Activision likely to lose Brutal Legend case

By Ellie Gibson Published 31 July, 2009

Release will probably go ahead, says judge.

The judge presiding over the Brutal Legend legal battle has delayed his decision until next week - but warned he's unlikely to rule in Activision's favour.

Activision filed a lawsuit in June, claiming it invested $15 million in Brutal Legend and owns the rights. The publisher is attempting to block Electronic Arts from releasing the game, which is currently down for an October launch.

Developer Double Fine waded in earlier this month, filing a countersuit against Activision.

So it's left to Los Angeles Superior Court judge Craig Karlan to decide who's right and who's wrong, like some kind of Jeremy Kyle of videogames.

According to the Associated Press Double Fine is due to deliver a final version of the game by 8th August. Karlan has said he needs a bit more time to think but will make his ruling before then, on the 6th.

It's not looking good for Activision, though - the judge said he is leaning against ordering a delay to the release of the game.

"I can't say there's a likelihood of success here," Karlan said. However, he added, "This is going to be a close call."

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (23) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • jaluuk #1 3 years ago

    Jeremy Kyle reference ftw, we clearly know how Ellie likes to spend her mornings.

    Go Double Fine!

  • Xeopuppy #2 3 years ago

    Lets hope Double Fine win, Activision can BURN IN HELL...

  • kangarootoo #3 3 years ago

    Cool.

  • Olemak #4 3 years ago

    Hoping for a Brütal Rűling against Actiblizzard here.
    If Acti wins, I will sue them for emotional distress.

  • Eraysor #5 3 years ago

    If Activision win I honestly think I will have to stop buying their games for a couple years. Good luck Double Fine.

  • penhalion #6 3 years ago

    Hopefully the call goes the right way. Activision need to be told, and told publicly, that these kinds of tactics are immoral, counter productive and very harmful to their bank balances. If I were heading Activision I would be looking to cut loose whoever thought it was a good idea to do anything to a company whose game was dropped by a decision made within Activision itself.

    The message such actions send to future potential developers is, if nothing else, that Activision can't be trusted. This will only hurt them in the long run and benefit their competitors.

  • Zebula77 #7 3 years ago

    Hip, hip!

    Bloody great news, and Activision can suck my you know what. I've been checking out the videos with commentary for this game and it looks brilliant. Love metal and Jack Black.

  • ZuluHero #8 3 years ago

    Im glad - If the judge had found in activision's favour, this would have been one big mess.

    Sometimes i really hate the pettiness of our industry :(

  • sarcasmoidosis #9 3 years ago

    Conspiracy theory number 164: Activision still has some earnings from Brutal Legend and this was nothing but a hype affair.

    Realistic theory number 1: They're just pricks :)

  • DrMGinius #10 3 years ago

    Im not a fan of heavy metal nor Jack Black, but the game seems brilliant. I hope Activision loses...

  • ardamillo #11 3 years ago

    Sounds like the judge is asking for a sweetener in that last paragraph :)

  • symmetry #12 3 years ago

    I want this game so DIE ACTIVISION!

  • AphoticCosmos #13 3 years ago

    Excellent! Never thought that they had a case, anyway. "We scrapped the project, but the fact that a better publisher with more foresight [EA] picked it up later is going to harm our business!" . . . errr, what? You dropped the project, accept responsibility for your own commercial failures and more on.

  • laudy #14 3 years ago

    My my,

    Activision have been talked about for a good while now. Whether the publicity is good or bad, it's still publicity...

    Couldn't care less about Brutal Legend but I find myself hoping Activision lose.

    /hops on bandwagon waving shirt above head

  • actionfitz #15 3 years ago

    [link url=http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=aC6CPwu0I44
    ]http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=aC6CPwu0I44
    [/link]

    "We are the vanquished foes of the metal
    We tried to win for why we do not know"

  • Toothball #16 3 years ago

    Looking good. I'd probably buy this if it were any other game that Activision were trying and failing to get cancelled.

  • riz23 #17 3 years ago

    A Jeremy Kyle of videogames LOL.

    "Activision! You disgust me, and you disgust the good people in this room! What do you think you were doing? What made you think you could desert this fine young, and may I say, pretty little dev. Then like some slimy slippery snake try to stop her enjoying a new life after she has found a fine upstanding partner like EA who says he is going to a make a fine game out of her and support her in the way she should be treated! SHAME ON YOU!"
    The audience claps and the Judge smirks a like c**t. Activision stares glumly at the floor and picks idly at a hole in his shellsuit.
    Edited by 2 at 31/07/09 @ 12:13

  • Earlyflash #18 3 years ago

    ""I can't say there's a likelihood of success here," Karlan said. However, he added, "This is going to be a close call." "
    Isn't that rather a conflicting statement? If it's a close call, then the first statement is false and vica versa.

    You rather worry about the judge if he can't even get simple concepts like this right.

  • IronCladChicken #19 3 years ago

    This went to a judge?
    I reckon Activision were hoping for a settlement.

  • Redeye #20 3 years ago

    Should this end the way it *should*, I await the inevitable Kock-end response, whining like a bitch about how his poor lickle company has been done wrong.

    Well, tough shit, dickhead.

  • RobotRocker #21 3 years ago

    We need to have an entire atrticle about Bobby Koticks dick-headed and almost downright evil decisions

    -Deciding to drop games simply because they were "un-exploitable" and werent suited to yearly sequels
    -Trying to force up the RRP of games in an already struggling economy, while similtaniously moaning that Sony needs to drop their console prices and threatening to pull titles from the PS3
    -Milking Guitar Hero to the point where they are nearly killing the genre
    -Tried to force Radical to bring Prototype down to a T/12+ rating (Alledgedly caused half the original Hulk Team who were working on it to leave Radical too)
    -Suing Double Fine over an IP Activision does not own that they dropped very publically and only have an interest once their biggest publishing rivals pick up the game in a partners deal (Which allows them to keep all the IP rights).

    Activision are less becoming the old EA and more the Halliburton/Blackwater of Games publishing. As in totally fucking evil.

  • cheekyjay #22 3 years ago

    "Brutal Legend, if I can't have you... nobody will!! Mwahahaha"

  • Spekingur #23 3 years ago

    Hopefully EA will learn from this as well and start to become more of the Awesomest Game Company in the World.

    Also, I wonder how much the judge is being paid under the table to rule 'correctly'?