Stargate dev shouts at JoWooD

By Tom Bramwell Published 12 August, 2005

In space, everyone can see your handbags.

Stargate: SG-1: The Alliance is still in development according to developer Perception, despite publisher JoWooD's declaration announcing last week that it planned to cancel it because it was, to cut a long story short, a bit rubbish.

Following JoWooD's announcement that it had cancelled its deal with Perception and that the rights and source code would now revert back to it, Perception has accused JoWooD of making "misleading and libellous comments" (which it plans to pursue through legal proceedings against JoWooD CEO Albert Siedl and chairman of the supervisory board Andreas Rudas), declared that its statement about the rights reverting to the publisher is "incorrect and not based on commercial or legal fact" and accused JoWooD of "many" breaches of contract. In fact, Perception's laundry list of complaints would probably ruin this paragraph if we didn't stop now and rejoin it on a fresh line.

There we are. So, to continue: furthermore, Perception says that it gave notice that all outstanding issues relating to contract breaches had to be resolved by August 8th or the developer would terminate the contract, only for JoWooD to issue a statement claiming that it was breaking off the relationship admit quality concerns. "It's disappointing to hear of this so-called termination via the press on the basis of a 'get in first' tactic," fumed Ben Lenzo, CEO of Perception. "We are not surprised by their behaviour or lack of appreciation for the goodwill Perception has afforded JoWooD on many occasions," he said. "And they're not coming to my birthday party either," he might have added.

"Perception will not allow its name to be tarnished in such a manner and view such matters extremely seriously and will always protect the reputation of our staff, our products, licensing partners and the company," the developer said today, before adding that it planned to avoid public discussion of the issues while legal action was underway, defiantly concluding: "We look forward to the release of Stargate SG-1: The Alliance."

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (19) Latest comment 7 years ago

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

  • deaner #1 7 years ago

    I haven't seen a featherweight bout with a soundtrack of "Yo Mamma" like that since Pacquiao-Marquez.

  • Teeth #2 7 years ago

    Sock it to 'em, Perception. Go for it.

  • abigsmurf #3 7 years ago

    I hope JoWood gets sued for every penny they've lost out on. Those unethical business practices should not be allowed to happen, everyone who's seen the game saw that it wasn't bad as far as licences go. They're just trying to fuck over a small dev co

  • Tyronne #4 7 years ago

    Sounds like this is going to be a quality tie in to join such legedary games as knight rider,street hawk and street fighter the movie.

  • Wobble #5 7 years ago

    In defense of street fighter the movie, you could manipulate a near-life-size version of kylie.

    /There were a few interesting positions during kicks.
    //Ok, it was awful.
    ///but you know, kylie...

  • Tyronne #6 7 years ago

    thing is if I had wanted to manipulate Kylie I would of become a doctor. (ohhhhhhh im gonna burn for that)

  • MrGrumpy.au #7 7 years ago

    You've got to feel sorry for the people eagerly anticipating this title, it's going to take a long time to sort this one out.

    Hey lay off poor little Kylie Mini-ghoul she's really not that well at the moment, who am I kidding go for it. ;)

  • kangarootoo #8 7 years ago

    I used ti like JoWood, purely on the basis that they published Gothic. But I've not heard good things about them recently.

    Its kind of hard to know who is right or wrong (if not both) on this one without being able to read their lawsuit briefs, but I am inclined to give Perception a more beneficial slice of the doubt pie right now.

    BTW cancer isn't funny, I know you are just having a dig at a celebrity and thats OK in principle, but lets not on this one please.

  • MrGrumpy.au #9 7 years ago

    kangarootoo, tell that to the poor elderly people in the ward she kicked them out of so she could have her privacy. Not a fan of hers but my thoughts are with her for a speedy recovery and she's a strong girl, but what was done to the elderly people in the hospital ward wasn't very thoughtful.

    It was headline news here for a week or two.

    Cheers

  • kangarootoo #10 7 years ago

    Wasn't aware of that.

    Don't really want to get the thread all side tracked here, and the ins and outs of Kylie's life isn't really the basis of my point. I'm not objective on this one.

    Anyway, JoWood...

  • kangarootoo #11 7 years ago

    I hope I haven't killed this thread. Please jump back in people if you have anything to say, on any subject, freedom of speech etc.

