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Chalk up another frustrated party accusing SouthPeak of wrongdoing. The company has been sued by Section 8 developer TimeGate, which alleges that the publisher has withheld royalty payments and entered into a PS3 licensing deal on the game with Russian company IC, an arrangement that TimeGate claims SouthPeak had no right to make.

In legal documents obtained by Joystiq, TimeGate also alleges that this SouthPeak T-shirt promotion was unauthorized, that the publisher had mislead TimeGate about sales figures and that the publisher has stated it should not have to adhere to TimeGate's original agreement, as it had been made with Gamecock, which SouthPeak purchased in late 2008. We've reached out to SouthPeak for comment.

If you prefer your language far more formal, the lawsuit puts it like this: "[SouthPeak] failed to provide a sufficient sales report, withheld royalty payments and did not adhere to the obligation to act in good faith and fair dealing when they established the sham transaction in order to deprive TimeGate of royalties despite the special relationship between the parties and being in a position of trust."

No specific amount is mentioned in the suit, with TimeGate asking only for "compensatory damages in an amount to be determined" following an independent audit of Section 8's sales.

TimeGate has announced an expansion of its multiplayer-focused shooter, Section 8, with the "Seek and Destroy Map Pack," which adds three new maps and 10 new achievements for 560 ($7). Though the game is available on Xbox 360 as well, the company is only making mention of PC availability for the content at the moment.

The industry has become so skewed towards a console focus as of late, it's kind of nice to see PC players getting some exclusive love. Now, let's all be real quiet and see if we can detect the exact moment their heads explode when they hear they have to pay for it.

[Via BigDownload]

Timegate has released a title update for Section 8, which should fix several bugs in the game and tweak a few things. The main fixes include improved matchmaking, a fix for faulty Achievements and improved tank controls. AI bots will now also follow and defend human players, and the update also fixes latency problems and lost stats. There's a host of other smaller tweaks and changes as well, which you can read about on the Section 8 forums.

Likely not fixed by the patch, a precipitous drop in players since November 10.

Unless your title begins with Halo or Gears -- or ends with Duty -- it's hard to get your shooter recognized on the Xbox 360. It seems that the cats at SouthPeak understand this, and have come up with a particularly sneaky contest. You see, the contest asks fans to design the official shirt for the game. Naturally, the winner will receive a fabulous prize, in this case a 32" HDTV, an Xbox 360 and a copy of Section 8.

The ingenious part is this: It's a contest, which is designed to generate interest in the game. But the goal of the contest is to design the official shirt, which will also be used to generate interest in the game. Pretty sneaky, SouthPeak. The contest opens September 11 and closes on September 30. For more details, head over to the official contest page.

Having released today on Xbox 360, and with three days to go until it drops on PC for North American retailers, Section 8 has only a few scant opportunities for a pre-release volley of teaser materials. The latest assault is a new trailer and a couple images for the shooter.

Don't let the lack of hype for the title fool you; fans of objective-based multiplayer should definitely try out the demo, which doles out a taste of the game's dynamic mission system. Oh, and it has jetpacks. Everyone likes those, right? Drop into a game and check it out.

Update: Fixed release dates.

First off, as the headline eloquently suggests, Section 8 has been blessed with a release date. The game will hit North American shelves on September 4, the UK and Asia / Pacific regions on September 11 and the rest of Europe on September 18. So there's that. In other mechanically enhanced soldier news, TimeGate has announced its plans to open a clan and stat portal for the game.

The clan portal will allow users to access lots of special features, including automatically updating clan tags, establishing clan hierarchies, and reviewing the stats of new applicants. Meanwhile, the stats page will (obviously) list comprehensive stats for the game, including career statistics, records achieved in a single "life," as well as the number of badges earned and feats accomplished. Leaderboards can also be organized by overall stats or restricted to just those within an individual clan. Finally, both Xbox 360 and PC players will enjoy "mutually exclusive" stats, which should hopefully avert any potential "mouse vs. keyboard" flame wars.

The stats page, located here, will launch next week alongside the North American release of the game.

We have to admit that we really dig the concept of Section 8. First, you've got power-armored super soldiers that drop into the battlefield from 15,000 feet -- kind of like ODSTs without those pansy drop pods. Players can run across the battlefield in seconds, jump 20 feet in the air, and even have a tank hot-dropped right into the action.

We liked what we saw of the game at GDC, and now everyone can get their hands on the game, thanks to a demo that just dropped (geddit?) onto Xbox Live Marketplace. The demo allows players to try out the game's multiplayer mode. It's similar to Battlefield, in which points are earned by performing team objectives, only with a twist. The objectives aren't determined by game type, but pop up dynamically during gameplay. One minute you might be disrupting an enemy caravan, and another you could be escorting a VIP to your base.

