Originally, today would have seen the legal battle between Activision and Double Fine Productions enter the court room. However, the two did not begin trading legal punches today, as the Southern California judge presiding over the case has delayed proceedings until next week.
For those who don’t remember or are out of the loop, Acti is suing to block the release of Brütal Legend this coming October, claiming they still have the publishing rights despite having dropping the title. Double Fine then filed countersuit, claiming breach of contract and that the publisher wanted to quash the game’s release because it represented a threat to their Guitar Hero franchise.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Craig Karlan stated in a brief hearing today that despite rescheduling the case to begin on August 6th due to a full calender and to allow both sides more time to prepare, he was not inclined to side with Activision.
“I can’t say there’s a likelihood of success here,” said Karlan.
Double Fine is due to turn the final version of the game over to EA on August 8th and Karlan has vowed to have his final ruling ready so as not to conflict with this.
Sounds like things aren’t looking too hot for Activision. They should have realized going into this that the deck was stacked against them because judges wear black… and black is very metal.
[Via: AP]
haha….activision bites the dust. If they were honest business men and stopped thinking about they’re already fat wallets, they wouldn’t be in this downhill battle. With Band Hero and DJ Hero releasing, would it really have hurt them to have and action-style rock game where they could’ve at least upped the anti and let consumers import the super awesome guitars Brutal Legend will have? NOOOOOO. Greedy bastards let the door hit em on the way out.