    Looking into things a bit more it seems that JoWood have been losing cash for a while now. If anything makes a publisher stroppy its finding that the number of eggs in its basket is shrinking.

    If it turns out that Perception are right about who owns the IP for Stargate, JoWood are going to look pretty damn petulant (and incompetant for that matter). Maybe they had to cut their legal budget and the other staff are just winging it the best they can.

  • Tyronne #12 7 years ago

    Would be a shame if the project withered away as the video that was on the sg1 dvds recently was not that bad, just very jittery.

  • elvenearth #13 7 years ago

    Perhaps it is just me, but does anyone else think it is funny that it is a case of an Australian company versus an Austrian company?

    Bring it on mate!!

  • PearOfAnguish #14 7 years ago

    Stargate SG1 sucks and there's a 99.9% chance the game is plop and will sell about two copies before ending up in the bargain bin.
    It would be a shame to see JoWood get into difficulties though, since they occasionally publish some real gems that no one else would touch.

  • kangarootoo #15 7 years ago

    Don't get me wrong, I don't wish ill on JoWood (even if they are being a bit stroppy at the moment). And I agree they have published some great games in the past.

  • Xavier_B_OXford #16 7 years ago

    This game looks rather promising I think, certainly a much more interesting approach to squad based shooters than the ten a penny gulf war/Tom Clancy shitathons that are infesting the Xbox these days.

    I for one am looking forward to it.

  • Macross #17 7 years ago

    I hope JoWood lose on this one too, I know how nasty publishers can get, I've not come across one yet who gives a shit about making a good game yet, only money. This whole thing smacks of typical publisher bollocks.

    As for stargate, yeah I reckoned it looked reasonable too, and as everyone else seems to be slagging it off, I thought the series had some comedy moments in it too, enough to make it the thing i watched while eating my tea, as opposed to the tripe on every other channel aynway.

  • profil #18 7 years ago

    The license is promising, true. But the game looked like crap. Pure and simple. JoWood thought so, Namco thought so (one article on IGN I think even pointed out that Namco wasn't even showing the PS2 version at E3). Now, if Namco AND JoWood (and keep in mind JW's past releases here) think the game's quality isn't up to snuff, I have to err on the side of Namco. Also, no-one here seems to understand that JoWood and Namco's money were paying for Perception's life. License or not, JoWood and Namco's money was what was being used for a sub-par FPS which looked horrible in every IN-GAME scene released and was MOST CERTAINLY going to miss it's gold date (think, no gold-date = no shipping this year = missing out on the last lifecycle of the current-gen consoles = all-involved lose money except Perception who already has gotten around $5-$7 MILLION from the two publishers and wants more to continue development for around 1 more year).

    I get the feeling many of the fans are looking at the (really great looking might I add) pre-rendered trailers and touched up screenshots. But the few seconds of in-game footage which were showed in every trailer (and the leaked in-game footage) we're horrid, looking like a 2-3 year old unreal mod done by a group of teens after-school. Certainly not the quality you expect from a AAA-budgeted title (think Far Cry, think Splinter Cell, think Unreal tournement, think Doom3, think think think).

    I honestly see no reason why JoWood OR NAMCO should continue funding a studio to the tune of MILLIONS of dollars for a low-quality title that would be delayed another year just to see them come out on old and outdated consoles at a budget price (not taking the PC into accont here).

    IGN article from E3: http:// pc.ign.com/articles/617/617677p1.html. Granted this was in May, BUT, read this (and there are QUITE a few other articles echo-ing these comments) and then think of this current drama between Perception/JoWood/Namco and then ask yourself if you're surprised it was canned.
    Edited by 2 at 15/08/05 @ 09:41

  • kangarootoo #19 7 years ago

    @profil

    Good points, well made. You certainly filled in a few gaps for me on the history of this. Like I said, I don't like to see anyone fail (unless I am certain their removal from the market increases game and work environ quality for the rest of us) and JoWood does have a good history in the game quality area (don't know anything about their work practices).

    To expand my previous comment, if it turns out JoWood are right about owning the IP then Perception are going to look petulant and unprofessional (and I'll stand outside their house calling them names if need be, I'm not loyal to either side).

    p.s. IMO your use of UPPER CASE WORDS wasn't really necessary though as your comments stood on their own feet quite well enough.