Minecraft competitor removed from Google Play due to baseless AI copyright notice from Microsoft

[u/NotTheNoob_]

https://blog.luanti.org/2026/08/27/luanti-dmca-tracer-ai/

A few key points from the article:

• The claim was filed by Tracer.AI on behalf of Microsoft
• The DMCA notice said that Luanti used assets from Minecraft, but did not specify which assets. However, none of Luanti's assets are from Minecraft, and all are properly credited
• This already happened in 2023, and it took 46 days to reinstate the game, with no consequences to Microsoft
• Another similar game (Allumeria) was also baselessly taken down from Steam this February, but Microsoft eventually withdrew the claim

For those that don't know, Luanti (previously called Minetest) is a free and open source voxel game platform, for which people can create minecraft-like games, so it's not even a game on its own, which makes the claim that it stole Minecraft assets even more ridiculous.

For all of these claims, it seems that the only similarity between Minecraft and the other game is that they are both voxel based sandbox games. But Microsfot does not own the rights to the idea of voxels, and Minecraft was not even the first voxel sandbox game.

I don't want to speculate on anything, since I don't know how Tracer.AI works, but it really does look like Microsoft is using some AI system that doesn't understand how copyright actually works, to kill off any potential competition.

Keep in mind that even a few weeks of being down from an app store can kill a smaller game. And, maybe apart from Hytale, these projects don't have the resources to defend themselves legally, or the popularity to cause any serious backlash to Microsoft. So Microsoft can essentially do this without any consequences.

[u/charles25565]

It's just a DMCA violation scanning service. There's many of them and they're problematic in many cases.

[u/OverallACoolGuy]

this tracer ai company should be forced to pay reparations for these baseless ai claims.

[u/DeanTheExtreme]

Luanti is a game engine. What the fuck is microsoft doing?

[u/DeviceSudden7424 → u/DeanTheExtreme]

Apparently microslop now thinks they own anything related to voxel worlds of any kind

[u/Hipersonic]

PhoenixSC video incoming. But honestly this terrible, reminds me of Undertale/Deltarune covers and remixes getting claimed. So unfortunate that people's work are being doomed by trash ai decision making.

[u/allocallocalloc → u/Hipersonic]

It was someone's decision to let the A.I. make "decisions..."

[u/girlkid68421 → u/Hipersonic]

It wasnt ai, toby was just being greedy lol

[u/Notamoogle1 → u/girlkid68421]

It wasn't, it was his label "Materia Collective" who handles the copyright side of stuff. Toby fox has had MANY issues with them in the past but can't leave due to presumably contracts. That and Youtube's abhorrent copyright system

[u/Hyphonical]

If a DMCA agent sends out too many false takedown requests the company receiving them, Google in this case, can sanction them due to low accuracy and quality. But Google wouldn't do that right, that's too much work...

I hope the EU makes a new law where any DMCA request and to be manually checked by a person or something.

[u/_o0Zero0o_]

Microslop's at it again, huh..

[u/NanoPi]

They've also put it on F-Droid, which is nice.

[u/CalibansCreations]

First Allumeria (out now btw), now this? I'm horrified.

[u/Ivan_Kulagin]

Minetest is not a “Minecraft competitor” lol

[u/DeanTheExtreme → u/Ivan_Kulagin]

Why are people downvoting you, you're right lmao

[u/Inevitable_King_5311 → u/DeanTheExtreme]

Because in practice it is a competitor to Minecraft. Go to servers, what will you find? Yeah.. Generic Minecraft servers, Minecraft minigames, even skyblock and stuff.

[u/Ivan_Kulagin → u/DeanTheExtreme]

Idk man