Tag: Lawsuit

NCSoft Is Suing TERA Again


It’s been two years since I last talked about the lawsuit between NCSoft and TERA developer Bluehole Studio, so I think a recap is necessary. Many years ago, before Lineage III was known as Lineage Eternal and when NCSoft still had plans to develop the MMO on the Unreal 3 engine, several members of the Lineage III staff left to form their own developer, Bluehole Studio, developer of the MMO The Exiled Realm of Arborea. NCSoft sued Bluehole in Korea in 2006, claiming that the developer had stolen software and hardware, as well as art, to make TERA. Bluehole was convicted in Korea and convictions were upheld (for the most part). A civil complaint was filed in 2010 and overturned by the courts. However, as you are well aware, TERA continued its development and launched in Korea with a western release early this year.

As it turns out, NCSoft isn’t taking this US release sitting down. The publisher launched a lawsuit in New York today, with essentially the same charges of theft of physical and intellectual property.

“Their business plan was simple and audacious: create a competing product using the very work they had done while at NCsoft, launch it themselves to great fanfare and acclaim, and, in the process, deal a crippling blow to their former employer,”

NCSoft seeks an injunction barring TERA from releasing in the United States, as well as enhanced damages for Bluehole’s misconduct. Appeals of the criminal and civil cases in Korea are still ongoing.

Jagex Wins Lawsuit Against Bot Makers


In a measure that will certainly cause more rage-filled comments here at MMO Fallout, Jagex has won their case against bot makers, with some tasty bit of extra information to top it off. In the case of Jagex Vs Impulse Software, the judge ruled in favor of Jagex on counts of copyright infringement under federal law, circumvention of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, trademark infringement under federal law, Computer fraud and abuse under federal law, and Tortious interference with contract (Tortious interference is when your actions damage a company’s relations with customers/business partners).

In addition, the members of Impulse Software are now forbidden by court order to write bots for any Jagex game, help write bots for any Jagex game, and even play any Jagex game, as well as releasing the source code for their bot software. The URL’s will be transferred into Jagex’s possession, as well as a large amount of documents they had relating to the program. In addition, Impulse has been ordered to put out a public apology.

The amount that Impulse is paying to Jagex has been sealed, so how can this news get juicier, I hear you ask. Pay attention to this little snippet:

Within 10 days of the entry of this Order, Defendants shall identify and provide all contact information in their possession to Jagex for all current or past resellers,script developers, code developers, and customers for any product marketed, licensed, or sold by Defendants dealing with any Jagex Game.

The developers and customer list handed over to Jagex? I smell Jagex Vs Jon Doe 2: Electric Boogaloo coming soon to a theater near you.

(Court document)

Bethesda Wins Lawsuit, Interplay Fallout MMO Terminated


War. War never changes. And neither does litigation. Bethesda’s parent company Zenimax Studios announced today the results of the recent settlement between Bethesda and Interplay, over the rights of the Fallout MMO. In the settlement, Zenimax has come out on top, retaining all rights to the Fallout name and ensuring anything Interplay was working on is now worth zilch.

Under the terms of the settlement, the license granted to Interplay to develop the Fallout MMO is null and void, and all rights granted to Interplay to develop a Fallout MMO revert back to Bethesda, effective immediately. Interplay has no ongoing right to use the Fallout brand or any Fallout intellectual property for any game development. ZeniMax will pay Interplay $2 million as consideration in the settlement, each party will bear its own costs of the litigation, and Bethesda will continue to own all Fallout intellectual property rights.

In addition, Interplay will also lose the rights to publish Fallout 1 and 2 in 2013. You may remember that Interplay had sublicensed the Fallout brand to Masthead Studios (the Earthrise developers). In a separate filing, Bethesda sued Masthead (and settled on December 29th) for copyright infringement and assorted intellectual property violations, as it turns out Interplay was not allowed to sublicense without the approval of Bethesda, which they never received. In that case, no money has changed hands.

Is it early enough to declare Project V13 dead?

Bethesda/Interplay Lawsuit Settled, Nothing Specific Released


It’s funny how some banners look better in your mind before you put them on paper. Good news everyone! According to Duck and Cover, a premiere Fallout fan site, a settlement has been reached between Bethesda and Interplay over the ongoing lawsuit pertaining to Fallout Online (or Project V13).  For those in need of a jump to the brain, back in 2007 Interplay sold the Fallout franchise to Bethesda under the agreement that Interplay would develop the Fallout MMO, with the understanding that such a title would be in full development by April 2009. When that date came and went, allegedly with no real progress, Bethesda launched a lawsuit against Interplay for failing to meet their side of the bargain.

