Scratch: The Ultimate DJ granted restraining order

In the ongoing court battle between Scratch: The Ultimate DJ co-publishers Genius Products and Numark vs. DJ Hero publisher Activision, the first of many legal battles has been detailed. According to a press release sent out by Genius Products, the Los Angeles Superior Court has granted the Scratch developers a temporary restraining order and told Activision-owned 7 Studios to return all source code.

Additionally, 7 Studios is being court-ordered to return "pre-existing developer tools and technology" used in the game's 18-month development cycle, presumably including the "nine custom-manufactured turntable and beat-button game controllers" claimed by Numark as being held hostage by 7 Studios and, in turn, Activision. Outside of returning all the equipment used in the development of Scratch, 7 Studios' CEO, Lewis Peterson, has been effectively banned from any involvement with the game and the former Scratch team has been ordered not to speak about its development. This news clashes directly with allegations put forth by Activision last week, positing that the Los Angeles Superior Court had denied said restraining order. We've put in a request for comment to Activision and will update this post as we find out more.

Reader Comments (21)

I think Activision does not like competition when they first launch a brand new IP

Gee, wonder where they stand on Konami, and certain other DJ games that generally only have releases in Japan that came way before DJ Hero and Scratch then.

Probably the same place they stood on Guitar Hero....

Pointing out the fact that those game devs will NEVER legitimately push that shit in the states and they decide to do it anyway. Except with music that is GOOD unlike 97% of Bemani.

Okay, that's a bit unfair... beatmania has good music but everything else is SHIT.

I mean, personally, I love this "X ripped off Y" arguement. Beatmania has been around since 1997. The US release was piss poor, bundled so that you could only get a single controller, and supported by Konami's website for a whole of two months before Konami America themselves even forgot they put it out. Now to contrast this, DJ Max Portable only took three years to come to the states.

Most of us who are keen on the import scene KNOW about this shit. Unfortunately, this is despite Konami's efforts. If you want to blame anyone for the lack of respect Bemani gets for being the first at this stuff, they are over here. www.konami.com

Stick it to the man!

good. acti needs to chill.

I'm itching to play this.

ah har har har

So... when's Konami gonna sue them both for stealing elements of BeatMania?

actually, thanks to a delightful case back in the 70's, precedent has been set that you can't sue for similar gameplay, which is what led rise to a lot of the games that bloated the market (Quaker Oats had a game for god sake), and caused the ensuing video game crash.

anymore, it's a gentlemen's agreement and an expectation that you shouldn't ripoff game elements, with condemnation coming from both the industry and your consumer base alike.

If this takes off, expect the suit in about 2-3 years after Konami, having paid little attention to the genre they arguably birthed, suddenly see another one of their designs elsewhere.

And if they win. just think how awesome it would be for us gamers. Yet another 12 years of this gameplay type being kept away from every gamer without a Japanese PS2 and a Play-Asia account... you fuck.

Actually, Hakaisou, no such agreement, gentlemen or otherwise, exists. And the people who bang on that fact are often looked down on within the industry. Here's why...

Innovation is rarely as good as it could be and someone ALWAYS has an idea on how to make your idea better. By going ahead and allowing them TO make this iterative product is essentially how the game industry has become as good as it is nowadays. Take, as an example, Killswitch. Killswitch was the first action shooter with a cover mechanic at it's core. If they were then the only ones allowed to do such a thing, think about how shooters would be nowadays. Actually, fuck that. Go back farther. What if ONLY John Carmack could make an FPS? Now think about all the great games we would have never seen. From Heretic to Bioshock, all of that lost based simply on the idea that "X did Y first."

It's a moronic arguement to make because NO OTHER INDUSTRY OR EVEN ARTISTIC MEDIUM specifically says "If X did Y first, you can't do it."

Konami will sue when one of them proves to be better than beatmania (unlikely) and/or make money (highly likely).

I like NuMark. I wonder what all the fuss is about anyway. I hope at least that this means playing with those controllers is as fun as a GH guitar.

I'm sure i'm not alone on this but,

THANK YOU.

Konami will...actually just forget it.

I love that there is a "breakin-the-law-2-electric-boogaloo" tag.

EA is no longer the evil publisher of the gaming industry, the crown has been passed.

We will see if this turns into a ten year slow down for sales of Activision published titles. Shouldn't hurt the good titles, but some people won't give a new title a chance if they see that Activision logo (just like what happened to EA).

Funny how these two are crying over a DJ title and who gets to make one first when IIDX has been around for over a decade.

Activision has made their game the bad guy gamers will want to avoid and Scratch Ultimate DJ the game all players will want to support, love it!

this is surely going to slow down the Activision bundle/new pack of Guitar Hero and DJ Hero. Possibly named Kings of Rock. This will come after DJ Hero: Run DMC is released and the new pack will feature Aerosmith (Activision already locked this up) and Run DMC.

Leadsong- walk this way.

just a thought.......

Scratch: The Ultimate DJ granted restraining order

Reader Comments (21)

Posted: Apr 20th 2009 7:31PM Solid Jackal said

Posted: Apr 20th 2009 7:47PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Apr 20th 2009 7:55PM SheppyReturns said

Posted: Apr 20th 2009 7:35PM Foetoid said

Posted: Apr 20th 2009 7:36PM Sly C said

Posted: Apr 20th 2009 7:42PM iHavePants said

Posted: Apr 20th 2009 7:44PM TheDarkWayne said

Posted: Apr 20th 2009 8:48PM Roofie said

Posted: Apr 20th 2009 7:46PM DjFIL said

Posted: Apr 20th 2009 7:57PM DudemanJones said

Posted: Apr 20th 2009 7:58PM SheppyReturns said

Posted: Apr 20th 2009 8:32PM SheppyReturns said

Posted: Apr 20th 2009 8:36PM KeegdnaB said

Posted: Apr 20th 2009 7:54PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Apr 20th 2009 8:44PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Apr 20th 2009 8:47PM Happyman said

Posted: Apr 20th 2009 10:20PM Courtney said

Posted: Apr 20th 2009 11:31PM Mal F4cti0n said

Posted: Apr 21st 2009 7:26AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Apr 21st 2009 8:42AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Apr 21st 2009 8:45AM prhime said

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