Activision Want Money For Other People’s Games
Digital Jack Black is not amused
Remember as a kid when you’d argue over who would win in a theoretical “Clash of the Titans” style super fight? Superman or The Hulk? Godzilla or King Kong? Chuck Norris or Mr T? Well it looks like we’re going to see the videogaming equivalent of those fights actually take place.
According to Variety’s Cut Scene blog, Activision Blizzard are threatening legal action against Electronic Arts over their intent to publish Double Fine’s Brutal Legend, claiming that they still own the publishing rights to the game.
For those of you that don’t remember, Vivendi were originally set to publish Brutal Legend late last year, however following their merger with Activision to create the monolithic Activision Blizzard, it was one of a handful of titles discarded by the publisher due to not being “exploitable”.
Of course just because Activision want money from the game, that doesn’t mean they have any intention of actually publishing it. It would seem that they’re more interested in just securing a payment from EA for the publishing rights to the game in much the same way they did last year when Atari picked up Ghostbusters and Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena.
Double Fine appear to be taking the position that they own the rights to the Brutal Legend IP and, having had the game dropped by Activision, they are well within their rights to partner with another publisher.
As for EA, well, the response from one of their representatives is pretty clear:
“We doubt that Activision would try to sue. That would be like a husband abandoning his family and then suing after his wife meets a better looking guy”
We fully expect to see Activision CEO, Bobby Kotick, sashaying towards EA’s John Riccitiello, snapping his fingers and saying “Oh no you di’n't! Mmmmhmmmm!” in the next few days.
/Grey still can’t quite believe EA are the good guys these days
Tags: Activision, Activision Blizzard, Bastards, EA, Electronic Arts