The quiet part out loud cliche is overused and not relevant in this case.

It was never quiet the industry wanted to preserve profits and they said it out loud multiple times.

(This was merged from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42259040 where that phrase was in the title)

I think it fits this case. It's an open secret that despite constant public statements from games publishers about their old IP still having value that it's actually a scheme to push consumers on the new content treadmill. Now we have someone confirming in court that it's exactly that.

Which is a terrible misuse of copyright that goes against even its most publisher-friendly interpretation.

Meta: I don't think the phrase is actually overused, I think it's used so much due to so many companies all discovering at once that they don't have to spend time crafting a plausible cover narrative, and that nothing will happen if they just say they're being shitty and there's nothing you can do about it.