Valve has pulled the indie game The Orion Project from its Steam store following a DMCA claim from Activision. The triple-A developer claims the indie game features weapons that too closely resemble weapons from both Call of Duty: Blackops 3 and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.

One of the developers of the indie game, David James, has posted an announcement on Steam following the takedown explaining what happened. "I received the DCMA request after its removal from Steam with no warning/contact from either Valve/Steam or any developer associated with Call of Duty nor anyone from Activision." the statement reads.

"I never was provided specific examples of assets, or screenshots of what offended them - nor given the chance to rectify or remove any offensive content prior to having our game removed from sale." James added.

The developer claims the game is not actually using models from the game but instead pays homage to the weapon's real life counterparts, indicating that the game's weapon models were handcrafted by the indie developer.

If the indie game does not contain models ripped directly from the Call of Duty franchise then it would mean that Activision has abused Steam's DMCA system to pull a competitor off the market.

Earlier this week Steam started its Summer Sale in which many indie games have a chance to market their game on the stores frontpage, making the timing of the takedown all the more suspicious. The Orion Project made its way to Steam on April 25th and was available for just $0,49 prior to the takedown.