A Dutch company is claiming Hello Games is using its 'superformula' without permission in the developer's upcoming game, No Man's Sky

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The Dutch Telegraph (as picked up by NeoGaf and confirmed with Google Translate) reports that Tilburg-based company Genicap owns the 'superformula' Hello Games is using to generate the billions of planets in No Man's Sky. The kicker? Hello Games reportedly doesn't have a license to use it.“We haven't provided a license to Hello Games,” Genicap's Jeroen Sparrow told the publication. "We certainly don't want to stop the launch, but if the formula is used we'll need to have a talk.”According to Sparrow, Genicap has reached out to Hello Games multiple times without response.This isn't the first time a 'superformula' has been mentioned in association with No Man's Sky. In an interview with The New Yorker last year , Hello Games' Sean Murray openly said that an equation, published in 2003 by Belgian plant geneticist Johan Gielis, was the key to unlocking the unique procedural generation in the game. Gielis called this equation his 'superformula', a term which Murray adopted.However, as noted by a NeoGaf sleuth , Gielis is the Chief Research Officer at Genicap - which you can see on its ' About Us page - and has owned a patent on the formula since 2000.We'll update this story as it develops.

Lucy O'Brien is an editor at IGN’s Sydney office. Follow her ramblings on Twitter.