Posts Tagged ‘lawsuit’
Mortal Kombat Film Producer Sues Midway
If you’ve been following the happenings at Midway you’ll know the company is in dire straits, facing bankruptcy following the failure of Wheelman to pull in the money they needed to keep things going. Recently Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment swooped in with a $33 million dollar offer to acquire most of the company, including of course the Mortal Kombat franchise, undoubtedly the only reason to really put up the cash to acquire the company.
Larry Kasanoff has filed a lawsuit on behalf of himself and his company, Threshold Entertainment claiming that in 1993 Midway granted him the rights in perpituity to the film and TV license for the series. Unfortunately for Kasanoff the clauses in his contract don’t actually grant that; his argument says that they ‘amount to the same thing’. He goes on to claim that Mortal Kombat is much more a product of Threshold than Midway since they claim that the characters in the video games were simply flat, stock archetypes who were developed into actual characters by the production company in the various films and tv series. That of course ignores all the inconsistencies between the depictions of the characters in their films and television series, not to mention that the film takes a certain degree of story-related artistic license. In the film both Kano and Shang Tsung are killed, while as established in game canon by Mortal Kombat II (released two years before the film) Kano was a captive of Shao Kahn and Shang Tsung was still living.
Take-Two sueing Apogee over Duke Nukem Forever
It seems that the closure of 3D Realms ticked someone off over at Take-Two because they have recently announced they will be sueing the now debunk company over the unfinished Duke Nukem Forever.
Since 3D Realms is no longer around to take the wrath, Take-Two will turn to the brand’s creator, Apogee:
“Apogee continually delayed the completion date for the Duke Nukem Forever,” Take-Two said in the complaint. “Apogee repeatedly assured Take-Two and the video-gaming community that it was diligently working toward competing development of the PC Version of the Duke Nukem Forever.”
It doesn’t seem like Apogee has much of a counterarguement in this lawsuit but maybe Take-Two will put DNF in the hands of another developer and actually get the game out the door.
Read (Destructoid)
Bethesda Considering Legal Action Over Fallout MMO
Fans awaited the arrival of the long-over due Fallout 3 with excitement, only to weep when it was announced that Interplay was ceasing work on the game. A tech demo hit the internet which only rubbed salt in the wounds of many but Bethesda swooped in and picked up the rights. While fans are still hotly debating whether or not their take on the universe was well executed or not, others are waiting with the same contained anxiety for the planned Fallout MMO.
When Bethesda purchased the Fallout IP from Interplay they left behind the MMO rights as part of an agreement that hinged upon Interplay beginning ‘full scale’ work on the game by April fourth as well as having secured funding for the development of the title. Bethesda is considering legal action as they claim that Interplay has fulfilled neither of these conditions.
Interplay is denying all of these claims and their work on a game called ‘Project V13′ hints that there might be more going on than Bethesda is aware of. Unfortunately for Interplay if Bethesda goes ahead with legal action and wins, they’ll have lost all rights to the license and that could lead to problems with the financing as MMOs based on a brand new IP have a low rate of success due to the colossal grip WoW has on the market.
Activision Faces DJ Hero Lawsuit
Music games are big money, and it appears Activision is in it for life, as they are pushing out tons of Guitar Hero titles. The publisher is also expanding into other types of music – DJ Hero is an upcoming game that has players scratching for glory. However, it appears they have hit a snag: publisher of Scratch: The Ultimate DJ is suing Activision and Scratch developer 7 Studios over “intentional interference with contract, breach of contract, conversion and misappropriation of trade secrets.”
Genius Products, the publisher, is claiming that Activision recently purchased 7 Studios in order to benefit its own upcoming DJ title. Their suit alleges that the duo “conspired to withhold the current version of Scratch in an effort to delay the development and release of Scratch and to gain access to proprietary technology.”
Here’s what they had to say:
Prior to undertaking these wrongful actions, Activision approached Genius with an offer to acquire Scratch. The offer was rejected. It is alleged that Activision then commenced the process of acquiring Genius’ contract developer, 7 Studios, while under a non-disclosure and confidentiality agreement with Genius. It is also alleged that after Activision acquired 7 Studios, the two companies began conspiring to prevent Scratch from getting to market on a timely basis by withholding work product, code and the proprietary game controller.
Activision is yet to comment on the matter.
TimeGate Sues Paramount Over Section 8
According to Team Xbox, Kohan developer TimeGate has filed suit against Paramount Digital Entertainment and Paramount Pictures over the title of its upcoming game Section 8.
The studio alleges that Paramount illegally used the game’s name for an “interactive web series.” They also point out that Paramount announced the web series just three days after cancelling a meeting to play the studio’s game.
Similar legal action was taken by the studio last year after ABC had used the name Section 8 for an upcoming sci-fi drama. TimeGate won, with ABC agreeing to change the name.
Section 8 is due out for release on PC and Xbox 360 later this year.
Student files $1 million lawsuit against lost Xbox 360
The vast majority of Xbox 360 owners have at one point or another have to deal being without their Xbox 360, most likely because it was in for repairs.
A Yale student, Jesse Maiman, lost his Xbox 360 for good at the airport. He then filed a lawsuit against US Airways, seeking his loss and damages covered by $1 million. A new Xbox 360 on the other hand, retails for $399. Maiman claims the console had a “specialized” hard drive, most likely meaning that the content on the drive (e.g. save games) were of great value — something any gamer could understand. But $1 million?
Worlds.com Suing NCsoft
That’s right gaming fans, we’ve got yet another patent infringement lawsuit on our hands. Worlds.com, a company that focuses on creating ‘3D communities’ has filed a lawsuit against NCsoft, the company behind Tabula Rasa, Guild Wars, Lineage and City of Heroes. They’re claiming that the company violated a patent awarded to Worlds.com in February of 2007. If they win the case it’s going to be a big deal; the patent applies to what can only be described as the most basic underlying concept of every MMOs.
The patent is for technology that allows users to “interact with other users in a virtual space” through a server, with an avatar representing each user. As you can imagine, that concept applies to pretty much every MMO in existence. Worlds.com is seeking ‘damages’ and a ‘permanent injunction’ against violations of the patent, although any company they won a lawsuit against would likely find that Worlds.com is willing to negotiate, especially if they managed to win against powerhouses like Blizzard. NCsoft is likely their first target as they are not a US based company and likely have less lawyers on their payroll familiar with patent law and less money than Blizzard and Sony.
EA Slapped With Two More DRM Lawsuits
The DRM saga continues, as Electronic Arts has been slapped with two more lawsuits related to its use of SecuROM DRM technology, this time in relation to The Sims 2 Bon Voyage and Spore Creature Creator.
One Richard Eldridge of Pennsylvania is suing the publisher over undisclosed installation of the DRM software after installing a demo version of Spore Creator Creator. Here’s a bit from his suit:
The inclusion of undisclosed, secretly installed DRM protection measures with a program that was freely distributed constitutes a major violation of computer owners’ absolute right to control what does and what does not get loaded onto their computers, and how their computers shall be used…
The other suit, filed by Dianna Cortez of Missouri, cites EA for “immoral, unethical, oppressive, unscrupulous” conduct for installing the DRM which caused problems on the user’s computer.
Hopefully, this will lead to nonsense-DRM being phased out, making place for smarter software and maybe a DRM-less future.