Cult of the Lamb and Hotline Miami publisher Devolver Digital is suing artist Erick Chatel (known as Erick Scarecrow online) for continuing to make Hotline Miami toys, pins, and shirts well after their licensing agreement has expired. That, and Chatel keeps claiming that he's making an official Hotline Miami spinoff game called Dusted. He's not, Devolver Digital says, and hasn't been licensed to create any official goods for Hotline Miami since the agreement was terminated in 2019.
Devolver Digital filed the original complaint in February in a Texas court, and Chatel has been fighting to get the case moved to Nevada, where his business operates out of. He won, and the case was moved to Nevada in May. Devolver Digital is looking to the court to determine if Chatel is violating trademark and copyright law, as well as unfair competition regulations. The company is also asking for an order to stop Chatel's alleged infringing behavior and to award Devolver Digital financial damages.
Devolver Digital writes in its complaint, obtained by Aftermath, that it previously had an agreement with Chatel, which began in 2015, to make "figures, pins, prints, and apparel" for Hotline Miami and several other Devolver Digital games. The company terminated the agreement in 2019, Devolver Digital says, but Chatel was allowed to sell the remaining merchandise he had already created. (The complaint does not list a reason for the contract ending.) "The limited sell-off right did not grant ESC-Toy [Chatel's company] the right to produce more inventory of the Authorized Merchandise and certainly did not give ESC-Toy the right to develop new products using Devolver IP or hold itself or Mr. Scarecrow out as an 'Official Hotline Miami Collaborator.'"
Since then, Devolver Digital claims, Chatel filed copyright registrations for "multiple works derived from Devolver's intellectual property, including no less than fifteen registrations relating to the Hotline Miami IP." Devolver Digital says this is fraud. Devolver Digital included screenshots of Chatel's social media account, where he promoted pins, shirts, prints, and figures based on Hotline Miami, going back to 2023 and up until 2024. Many of these are denoted as "back in stock," which Devolver Digital uses as proof that they're not selloffs of the original products.
Chatel has also promoted a video game spinoff of Hotline Miami called Dusted. Multiple times he's implied that Dusted is "an official spinoff," Devolver Digital says. The promotion also includes the announcement of a Kickstarter to fund the game, which has not materialized. He's posted vague updates about the game throughout 2025, Devolver Digital says.
"Defendants have extensively marketed this so-called ‘spinoff’ on social media, advertising a forthcoming Kickstarter fundraiser for the project," a Devolver Digital lawyer writes. "Promoted under the Hotline Miami mark, Defendants’ spinoff and Kickstarter are a clear scam to make consumers mistakenly believe that Defendants’ Hotline Miami-branded ‘spinoff’ is in collaboration or otherwise affiliated with, or sponsored, endorsed or approved by, Devolver, all to fund Defendants’ rampant infringement."
Chatel kept selling Hotline Miami goods throughout 2025, too, according to the complaint. In January, Chatel said a demo of the game would be available to play.
Devolver Digital says it didn't really know this was going on after the agreement ended in 2019, until Chatel sent a letter in 2024, via lawyers, to the company where he said he was "'actively pursuing opportunities to assist in the development of' products involved the Devolver Ip," according to the complaint. Devolver sent a cease-and-desist back. Devolver Digital lawyers said they would not discuss the issue with Chatel until his"improperly obtained copyright registrations" were revoked. That's when, according to Devolver Digital, Chatel "ramp[ed] up their social media posts regarding their so-called infringing 'spinoff' game and forthcoming Kickstarter." In 2024, an Instagram user responded to a post Chatel had made asking if Dusted was official. He replied yes, Devolver Digital says.
Devolver Digital says this is harming the company and confusing customers. Indeed, it did appear to confuse Hotline Miami fans, who posted about the project on Reddit. On social media, Chatel claimed he co-created the characters with Devolver Digital.
Though the complaint was filed in February, there hasn't been much progress aside from the court transfer from Texas to Nevada, which Devolver Digital opposed. Aftermath has reached out to Chatel and Devolver Digital for comment.
Chatel is also involved in another video games-related lawsuit, which he filed against Sony Interactive Entertainment. The original complaint was filed under seal, but Sony Interactive Entertainment claims the complaint, in its motion to dismiss, is an attempt "through this litigation to convert a failed business pitch into an exclusive contract to design and make collectable pins based on SIE's intellectual properties.”. Sony says in that document, filed in 2020, that Sony Interactive Entertainment had a licensing agreement that began in 2014 and was modified by an "oral agreement" in 2018. Chatel's lawsuit, per Sony's account, says that Chatel claims Sony Interactive Entertainment breached their agreement by letting other companies sell pins. Another document, filed in May 2026, confirmed that Chatel was under agreement in 2014 to create a Nathan Drake statue and worked with the company for years.
Then, Chatel pitched a "pin program" for PlayStation; Chatel says a Sony Interactive Entertainment product manager approved the pitch for him to start making pins. Sony Interactive Entertainment did not ultimately use Chatel's company for pins, and made others themselves, according to a document filed in 2026. Sony denies the agreement in the motion to dismiss.
That lawsuit is ongoing. Aftermath has reached out to Sony Interactive Entertainment for comment.
