MGE/SCi Wrangle Continues News

Readers of TVG may remember an article appearing earlier in the year alleging legal action against SCi from MGE Software and Investment Limited, surrounding the Xbox 360/PC title Battlestations: Midway.

Following the claim TVG was informed that the information was false from parties mentioned in the original allegation, and was advised not to follow the situation. Not wanting to face legal action ourselves we of course obliged and published a retraction of the original story; however, the drama has once again risen, appearing in publications such as The Sunday Times and Gamasutra over the last weekend.

Admittedly the articles that have surfaced during the weekend reveals no fresh information to that which first appeared on TVG during the first week of June, so we continue to express doubt over the credibility, particularly given the alarming inconsistencies that are apparent throughout the original allegations and the subsequent coverage.

Naturally we wanted to defend our integrity amongst some claims that we'd simply fabricated the original story in the first place, and so contacted SCi for an official comment after seeing the aforementioned pieces.

Jane Cavanagh, Chief Executive of SCi Entertainment said; 'We would never normally comment upon such relatively minor matters and have only done so to clarify the position. We wish to correct what we believe are a number of misleading statements and material inaccuracies.'

Further to Cavanagh's statement, TVG learns that SCi pulled development of Battlestations: Midway away from the game's original developers, for a number of reasons including the developers' failure to meet milestones - a common practice in the developer/publisher relation. In correspondence with SCi, TVG has additionally learnt that the UK publisher held an original contract with MGE Software & Investment Limited to deliver Battlestations: Midway, who themselves subcontracted development to the now defunct Mithis Entertainment.

We have since also found out that despite the closure of Mithis Entertainment, the company continues to operate to some degree, with the company's MD Robert Sugar, contacting TVG during the course of events.

TVG has also been in contact with MGE Software & Investment Limited' Gadi Zahavi and their legal representatives, in an attempt to bring some clarification to the matter from their perspective; currently we await further correspondence from them.

Whether or not the alleged infringement is true or not we're not entirely sure, however, this is just an article to clarify our position; we're not exactly sure why MGE Software & Investment Limited contacted TVG earlier in June, but hopefully we can bring a resolution and clarification to the matter soon.