Directional Pad

Stargate SG-1: The Alliance back from the dead

It sucks posting all these retractions, but I think in this case you'll just have to forgive us. JoWooD, the game's publisher, are apparently a bunch of hotheaded jerks who weren't getting their way, so they pushed out a press release full of what may be flat-out lies. Or maybe they aren't, who really knows? With this game we're forced to base our reports on whatever either side of a breach-of-contract lawsuit is telling us by way of press releases.

From the latest press release out of Perception, developers of Stargate SG-1: The Alliance:

"Perception Pty Ltd would like to rectify certain statements that have been made to the press by JoWooD Productions. To be clear, Perception is the official licensee of MGM on Stargate SG-1: The Alliance. Any suggestion that JoWooD has rights to Stargate SG-1: The Alliance upon termination of the contract is incorrect and not based on commercial or legal fact."

So here's the latest version of the story-so-far, according to Perception. MGM Interactive [Intellectual Property Owner] went to JoWooD [Video Game Publisher] with Stargate SG-1 [Intellectual Property]. JoWooD in turn went to Perception [Video Game Developer] to actually make said game. SOMEHOW, the contract all parties entered into involved Perception getting the actual license to the Stargate SG-1 IP.

Development took a long time, and this made JoWooD itchy because the longer it's in development, the longer they have to wait to make back their money. It also probably didn't help that the developer was halfway across the planet, making it kinda hard to keep an eye on them. JoWooD allegedly has also been in breach of contract themselves for not coughing up money when it was requested.

As we reported earlier this week, JoWooD decided to issue a preemptive press release claiming that it was really Perception who was in breach of contract, and that because of this breach, all currently completed game content would by default go up the chain of command to them, and along with it would come the license to the Stargate IP. According to Perception this is a load of crap, so now Perception is - in addition to suing the JoWooD corporate entity for breach of contract - suing both the CEO of JoWooD AND the Chairman of their Supervisory Board for libel spouted off in JoWooD's last press release.

All in all, despite these seventeen different distinct lawsuits flying around, Perception swears they're really going to finish Stargate Alliance. Unfortunately, all the lawsuits have resulted in them without a publisher, and probably without much funding. Oh, and since JoWooD still have some vague claim on the return of their cash they invested in the game's development, I wouldn't put it past them to try and block the release of the game under another publisher.

Suffice to say, I don't think we'll be seeing the Stargate SG-1: The Alliance this year, or at the very least, we won't see it in time to meet it's previously estimated October 2005 release date. But the good news is that it's still being developed, and still has some chance of coming out, unlike before when we figured it was flat out dead. But again, now that two companies involved are in full-on litigation-land, everything is seriously up in the air.

Sources: Perception's Press Release, by way of Concept on our forums. For reference, here's JoWooD's old press release as well.

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