Read it here: How the Prison Architect developers broke the Geneva Conventions | PC Gamer
According to the story, Prison Architect developers were contacted by the Red Cross to remove the + sign from their game.
But I am surprised this hit the news just now since there are tons of games that use + sign to represent health.
Team Fortress 2 (2007)
Left 4 Dead (2008)
Honestly, the list could go on. I am pretty sure some indie games use this symbol as well.
Interesting⌠I had no idea this was a thing. I wonder if Overwatchâs would be applicable as the cross on those are oddly shaped
Fascinating. I thought it was a bag of baloney when I first saw the post, but it seems like a legit thing. And from what I can tell, itâs not even that itâs specifically a trademark that belongs to the Red Cross organization, but a reserved symbol under international treaty loosely describing âa red cross on a white backgroundâ with proportions and specifics intentionally left vague âto ensure universal respect for and to avoid abuse of the emblem intended to serve as the humanitarian Red Cross symbol.â
What makes me wonder, then, is why protection of the symbol is so grossly unenforced, but exercised in this specific case?
Note itâs a red cross that is against the Geneva Convention.
The Geneva Convention does not apply to us as civilians, unless you live somewhere like the U.K. where they adapted Convention provisions into law. Given that there isnât a law in every nation to allow them to enforce it, that might help explain why it has been. Another possibility is that youâve gotta start somewhere, and Prison Architect just happened to be theirs.
In b4 twitter rage.
Prison Architect had the least funded legal team is my guess. 
Italic, so no problem
Also, not a white background. 
Actually, they passed 25 million dollars in revenue back in July, so there might be some money for lawyers too.
Might be the theme?
Ahh the insanity of exclusive ownership strikes again.
None of the examples above were made by developers from the UK, where this is a law. Except for Prison Architect.
Itâs not some conspiracy to gain money, itâs just regional laws.
GTA (Another UK based game), uses a white cross on a green background for health kits.
See âRestricted use of the emblemsâ at the bottom of the page:
This isnât about exclusive ownership, this is about preventing war crimes. The article sited examples of when people used red cross symbols to commit atrocities. It is insane, however, to go after a video game. Perhaps someone at IRC thought it was an atrocious game.
Oh yeah⌠didnât think of that :x
Well this is a problem. With my code coloring options in Visual Studio every single formula involving addition in my code is now in contravention with the Geneva ConventionâŚ
Which would actually explain why the green cross is used pretty much universally here for first aid kits, medical vehciles and the like.
You learn something every day.
âThe UK is a police state.â - A gentlemen I met from the UK.
Well I kind of agree with this because some people are a) pretty dumb these days at times and b) although itâs a game, people often do learn things from games (which is scary).
So perhaps itâs relevant despite being in a game. In any case minor creativity easily sidesteps the issue. Slight tint would do it. A moderately mauve cross, perhaps.
Actually itâs pretty silly going after a game. Sounds like legal team wanted to justify existence.
Did he have a split personality? since Iâm having plural problemsâŚ
Guess iâll have to use the division symbol lol
What if you are making a WWII game with military ambulances?
Not sure. On one hand it would be fair that you could render something historically accurate, but on the other hand, if there is a trademark fairness and accuracy wonât really matter.
I still think that Prison Architect has this problem due to theme - and they are based in the UK, which I believe was mentioned has a law enforcing the Geneve Convention. Might be relevant info further up.