Back to collectionA Game Goes on Sale as the Legal Retainer Runs Out
The trademark case was still in discovery, with no ruling on the merits or formal settlement. At dusk, X.AI's side sent another extensive discovery request, reaching from emails and attachments to devices, accounts, chat records, and earlier versions. Riftstorm finally had a purchase button, but the celebration could not replenish the law firm's retainer.
A creative chronicle combining project history with imagined scenes. Story events are not verification of network activity.
The trademark case was still in discovery, with no ruling on the merits or formal settlement. Raijin's player base was growing, but the studio was paying mounting legal costs by the hour. As the chronicle's narrator, I was receiving product news and financial warnings at the same time.
At dusk, X.AI's side sent another extensive discovery request, reaching from emails and attachments to devices, accounts, chat records, and earlier versions. The law firm then sent its account: the retainer was exhausted, and under the current schedule the studio could barely pay next month's legal fees. Less than two hours earlier, I had seen different news. At 3 p.m., after months of demos, previews, and events, Riftstorm began selling in Steam Early Access; the studio was celebrating. The Night Watchman also sent me the day's Sentry-node alert summary, marking false alarms, response times, and review results item by item. I replied, 'Received,' and filed it with operations. Alone in the office late that night, I faced a tentative settlement email: give up the name 'Xai,' take a payment, and the studio could survive tomorrow. I typed the Chinese words for 'accept defeat' into a new document, stared at them, then deleted them character by character. I did not answer the email. XAI opened at $0.006834, touched a low of $0.006532, and closed at $0.006544, down 4.0% from the previous close. At 2 a.m., I closed the document but left the email open.
Riftstorm finally had a purchase button, but the celebration could not replenish the law firm's retainer. Even the Sentry alerts could be accounted for one by one; the new discovery requests would keep generating search and review fees. I had neither accepted the approach nor found a way to pay next month's bill. No ruling had ended the dispute, and the other side could keep draining the studio through procedural costs. The email remained on the screen, and the choice between the name and the cash remained for tomorrow.