The lawsuit, analyzed by gaming website Gamasutra, details months of drama.
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Genius Products and turntable-makers Numark alleged in a lawsuit filed yesterday that their own development studio as well as Activision, publisher of expected rival product "DJ Hero," have taken unlawful steps to delay the release of "Scratch: The Ultimate DJ."
That news made the rounds thanks to a press release issued by Genius and Numark yesterday. According to the release, the lawsuit alleges:
that Activision and [original "Scratch" development studio] 7 Studios have conspired to withhold the current version of Scratch in an effort to delay the development and release of Scratch and to gain access to proprietary technology. In addition to substantial damages, Scratch DJ Game LLC is asking the court to order the game’s immediate return, and other injunctive relief.
Prior to undertaking these wrongful actions, Activision approached Genius with an offer to acquire Scratch. The offer was rejected. It is alleged that Activision then commenced the process of acquiring Genius’ contract developer, 7 Studios, while under a non-disclosure and confidentiality agreement with Genius. It is also alleged that after Activision acquired 7 Studios, the two companies began conspiring to prevent Scratch from getting to market on a timely basis by withholding work product, code and the proprietary game controller.
The full 30-page complaint was scanned by the folks at Destructoid and analyzed over at Gamasutra. The Gamasutra piece summarizes a back-and-forth between Genius and 7 Studios that allegedly resulted in Activision stepping in, offering to buy "Scratch," getting rebuffed, buying 7 Studios instead and then 7 Studios not keeping Genius and Numark from finishing the game.
Here's an excerpt from Gamasutra:
From there, Genius rejected Activision's offer on March 13th, with Activision business/legal SVP Greg Deutsch saying on a phone call that "Scratch as an IP has no value", because "no one knows what Scratch is."
Deutsch then claimed that Genius should be worried about the game infringing patents held by Konami and Activision (and previously discussed on Gamasutra), and that Genius would run into "a legal buzz saw" unless it shipped the game with Activision. He also said the game would not "see the light of day" unless distributed by Activision.
The whole affair puts Activision in a bad light, essentially alleging that the publisher has tried to either buy its competition or stifle it stillborn. But Activision has not had its say yet. MTV Multiplayer has contacted the company for comment.
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