This recess was extended, and then they recessed for lunch. After the lunch recess, the court room was locked to everyone except attorneys and clients. When our source asked why this was the case, our source was told it was because they were working out a settlement. The following day, another source called the court reporter to ask what the next hearing schedule for the case was — this source was told there was no schedule as a settlement had been reached.

More information, according to Duck and Cover, is set to be released this month. Until then, let the speculation continue on the future of the vaporware MMO known as Project V13.

(Source: Duck and Cover)

Jagex: Nuking Bots, Suing Cheaters, Sends Official Warning


Yesterday was bot nuking day at Runescape, and according to Jagex it has been an overwhelming success not just in cleaning up the game, but disabling 98% of the bots and gold farmers. Something has come to my attention from another player about receiving an email claiming to be from Jagex, offering amnesty and a last chance if the user no longer cheated. If the player continued botting, however, the email threatened to add their name to a list of defendants in Jagex Vs John Does, a pending lawsuit in the District Court in California.

The email is real, as Jagex confirmed on their forums. Check it out below:

Dear Player,

We have strong evidence that you may have purchased and used botting software in the past, specifically ibot software.

Botting and the cheating it brings is destroying your game, violates Jagex’s rights under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and any player that continues to engage in botting activity has no place in our community.

As part of bot nuke week we are offering you a 1 time amnesty and settlement lifeline, which is a chance to reform and change your ways. We’d like you to contribute to the community in a positive way, to compete on a level playing field as everyone else does and play in the true spirit of the game, with integrity. All of your accounts, main and otherwise, are now on our watch list and will be monitored for the use of ibot and all other inappropriate third-party software. Regardless of who you are or how long you’ve been with us, if you decide to cheat and bot ever again we will have no hesitation in: (1) permanently removing your account from our wonderful community in order to protect Jagex’s rights under the DMCA, and (2) naming you as a defendant in Jagex Limited v. John Does, which is a lawsuit based on DMCA violations that is currently pending in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (Civ. Action No. SACV11-00969-CJC).

Please note that this amnesty and settlement offer is protected under Fed. R. Evid. 408. If you ignore our offer and instead continue use botting software, we reserve our rights to pursue statutory damages against you for between $200 to $2,500 per act of past, present, and/or future botting in accordance with 17 U.S.C. 1203(c)(3).

We do hope you make the morally sound and lawful choice of turning your back on bots. We look forward to seeing you in game having fun in a way that is true to the spirit of fair play and respectful to your fellow players.

Yours sincerely,
Mark Gerhard

You can find the thread confirming this at: 14-15-831-63310676 (Enter this into the “jump to thread” form on the forums itself). But wait! There’s more! Mark Gerhard promises yet another update today in Project Clusterfutterer (they’re going to keep making me say that, aren’t they?) with more updates later this week to combat the remaining 2%.

Appeals Court Rules In Favor of Richard Garriot


Backstory: Richard Garriot partnered with NCsoft to create Tabula Rasa, a sci-fi shooter MMO that rather famously launched in late 2007 and shut down in early 2009 following a poor reception. Before Tabula Rasa shut down, however, NCsoft published a letter of resignation purportedly from Richard Garriot that he was leaving the company to pursue other careers. Garriot shot back, suing NCsoft with the claim that he was fired from the company, and then marked as voluntarily resigning in order to defraud him out of stock options that were available but expired upon his “resignation.”

Last year I reported that Richard Garriot had won $28 million in his lawsuit against NCsoft, although the final amount was $32 million, after lawyer fees and other costs added on. I also pointed out that NCsoft would undoubtedly appeal, and appeal they did. The 5th Circuit Court, however, saw Garriot’s side of the story (yet again) and shot NCsoft down, affirming the judgement.

“It would be unjust to allow NCsoft to sit back during trial, observe Garriott’s litigation strategy, and then demand a new trial on damages when it dislikes the verdict.”

NCsoft noted the lawsuit in their 2010 financial documents as a notable dent in their revenue.

Neverwinter Delayed, Atari Loses Rights To D&D

So many questions answered. The Atari Vs Hasbro lawsuit, who is developing Neverwinter, and what does this mean for Cryptic Studios?