Check out the video above for a quick explanation, then download the demo and give it a try.

[Thanks, scott!]

TimeGate Studios has announced that the Section 8 open PC beta for North America, Europe and Australia is now ... open. The beta grants users with access to two of the game's multiplayer maps and offers up "a variety of some of the vehicles, weapons, deployables, missions, and equipment." The beta is free, and all that's needed to get fragging is a Fileplanet, IGN or GameSpy account. To sign up, simply visit this link and fill out a few forms. You'll then be given a CD-Key and access to download the beta. The beta is on a first come, first serve basis, so hop to it if you want in.

To find out if your rig can handle the game, check out the PC specs after the break.

We know what you've been thinking. You've been watching the videos and reading the articles about Section 8 and you've thought, "Sure, it's pretty cool that I can drop from space, charge across half a mile of terrain in 10 seconds and then have HQ drop a tank right on the battlefield for me, but what's my motivation?"

Thankfully, the fine folks at TimeGate have your answer in the form of a new developer diary. The video delves into he history of Section 8 (the good guys), the rise of its best soldier, Alex Corde, and the group's conflict with the Arm of Orion (not the good guys).

With that out of the way, hopefully we can all just focus on the whole drop-from-the-sky-and-kill-everything aspect of the game now.

We've got high hopes for Section 8, a promising sci-fi FPS from TimeGate. But today we learned that the game has even more going for it than the ability to drop from space and kill a tank (which you can admit is already quite a lot). The devs are also pretty adept at forward thinking.

Producer Robert Siwiak told Gamasutra, "We're already planning on releasing additional map packs and other content, potentially new weapons and vehicles into the mix. After the game has launched, we fully intend to support the community and add in additional content and otherwise fill the gap between now and a potential Section 8 sequel."

Yikes, already thinking sequels, TimeGate? Live in the now!

Okay, so the latest trailer for TimeGate's Section 8 certainly looks cool. What with the robo-solders dropping into battle from the sky, calling in tanks and giant mechs, and FPS action, we'll give it that. Our only question is this: Where's the heart?

What's that? You don't care about heart? You're more interested in all the action and nifty multiplayer features? Oh, well you should watch the trailer then.

SouthPeak has revealed a special Section 8 goody for those who pre-order the game from GameStop (and only at GameStop). Pre-order either the PC or Xbox 360 version of Section 8 and you'll get a special set of armor known as the Captain's Armor. The armor can be worn by either of the game's factions. Members of Section 8 will don the armor with a golden eagle on the shoulder, while members of the rebellious Arm of Orion will sport a helmet with a gold-trimmed lion.

Considering what some people are willing to go through for an in-game set of armor, we'd say pre-ordering is a pretty simple option. Check out shots of the armor in the gallery below.

E3 was brütal! If you blinked, for a split/second, you missed something. Even if you were trine to keep up, it was a blur -- staying a.wake like that, you only pushed yourself to the brink of your own dark void. That's where Joystiq comes in; to crackdown on the madness; to reach out ... with conviction -- phew! Crysis averted.

We've scoured the dark corners and survived the inferno to piece together this roundup of all things Xbox at E3. Why? Just 'cause we love you. So, draw nier and shift your eyes past the break.

We got a chance to see Section 8 at E3 this year. Summing things up, our experience was pretty much in line with what we played at GDC earlier this year. So, let's just skip that and get to the news, shall we? Section 8 will be the very first Xbox 360 game to allow users to set up their own dedicated servers, according to producer Robert Siwiak.

Players will be able to download an application on their PC that will allow them to turn it into a dedicated server for the game. When playing on a dedicated server -- developer TimeGate will be hosting some as well, incidentally -- Section 8 will support multiplayer matches of up to 32 players. This a significant boost over the standard 16-player offered by regular servers. Sporting some very impressive sci-fi inspired gameplay bolstered by this extra online support, Section 8 is shaping up to be quite a game. Expect it to drop (from 15,000 feet) this fall.

We were just getting geared up for a protracted legal cat fight between developer TimeGate and movie studio Paramount over the rights to the name "Section 8" ... but the whole thing fizzled nearly before it began. If you'll remember, TimeGate claimed that it shared the name of its FPS with Paramount, which later announced it was working on an interactive property of the same name, prompting the game developer to sue the studio.

Now, Paramount has agreed to not use the name and, in turn, TimeGate has dismissed the suit. Bor-ing.