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Microsoft Sued Over Mobile Halo Title

Posted by Zonk on from the working-together-requires-cooperation dept.

GamesIndustry.biz reports on a lawsuit filed by French developer In-Fusio against Microsoft. The company, which specializes in games for moblie phones, was apparently slated to develop a title in the Halo universe. Instead, they've filed suit, claiming that Bungie's parent company refuses to sign off on design documents, holding up the game's overall development process. In return, In-Fusio is now refusing to pay a reported $500,000 to the company. Microsoft sees this as a good time to end the agreement. From the article: "The developer now believes the Xbox manufacturer has purposefully ignored efforts to create a title, stating in the suit: 'Microsoft has thwarted In-Fusio's efforts to develop Halo under the agreement ... Indeed, in the last 11 months, Microsoft has approved no fully developed In-Fusio game designs; ignoring and then refusing to accept In-Fusio's game design concepts with little or no explanation and leaving In-Fusio little basis to revise its concepts to obtain Microsoft's approval.'"

8 of 34 comments (clear)

  1. what do you expect by rootofevil · · Score: 2, Insightful

    when you dance with the devil?

    a greedy monopolistic devil at that.

    --
    turn up the jukebox and tell me a lie
  2. Apparently... by LikeTheSearchEngine · · Score: 2, Funny

    Apparently, "Your idea is crap," doesn't translate well into French.

    1. Re:Apparently... by j00r0m4nc3r · · Score: 5, Funny

      "Votre idée est merde"

    2. Re:Apparently... by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes, that was my first thought. This is a non-story. It's an accusation and it has no Microsoft rebuttal. We have no idea what the fuck is going on so this story is going to be 100% speculation and rampant fanboyism. I dislike Microsoft as much as the next guy, maybe more, but I like to have actual, valid reasons to bash them. Fortunately for me there are many of those so I don't just have to pretend I'm Dvorak and spew complete nonsense all day.

      If you google around you'll find about ten copies of the same story, all cut and pasted from the same source. This is not a story, it's an Infusio press release... at least, it is as far as I can tell. In-fusio's website's press link goes to someplace that doesn't look to ever have been updated. They seem like amateurs to me. The In-Fusio games site is a gigantic pile of flash crap that never actually even loaded for me (I got a page that looks like a dreamsicle, with white down the middle and orange down the sides, but no content.)

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:Apparently... by The_K4 · · Score: 4, Funny

      "You see, it's like wiping your ass with silk, I love it."

  3. Halo on a Cell? by D4rk+Fx · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I can't imagine that Halo would be a particularly fun game to play on a cell phone. Most cells have cludgey controls that translate into a horrible game experience.

    1. Re:Halo on a Cell? by Green+Monkey · · Score: 2, Funny

      Halo on a Cell? Nah, MS would never support the PS3!

      --

      Green Monkey

  4. This reminds me of another cell phone thing by erroneus · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I don't feel like digging up the details, but I believe the name "Orange" was used in the discussion where a cell phone maker was persuaded to partner up with Microsoft where Microsoft had some sort of approval or other thing like that delaying the other company's progress. This forced a default by the other company and then Microsoft assumed the technology developed by the other company as a result of the default.

    It has been a few years so my memory is a bit hazy, but I'll bet I'm not the only one recalling this...