Tag Archives: 7 Studios

7 Studios, which Activision acquired in 2009, has been disbanded following the announcement last night the firm was canning music game development.

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According to reports, Activision has laid-off approximately 30 staffers from newly acquired 7-Studios. Kotaku says that the 30 staffers let go make up half of the firm’s employees.

“Since the completion of its acquisition by Activision, 7 Studios has realigned its business to focus its development resources on the music genre,” said Activision in a statement. “As a part of this realignment, the studio is reducing its workforce to better reflect Activision’s upcoming slate of music-based games.”

Purchased by Activision in April for work on DJ Hero and to “bolster its development capabilities”, the purchase ultimately causing a lawsuit over the source code for Scratch: The Ultimate DJ

The lawsuit filed back in April claimed the publisher’s intention was to delay the creation of Scratch and gain access to it’s technology.

Sounds like a mess. More through the link.

Via GI.

Los Angeles County Superior Court has once again ordered 7 Studios to relinquish the source code for its game engine over to Scratch: The Ultimate DJ’s developers.

Reiterating the April 20 ruling which prevents 7 Studios from discussing the Scratch DJ project with any other company, including Activision, the judge in the case sided once again with the plaintiffs when the code was not delivered as promised.

Jack O’Donnell, manager of Scratch and CEO if Numark said that when the code is finally handed over, the game’s development start up once again.

“We are very excited to finish Scratch: The Ultimate DJ,” he said. “We hope that this clear victory ends the delay tactics employed by the defendants to date to stop our game from being completed and brought to market.

“We will continue to vigorously pursue our damages case against Activision, 7 Studios and Peterson resulting from their actions to delay and take over the Scratch game. With the injunction order, we will also now be able to move forward to complete and launch our much anticipated Scratch game.”

More over on Kotaku.

Fucking handbags. 7 Studios – read “Activision” – has counter-sued Genius over Scratch: The Ultimate DJ, claiming the developer has engaged in a “textbook case of unlawful and unsavory business practices.” It wants $1 million in damages.

Genius has already sued Acti and 7 Studios over Scratch, claiming they conspired to delay the game in to benefit DJ Hero’s release.

No so, says Activision. Not only was Genius forced to delay Scratch because it didn’t approval for the title from Microsoft and Sony, but it had only included 25 percent of the game’s tracks three months before it was supposed to be completed. Allegedly.

Get many hundreds of words on the matter from Variety.

Activision has been ordered to return code for Scratch: The Ultimate DJ to developer Genius.

The ruling came as part of the same hearing that said last week that there “no evidence of wrongdoing” on the part of Activision in the case.

“There is evidence that…7 Studios has a duty to return the work product, source code, and software of the plaintiff [Genius],” said the judge in the hearing, as reported by Gamespot.

The judge added, talking to Activision’s lawyer: “It is actually very straightforward. They hired you. They have terminated the deal. Their agreement requires return of materials. No matter how you slice this banana, they are entitled to the work product back. I don’t know why your client would want to continue working on a project for which they have been terminated.”

Why indeed. The judge wrapped things up in an apparently testy manner.

“You [Activision] turn over the source code, and then if you want it back, you can argue on May 6th as to why you should get it back. I can’t under any circumstance think why you would be entitled to keep the source code.”

And added: “Show me anywhere where you can refuse to turn over source code because it incorporates your pre-existing tools and technology. … They can use it for any purpose. It is theirs. It belongs to them. They paid $6 million for it. I’m done.”

The complaint against Activision and 7 Studios alleges that the companies conspired to withhold and delay the release of Scratch: The Ultimate DJ.

According to this Variety report, now-defunct Brash is being sued by developers 7 Studios and Zootfly for non-payment.

They’re not chasing a tenner, either. From the piece:

L.A.-based 7 Studios says Brash owes it $468,000 for its work on “9,” an adaptation of an upcoming animated film from Focus Features produced by Tim Burton (one of the few games on Brash’s slate I didn’t previously know about) and $113,000 for “Six Flags Fun Park,” (pictured left) a Wii and DS mini-game collection that’s supposed to be coming out right about now (has anybody seen it on shelves?). Slovenian developer Zootfly, meanwhile, says Brash owes it $748,000 for work on the videogame version of the Fox TV show “Prison Break.”

Whoops. More through there.