Friday Downtime Feature

In a week that saw publishers officially announce games we already knew about, or confirm release windows for games we already knew would be arriving around that sort of time anyway, there wasn't much to write home about this week in the gaming press. Okay, perhaps there was one game announcement that took us by surprise, namely a sequel to 2000's Alice, but that was the exception rather than the rule for the week ending 20th February 2009.

Away from all the confirming, detailing, and announcing, though, was a certain legal battle that may or may not ensue between two of the most talented racing sim studios in the industry. Swedish developer SimBin has been developing some of the most celebrated racing sims (not to be confused with car collecting 'driving sims' such as Gran Turismo and Forza) on the PC market for the last four or five years. The studio's high point was undoubtedly 2006's GTR2, which received a Metacritic ranking of 92, while most of the studio's other games have rated at 80 or higher.

In 2007, a number of developers split from SimBin to become what is now known as Slightly Mad Studios. The studio makes the following claims on its website regarding its involvement with previous SimBin games:

"Slightly Mad Studios' staff formed the core development team on the critically acclaimed and multiple award-winning GTR - FIA GT Racing Game, it's successor GTR2, and the classic sports car racing game, GT Legends."

Just for the record, we didn't italicize the word "core" and the text can still be found on the studio's site today alongside a selected list of the "core development team". It's worth noting that Electronic Arts has actually signed up Slightly Mad Studios to develop its next Need For Speed installment on next-gen consoles, NFS: Shift, which will take the series back to its racing sim roots and away from the arcade thrills that it's best known for. Nevertheless, it seems SimBin has taken exception to Slightly Mad Studios' claims and threatened legal action against the studio this week for the following reasons:

"SimBin is taking legal advice and considering to also take legal actions against Slightly Mad Studios, as a result of certain statements made by Slightly Mad Studios that we find to be incorrect, misleading and has a negative impact on our reputation as well as business negotiations," said SimBin's Executive Vice-President, Magnus Ling.

"These potential actions are a result of Slightly Mad Studios and EA's announcement of a cooperation where SimBin games are referred to by Slightly Mad Studios in a misleading way," Ling continued.

Now, it's a little dubious that SimBin has chosen to announce its intentions in the same week that the studio is releasing its first game on the consoles, the suitably named Race Pro. If we were being cynical, we might suggest that SimBin's decision might have something to do with a desire to raise its profile in the light of an impending game release. But, of course, we're not cynical so we won't suggest that. Whatever the case, Slightly Mad Studios were quick to rebut SimBin's claims, issuing the following statement on the matter:

Slightly Mad's Head of Studio, Ian Bell, said that "Mr. Ling's suggestions are utterly absurd.

"More than 25 of Slightly Mad Studios' current staff worked on and are actually credited in GT Legends and GTR2 including the majority of the core development team.

"They worked on these titles whilst at Blimey! Games Limited - who was involved in the development of GT Legends and actually developed GTR2 itself."

Bell continued by saying, "It saddens me when fellow developers make inappropriate statements like this in public, but I think the fact that the first I heard of it was from a gaming journalist says everything you need to know about the credibility of the claims. Had there been any merit to them I am sure I would have heard sooner."

The plot thickens... What we will say is this: as you can see from our review of Race Pro yesterday, the game is a real disappointment by SimBin's standards, and we're not the only people who think so - its Metacritic score is currently standing at a lowly 69. We'll also say that we were lucky enough to get a first look at Need For Speed: Shift earlier this month, for which we're embargoed on a preview until March 4th and, technically, we're not supposed to say anything about it (EA will no doubt be sending out hunter-killer robots as we speak). However, the game looks amazing - like SimBin's best work of years gone by souped-up with twin turbo chargers and a ruddy big spoiler.

Does SimBin have a case for legal action or is it just sour grapes? We welcome your thoughts in the comments board below: