News: Wood vs Perception in Pissing Contest

Beren
08-12-2005, 07:01 PM
Several days ago, or maybe even a week ago, I posted about how apparently JoWood had canned SG1:The Alliance. Well it would appear that there were several things in that statement that Perception, the studio making the game, didn't agree with. Including minor details like: who owns the rights and whether the game is still being made.
<blockquote>Sydney, Australia, 12th of August, 2005; Perception Pty Ltd would like to rectify certain statements that have been made to the press by JoWooD Productions. To be clear, Perception is the official licensee of MGM on Stargate SG-1: The Alliance. Any suggestion that JoWooD has rights to Stargate SG-1: The Alliance upon termination of the contract is incorrect and not based on commercial or legal fact.

Development on the game will continue uninterrupted at Perception’s Sydney studio. Perception is committed to giving fans the best gaming experience possible.

Ben Lenzo, CEO of Perception said, “We view it as unfortunate that JoWooD would elect to make such misleading and libelous comments to the media and the marketplace. Over the last 9 months, JoWooD has openly acknowledged being in breach of contract in a number of areas including many legal and confidentiality breaches as well as several financial defaults for work performed by Perception and accepted by JoWooD.”

Perception has tried to work with JoWooD to resolve these issues for months but to no avail. This resulted in several breach notices being served on JoWooD, giving them ample time to remedy. As these newest issues had not been resolved by the August 5th 2005, Perception gave notice that all outstanding issues would need to be resolved by Monday August 8th 2005, or Perception would terminate its contract with JoWooD.

“It’s disappointing to hear of this so called termination via the press on the basis of a “get in first” tactic. This further suggests that JoWooD do not understand the terms of the contract. We are not surprised by their behavior or lack of appreciation for the goodwill Perception has afforded JoWooD on many occasions,” said Lenzo

Perception has begun personal prosecution proceedings against both the CEO, Albert Seidl and the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of JoWooD, Andreas Rudas, for the libelous comments made in their press release and will use all legal remedies available to it for the substantial monies owed to it by JoWooD.

“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.”

Perception will not discuss any further the outstanding issues with JoWooD in public as legal action is underway. We look forward to the release of Stargate SG-1: The Alliance.</blockquote>
Now while I said the other day that I was not all that interested in this game, even as a stargate fan. This bitching in the media is starting to get me interested. The game might still suck, or it may not suck as bad as JoWood implied, but this argument certainly looks like one to sit back and watch. When was the last time we heard a studio stand up to any publisher and tell them where to shove it? And how they would be best to shove it sideways, then straight up.. I say studios should do it more; especially to the likes of VUG and EA.