According to a report by the Washington Post, Brütal Legend’s developer Double Fine has filed a countersuit to Activision’s legal attempts to prevent the game’s Roktober release.
The countersuit contends that Activision filed the suit in an effort to not only hurt the company and the game, but in an effort to protect the sales of Guitar Hero. Activision’s intent, the countersuit claims, “is not only to cancel Brütal Legend, but to kill it completely so that Guitar Hero would not have to face the competition.”
It was widely reported and believed that Activision had passed on Brütal Legend when it acquired Sierra in 2008. Later, Electronic Arts swooped in to pick the title up, promoting it heavily for this year’s release.
“Now that we’ve found a publisher and the game is getting sensational coverage, they want to stop its release,” said Double Fine CEO Caroline Esmurdoc.
As gamers, we find these legal squabbles completely obnoxious — we want Brütal Legend and we want it now. Anything that delays its release will infuriate us, and we can’t be held responsible for what we’ll do We’re pretty sure it involves a costume that looks like Iron Maiden’s mascot Eddie, and barging into Activision CEO and President Bobby Kotick’s office, shouting obscenities.
But we’re not quite sure what Guitar Hero has to do with Brütal Legend, seeing as how one is a peripheral-based music game and the other is… well… not at all a peripheral-based music game. Can’t we all just get along?
