While the announcement on Codemasters' official Jumpgate Evolution site doesn't offer anything beyond the generic "yes, we did this, here's what court we filed it in, no other comment at this time" statement, the court document itself makes for interesting (if dry) reading. Essentially, Codemasters charges that Netdevil failed to meet contractual guidelines, which called for the studio to ship the game by February 24th, 2009. During that time, Codemasters paid almost 1.4 million USD to Netdevil to help underwrite the game's development and for "art assets." Codemasters is also seeking compensation due to setting up servers, website, community team, etc. for the European version of Jumpgate Evolution. Ultimately, it boils down to a pretty standard breach of contract that offers Codemasters' share of interest back to Netdevil and Gazillion in return for all monies invested in the project to date. Whether or not this brouhaha will cause any changes to the timetable for Jumpgate Evolution will remain to be seen. We'll keep an eye out as the case progresses.
[Thanks, Merketh!]
