Night in the Woods co-creator says companies even called his mum over merch licensing

A bit of a grim and weird one this, but Scott Benson, co-creator of indie game Night in the Woods, has told the story of how merch companies are trying to get the NITW license by contacting members of his family, up to and including his mum.

In a series of Tweets, Benson explained the reason the devs of the adventure game are fairly protective of how they license out their brand and copyright. ‘Everyone thinks it’s just kids with etsy shops or people selling keychains at Kawaiifest or something and not, like, lots of companies that exist to exploit this,’ he said.

Benson said that companies had been calling members of his family in other parts of the country in the hope one of them would grant them the right to profit from his team’s creation, including tracking down his mother.

Earlier this year we had companies calling family members of mine in other parts of the country trying to get THEM to ok NITW merch b/c we wouldn’t give them the time of day. Like they tracked down my MOM.

— Christmas_Shoes.mp3 (@bombsfall) November 27, 2017

We’re not sure what the company was expecting, exactly – a note from his Mum as their defence in court? Weirdness aside, it’s also a pretty insidious thing for companies to do – let’s face it; phoning up family members when you don’t get the result you want from the person in question is harassment, plain and simple. 

As a chaser, let’s remind ourselves how lovely the game itself is, Colm called it a ‘beautiful Saturday morning cartoon show where the mundanity of life is the backdrop for some wonderful exchanges’ in his review.