Spark Unlimited Suing Activision for Alleged Breach of Contract

[Doctor Setebos]

From an article on Games Industry (http://gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=11184):"Activision refused to pay Spark the royalties owed on [Call of Duty] Finest Hour or the bridge financing due under the contract, stole Spark's idea, and then hired away Spark's own employees to develop that sequel, hoping that if Spark was sufficiently crippled, Spark would be unable to protect its rights," the filing against the publisher - which has been acquired by US website GameSpot - reads.Though I'm interested to see what Treyarch does with the CoD franchise, I always hate to hear news of publishers "allegedly" strong-arming smaller developers (EA, anyone?).

[PhilR8]

um I'm an idiot

[Wayfarer]

Didn't Fox just buy Gamespot? So isn't this really more of a case of Fox buying Activision via Gamespot?

[pur3r4ge]

Gamespot acquired the filing, not the publisher.

[Klade]

Gamespot acquired the filing, not the publisher.

Ya they have a piece of a paper not a publishing company.. :cool:

If this is true then expect it to quietly disappear when Activision settles.

[Doctor Setebos]

Gamespot acquired the filing, not the publisher.Then that is the most horribly worded article I've ever read. :D

Thanks for the edit, Evil. :p

[Heretic Machine]

Hopefully they dominate Activision -hard-...

[Danin]

Ten bucks says Big Red One is the drizzling shits if it ever gets to market.

[dojoteef]

Well this seems to be a fairly common occurence in the video game industry. It's a shame that it happens, but I've heard numerous accounts of pretty much the exact same problem. Often times the developer just has to tough it out because that same publisher might be fronting the next game the developer makes.