It's been a long road to completion for
En Masse Entertainment and its upcoming
TERA MMO. If
NCsoft has its way in court, it might be even longer.
MMO Culture reports that NCsoft
filed a lawsuit earlier this month stating that a group of its employees quit the company and went on to found
Bluehole Studio (
TERA's original Korean developer). In doing so, the former employees allegedly stole "copious amounts of confidential and proprietary NCsoft information, computer software, hardware, and artwork relating to
Lineage 3" and used it to produce
TERA.
The employees were convicted of stealing trade secrets by a Korean court in 2009, and the convictions were "mostly upheld by an appellate court." NCsoft filed a Korean civil complaint against Bluehole in 2010 and won damages and an injunction, both of which were subsequently overturned by an appellate court.
Despite the fact that both criminal and civil litigation is still pending, Bluehole launched the Korean version of
TERA in early 2011. En Masse (Bluehole's American subsidiary) is scheduled to launch the U.S. version in May of 2012.
