Activision, Double Fine End Legal Dispute With Settlement
Brutal LegendThe legal dispute between Activision and Double Fine Productions has come to a relatively amicable end, as both parties have agreed to an out-of-court settlement.
According to the Associated Press and as reported by GameSpot, the scheduled Los Angeles Superior Court hearing where Activision hoped to get the judge to block the release of Double Fine's Brutal Legend in October won't occur. They won't need a hearing because an undisclosed settlement has been reached. If you don't remember, Activision began this fight by saying that although they did pass on producing Brutal Legend, they never gave up the rights to the title. If true, this would mean Double Fine wouldn't have legally been able to shop around for a new publisher. But Double Fine denied that Activision had any right to anything and quickly countersued, accusing Activision of "unlawful business practices" and even trying to "thin out the competition" to clear the way for their high-profile blockbusters like Guitar Hero 5 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Well, it all falls by the wayside now, but there's one little addition to this story-
According to the LA Times, it seems Activision could be considered to be the "loser" in this settlement. It seems that after everyone learned that the judge would be likely to rule in Double Fine's favor, Activision decided to settle to avoid a losing court battle. Hence, "it appears very likely that Activision received little to no compensation from Double Fine." ...I'm sorry, but did anyone just giggle a little bit?
Related Game(s): Brutal Legend
8/7/2009 Ben Dutka
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Comments (27 posts)
Kempy21
Friday, August 07, 2009 @ 1:50:56 PM
3 up, 2 down
Godslim
Friday, August 07, 2009 @ 2:42:17 PM
3 up, 0 down
Gregory Freeman
Friday, August 07, 2009 @ 4:59:31 PM
add the 1 yr warranty
79.99
convert to Hardened (Screw Cheap NVG's)
99.99
add the .13 GST-PST Merged tax rate
$112.98
actually sounds reasonable, because if you look around (quickly search up local gameshops in yer area on the net) every new release game is roughly $70. all CE's when they first come out are roughly 20 dollars more... warranty is optional, but a very good choice, and you cant help local government greed... but in retrospect, i could buy an okay cell phone with that cash... so its debatable
2 up, 0 down
bridgera
Friday, August 07, 2009 @ 11:19:57 AM
Reply
5 up, 0 down
fluffer nutter
Friday, August 07, 2009 @ 11:23:42 AM
2 up, 0 down
englishgolfer
Friday, August 07, 2009 @ 11:36:31 AM
Last edited by englishgolfer on 8/7/2009 11:36:54 AM
0 up, 0 down
Cpt_Geez
Friday, August 07, 2009 @ 11:39:06 AM
Reply
3 up, 0 down
Scarecrow
Friday, August 07, 2009 @ 12:17:16 PM
Reply
Everyone should create a blog and blog 'bout this all over the internet
And by the way, lower your prices on your games, they're too pricey.
Last edited by Scarecrow on 8/7/2009 12:17:32 PM
3 up, 0 down
ThePearlJamer
Friday, August 07, 2009 @ 12:51:40 PM
Reply
3 up, 0 down
Sir Shak
Friday, August 07, 2009 @ 12:54:41 PM
Reply
Bobby Kotick : I'll TAKE it !!!!
7 up, 0 down
LegendaryWolfeh
Friday, August 07, 2009 @ 1:18:28 PM
Reply
6 up, 1 down
BeezleDrop
Friday, August 07, 2009 @ 1:58:38 PM
Reply
4 up, 0 down
WorldEndsWithMe
Friday, August 07, 2009 @ 2:43:21 PM
4 up, 0 down
Crabba
Friday, August 07, 2009 @ 2:19:38 PM
Reply
3 up, 0 down
Qwarktast1c
Friday, August 07, 2009 @ 2:45:11 PM
Reply
1 up, 0 down
WorldEndsWithMe
Friday, August 07, 2009 @ 2:48:01 PM
Reply
2 up, 0 down
Highlander
Friday, August 07, 2009 @ 3:21:24 PM
Reply
SCO sued IBM for billions in a case that came down to suing IBM for using IBM program code in an IBM written addition to LINUX. SCO had neither the rights to the material they objected to, nor the standing to sue as they didn't even own the UNIX copyrights that they claimed as grounds for suing.
Now along comes Activision and sues a developer for having the sheer gall to shop their own game to publishers after Activision passed on the game. Since Activision passed on it, they have no rights, but that's not stopped the money grubbing gits from trying to sue a potential competitor out of business and use the courts to at very least cripple a competitor.
Hey Mr Kotick, if your company is so damned fine and great and all, why can't you just get on with developing games instead of trying to bully the industry in what I can only describe as a very Microsoft manner? Do you have so little faith in your own products that you need to indulge in this crap?
Pathetic.
8 up, 0 down
tes37
Friday, August 07, 2009 @ 4:55:27 PM
Reply
3 up, 0 down
King James
Friday, August 07, 2009 @ 7:23:41 PM
Reply
0 up, 0 down
Dancemachine55
Friday, August 07, 2009 @ 11:00:54 PM
Reply
However, I have no interest in Tony Hawk or anything else Activision is doing. I like Guitar Hero, but Rock Band is the far superior franchise. The fact that they have The Beatles just goes to show you who has more respect in the music game industry.
Come on people, lets be mature about this. Modern Warfare 2 will kick ass, and Guitar Hero 5 is a true sequel with many improvements on menu flow and gameplay. Tony Hawk has an actual board to ride on now and pushing Starcraft II back means more time to add cool stuff and fix bugs.
Yes, they are all sequels, but they are truly defined sequels with considerably huge changes and improvements. Why are we complaining about this?
You should buy a game if it is very good, not just because you like the company or the head developer!!!! Just because you hate Activision doesn't mean you shouldn't buy their games if they are awesome. If they suck, fair enough, but Modern Warfare 2 is shaping up to be a good game.
Sure, Guitar Hero Greatest Hits SHOULD have been DLC, but the rest stand well on their own. I really can't believe you are all complaining about good and fun titles coming out so soon between each other. You should be happy about this!!!!
If you think about it, Activision are a decent game publishing company, and yes, they do occassionally make mistakes in business and employ idiots like Kotick who just brings the company's image down, but hopefully Activision will go the way of EA by shutting up and taking risks with new and good IP's (Mirror's Edge or Dead Space anyone?)
Give it time. As everyone says, time heals all wounds.
P.S. Anyone have any comments on my views? I like hearing from this community of gamers.
0 up, 2 down
Sir Shak
Saturday, August 08, 2009 @ 3:38:41 AM
0 up, 0 down
___________
Saturday, August 08, 2009 @ 3:57:29 AM
Reply
ive never scratched a ps3 disk and my cuz and i used rainbow six Vegas as a frizzy because we were bored. bluray disks have a protective layer over them so its almost impossible to scratch them, unless your doing it deliberately.
as long as there kept in there case or in the ps3 the disk should be in perfect condition for many years to come.
1 up, 0 down
tes37
Saturday, August 08, 2009 @ 11:54:37 AM
1 up, 0 down
Jian2069
Monday, August 10, 2009 @ 2:21:23 PM
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They need to check themselves before they wreck themselves.
0 up, 0 down
Oxvial
Reply
Friday, August 07, 2009 @ 11:03:26 AM