The Dutch newspaper Telegraaf reports today that a Dutch company claims it owns the world generation math formula that is used in the game No Man's Sky.

According to the Telegraaf the Dutch company has invented what it calls a "superformula". The company claims that its formula is similar to the one used in No Man's Sky even though the company has never seen the game's source code. The game uses a formula that factors in the player's position in order to accurately and reliably generate the world around the player.

In the newspaper a representative of the company says it has tried to seek contact with the developer of the game, Hello Games, many times but says its requests for contact have been ignored ever since.

It is not surprising that the No Man's Sky developer has chosen to ignore the claims of the Dutch company. The formula that is used in the game is a custom-built algorithm that is not closely related to the formula of the Dutch company. Both formulas are presumably based on the original Lamé Curves that was first discussed by Gabriel Lamé in 1818.

According to the Dutch Chamber of Commerce registery the company that claims ownership of the formula filed for bankruptcy in 2013 before it relaunched its business.

Last June we received word that UK service provider Sky had sued the No Man's Sky developer over the usage of the word "Sky" in the title of the game. In that case the developer and Sky reached a settlement of which the details were never publicly revealed.

The newspaper says Sony did not want to comment on the matter.

Editor's note: We have chosen to censor the name of the company and of its representative to avoid giving the company name recognition over unsubstantiated claims.