If you have followed the Sulake vs Retro drama then the following may not come as a surprise. With the recent closure of Otaku , administrator and founder Sojobo has recently announced the following via the RaGEZONE forums;
Just an update guys – Sulake are demanding at least 3,000,000 Euros and a further 100,000 Euros in legal costs. This morning my home was raided by the Bulgarian Police, my computer was seized along with additional hard drives that I had disconnected in an attempt to hide data from them – If you bought a Phoenix Licence and operate a retro I seriously advise you to shut down and hide – they will no doubt be able to gain access to the data on my drives which include IP logging from licence verification, even some cracked copies of Phoenix connected to to these servers and no doubt they’ll be pursuing everyone they can. I assume they’ll also access my Paypal account as my login details are saved on the computer, from that they’ll have all of your contact details, whether you paid with your own or worse, your parents accounts – it really looks like they’re out for everyone now
What the future holds for the Retro scene remains a mystery. Whilst server emulators is 100% legal the up-coming months shall be an interesting time for the young generation of developers.