A very long-awaited news line comes to a close today: Atari and Hasbro have settled their lawsuit and Atari has come out the loser in the deal. As announced on Gamespot today, Hasbro is regaining full rights to the digital licensing from Atari, meaning Atari will no longer be able to license Dungeons and Dragons games. As part of the settlement, Atari will still be able to sell and develop a selection of D&D games, from Daggerdale to an upcoming Facebook game.

Neverwinter is the other half of the lawsuit, especially considering the sale of Cryptic Studios to Perfect World Entertainment left a lot of questions unanswered. Did the game transfer with Cryptic? If not, who would develop it? Neverwinter now carries a “late 2012” release date, attributed to Perfect World Entertainment’s desire to invest in a more immersive experience.

The year delay hopefully signals that Perfect World Entertainment won’t be tolerating Cryptic’s habit of game development: Short development cycles that produced products that ultimately lack content and polish. With legal issues out of the way, hopefully development of Neverwinter can resume to its full extent.

[DEVELOPING] The "Sony Hacked" Mega Article


I’ve decided to sticky this article and use this instead of creating more articles on the same issue. The most recent news will be up top, and to stop clutter, any previous news will be below the “read more” link.

[5/8/11]: PSN services remain offline due to a planned attack for this past weekend.

[5/7/11]: Sony Europe “Welcome Back” includes free games.

[5/4/11]: Sony has posted their response to the United States House of Representatives.

What we know so far:

  • Playstation Network: Offline until further notice.
  • Sony Online Entertainment: Offline until further notice.
  • PSN users will be compensated 30 days free game time, and nonspecific free downloads.
  • SOE users will be compensated 30 days free game time, plus various other items.
  • There are multiple class action lawsuits in the works.
  • The attack was carried out by Anonymous.
  • There have been no reports of credit card fraud as a result of this attack.

Continue reading “[DEVELOPING] The "Sony Hacked" Mega Article”

[DEVELOPING] The “Sony Hacked” Mega Article


I’ve decided to sticky this article and use this instead of creating more articles on the same issue. The most recent news will be up top, and to stop clutter, any previous news will be below the “read more” link.

[5/8/11]: PSN services remain offline due to a planned attack for this past weekend.

[5/7/11]: Sony Europe “Welcome Back” includes free games.

[5/4/11]: Sony has posted their response to the United States House of Representatives.

What we know so far:

  • Playstation Network: Offline until further notice.
  • Sony Online Entertainment: Offline until further notice.
  • PSN users will be compensated 30 days free game time, and nonspecific free downloads.
  • SOE users will be compensated 30 days free game time, plus various other items.
  • There are multiple class action lawsuits in the works.
  • The attack was carried out by Anonymous.
  • There have been no reports of credit card fraud as a result of this attack.

Continue reading “[DEVELOPING] The “Sony Hacked” Mega Article”

Interplay To Bethesda: No, You're Absurd!


This is an old screenshot.

Back in April I happily announced that the Interplay Vs Bethesda lawsuit was over, after an investor reported to Joystiq that Bethesda had dropped their suit. Of course, as we discovered in our long and incredibly painful interrogation of investor Frymuchan, Bethesda confirmed that they were not dropping the suit, and planned to continue full steam ahead.

Last month, Bethesda made a claim so ridiculously absurd that I did not report on it out of strong suspicious that the report was fake. As we know so far, Interplay has the rights to create a Fallout MMO, which is what spawned the whole lawsuit in the first place (Bethesda wants those rights back). In their latest claim, Bethesda made the statement that they only gave the rights to the name Fallout for the MMO, and that Interplay had no rights to use anything else from the franchise in said MMO. So…Interplay agreed to making a Fallout MMO that has nothing whatsoever to do with Fallout aside from the name? Bethesda may have had a stronger case just having their lawyer shout out “if the glove don’t fit, you must acquit,” during trial.

Interplay, of course, fired back yesterday calling the claim “absurd” and “without merit,” surely far more conscious words than many of us would use to describe such statements (I’ll start with juvenile, desperate, pathetic, and you can fill in the rest). For a company that is worried about the Fallout MMO never making it to light, Bethesda sure is spending a lot of time and effort to cripple Interplay through legal fees and wasted time.

Then again, when the genre is continuing to take more serious turns, we can always use two clowns in the corner honking their horns and throwing pies in each other’s faces. For comedic purposes. It’s a good thing Interplay talked about the Fallout MMO being light hearted and humorous, because the game itself is already a running joke, not unlike Duke Nukem Forever. Not the happy funny either, but the depressing funny, like laughing at the crazy homeless guy with the tinfoil hat and the “The end is nigh” cardboard poster.

(Source: Gamasutra, linked above)