Activision sues Double Fine over Brutal Legend

Activision is having quitter’s remorse – assuming that you believe it gave up on the negotiation with Double Fine for Brutal Legend. The company filed a lawsuit in California today against Brutal Legend creators Double Fine Productions, claiming that it still holds the rights to the game - which is now being published by Electronic Arts.

Activision claims it still has a valid contract with Double Fine Productions to release the rock themed action game starring Jack Black and has invested roughly $15 million in it. Further, Activision claims that Double Fine missed an important deadline last year and then asked for another year to finish it, along with an additional $7 million. Of course, this lead to stalled negotiations. But Activsion’s claims that Double Fine took its proverbial ball and went home to find another publisher.

But the real kicker is that Activision dumped the game from its roster shortly after the merger was complete, according to some sources. And yet it claims that it never gave up its rights to the game and that it somehow suffered “irreparable harm” from the whole ordeal. Naturally companies never worry about their image when they decide to sue each other. For its part Double Fine says that it owns the rights to the game and therefore had the right to shop it around to other publishers.

We’ll see how this all plays out, but it is a shame that this game, which looks like it could very well be awesome, could be taking a $15 million dollar hit before or after it is released.