Activision Shareholders Sue Over No Control Premium

The Wayne County Employees' Retirement System, a shareholder of Activision, is suing the company because it believes that Activision did not exercise sound business judgment by relinquishing control ownership to Vivendi in their recent/soon-to-be merger without securing a control premium for selling that control. Vivendi will receive a 52% stake in the company.

Shareholders of the Next Biggest Video Game Company Sue Over "Unfavorable Minority Position"

By relinquishing control, the shareholders of Activision are put at a disadvantage...it will be interesting to see how the courts will determine exactly how disadvantaged they are.

DJ Hero Trademark Application Hints at Expanding Activision IP

Continuing with its line of "Hero" games, Activision has filed an application for a trademark for "DJ Hero." Again, a trademark application does not mean that a game is in development, only that the company is thinking about it.

DJ "Copycat" Hero

As deftly noted by 1up, this would not be the first time that a Western developer has borrowed one of Konami's Music game ideas. But then again, who ever heard of Guitar Freaks anyway?

3D Realms Sued for Copyright Infringement

Darin Scott and Edward Polgardy filed suit against 3D Realms over the pruported stealing of their idea by 3D Realms for the upcoming Earth No More. Scott and Polgardy claims they pitched an idea to 3D for a game called Earth No More in which a spore has begun transforming and terraforming Earth into a hideous world full of mutated monsters. 3D Realms has a game coming out called Earth No More, in which a spore has begun transforming and terraforming Earth into a hideous world full of mutated monsters. So, I don't get it...what are they suing for? It's not like they copied the idea or anything.

Copy No More

I am very interested in this case. There is no mention yet about whether a NDA was signed or not, and if so, what the implications of that would be. I have thought about pitching an idea for a game to a company before, but I always hesitated because it just seemed so easy to steal the idea. Now I know, it may not be so easy; and in the case, the copying looks blatant.

Australia Bans Another: Dark Sector

By denying Dark Sector a rating, the Office of Film and Literature Classification in Australia has effectively banned the game down under, it being a crime to own or sell unrated entertainment. The OFLC cited the extreme violence of the game and focused heavily on the blood-spurting animation that accompanies the gameplay.

Down Under Not Down With Dark Sector

Hit the link to see other games that Australia has banned: the list is longer than one might think.

Capcom Files Preemptive Suit Against MDK

MDK, makers of George Romero's Dawn of the Dead, have been sued preemptively by Capcom to “eliminate any doubt that [Capcom']s ‘Dead Rising’ video game does not infringe on any copyright, trademark or other intellectual property rights” owned by MKR. Apparently, MKR had already sent Capcom, Microsoft, and Best Buy attorneys a draft of a complaint, spurring Capcom into action to receive a Declaratory judgment. MKR also contacted Capcom before the game was released and claimed that it was infringing on their copyrights. Capcom claims that MKR doesn't have the exclusive right to make media associated with a human battling zombies in a mall and believes that the disclaimer on the front of Dead Rising proclaiming that is not affiliated with Dawn of the Dead is sufficient for a court to grant them a declaratory judgment of non-infringement.

Dawn of the Declaratory Judgment

For copyright infringement, it is sufficient if the expression is not lifted, but it seems like the trademark, and more specifically the trade dress, issues of Dead Rising scream "strong likelihood of confusion." I know the first time I saw the box, my first thought was Dawn of the Dead, until I read that disclaimer. Will the disclaimer be enough?

Ubisoft Wins $13.2 Million From Bratz Producers

Back 2002, MGA, the companies that produces every little girls favorite role-model dolls: Bratz, signed an agreement with Ubisoft for U to handle any games related with the toys. After Bratz blew up, MGA tried to force a renegotiation with Ubisoft by terminating the contract for no apparent reason and proceeded to criticize Ubisoft's handling of the license. Ubisoft sued and won over $13 million.

You Bratz Ever Heard of Courtz?

The dispute was settled through arbitration.

Casual Pirates - How Much Damage Are They Doing?

Gamasutra is featuring an interesting article about piracy of casual games. Starting from the mind-boggling statistic that 92% of Reflexive's Ricochet Infinity games are pirated, Russell Carroll then examines the impact of anti-piracy measures on the number of people buying the game. His conclusion: for every thousand pirated copies prevented, only one of those becomes a paying customer. Damn.

Pirates Steal Software, Not Sales

Carroll ultimately states, "a pirated copy is more like the loss of a download than the loss of a sale." This is congruent with my experience of piracy: pirates take games they would not buy (and some they would). The value of having the pirate play the game is not taken into account, and often, once the pirate can afford games, he will buy those games that are worth it (much like all of those college kids that download a bunch of music then end up buying the CDs with songs they really liked).