Investigative action-RPG Hellhunter now called HellSign

Australian indie developer Ballistic Interactive has decided to change the name of their upcoming investigative action-RPG Hellhunter to {HellSign} after finding out the term "hell hunter" had been trademarked by Rebellion in January, 2017.

{HellSign} is due out for release in the second quarter of the year and after listening to legal advice the team decided to change names. However, there was no intervention from Rebellion and via press release it is made clear that the two studios are on friendly terms. Pete Skyking (a name even Anakin and Luke would be envious of), of Ballistic Interactive had this to say on the matter.

"We looked into trademarks early in development. But as we were on a small indie budget, and found that many successful indie games didn't have a trademark on launch, we decided to take the risk and instead put the money toward making a better game. Unfortunately, when we finally did decide to trademark, we found that 'hell hunter' had been trademarked by Rebellion. We took legal advice and were told this would be a problem."

This is what Skyking had to say about the contact with Rebellion and their CEO Jason Kingsley:

"Given the sticky situation, Jason was awesome. He not only personally replied to us, but handled it like a boss! He was open to working something out and helping us through the situation - but unfortunately, at the end of the day, as indies operating out of our savings our only two options were to change our name, or cut content. Needless to say, we had to change the name."

{HellSign} has a rather interesting premise as it is an RPG with a heavy focused on investigation and exploration as player's need to find out what supernatural beings they're hunting or as it may be are being hunted by. {HellSign} is due out during the second quarter and you can check its Steam page if it piques your interest.

Now we're just left wondering what Rebellion's "hell hunter" is all about.