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If these lawyers wanted to go after the devs the only leg they could possibly stand on under US law would be trademark tarnishment[1].

In any case it could possibly be defended as parody, but only if the fact that the developer didn't use the IKEA name doesn't end the lawsuit sooner - which however would make it a really obvious parody.

[1] 15 U.S.C. § 1125(c) https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/1125#c

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These kinds of things are usually about defending the trademark against future claims.

If they didn't send a cease and desist then that could be used as evidence that they don't conduct business in this area and so they can't claim protection.

You have to use a trademark to keep it, and of of the ways to use it is to enforce it in cases like this that are relatively inexpensive.

Not to mention that the game is set in an “infinite furniture store”, while any IKEA store I’ve been to was evidently finite, so, and correct me if I’m wrong, there’s no real comparison.

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