Koei Tecmo claims is an infringement of its copyright. The studio will file a lawsuit seeking damages.

"It is an act that infringes [on] the rights of the company and is illegal," Koei Tecmo said in a press release. "We will take decisive measures against such acts."

While this is the most recent civil action Koei Tecmo has been a part of, it's not the only one the company's been involved with. Capcom sued Koei Tecmo in 2014 for infringing on Capcom's 2002 patent for a system that lets players unlock content from an older game in a new title. And in 2002, Koei Tecmo won a court case over a modded Dead or Alive 2 skin that rendered Kasumi naked, an action the similarly studio called an infringement of its copyright.

Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation is one of the most recent entries in the Dead or Alive spin-off series, coming out two years before 2019's Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 Scarlet. The last entry in the mainline Dead or Alive series was 2019's Dead or Alive 6, which has undergone quite a few changes since its initial launch, including going free-to-play in December 2019.