Activision sues over Brutal Legend

On the show floor at the Electronic Entertainment Expo this week, Electronic Arts’ Brutal Legend has been one of the hottest and most heavily promoted video games. Behind the scenes, however, the game is at the center of a brewing legal war.

Activision Blizzard Inc., the biggest U.S. video game publisher, filed a $15-million lawsuit Wednesday against Brutal Legend developer Double Fine Productions in an attempt to block competitor Electronic Arts Inc. from releasing the eagerly awaited game this fall.

Brutal Legend, which features Jack Black as a heavy-metal roadie fighting against mystical demons, was originally set to be released by Vivendi Games. Last year, that company merged with Activision, whose executives took charge of the new entity known as Activision Blizzard.

So when Brutal Legend didn’t appear on Activision Blizzard’s release schedule, it appeared that the title had joined one of numerous other games previously in production at Vivendi that the new owner had decided not to publish.

As a result, few people in the gaming industry were surprised at reports that Double Fine was negotiating with other publishers, or when Electronic Arts announced in December that it would release the game this fall.

But Activision, in its lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Santa Monica, alleges that the deal with Electronic Arts took it by surprise. The complaint states that Activision and Double Fine had been in negotiations over Brutal Legend since the developer said in February 2008 that it would need an additional $7.6 million on top of the original $15.4-million production budget to complete the game.

After learning of the deal with EA, Activision sent Double Fine a cease-and-desist letter, according to the suit.

The complaint alleges that under Vivendi’s deal with Double Fine, which stayed in effect after the merger, the developer was prevented from seeking a new publisher unless the original agreement was terminated by Activision Blizzard. It also asserts that neither Double Fine nor EA has compensated Activision Blizzard for any of the game’s production costs.

“Double Fine intends to unilaterally transfer Activision’s $15-million investment to one of Activision’s chief competitors, without anyone paying Activision a nickel in return,” the lawsuit said.

Double Fine declined to comment. But Tim Schafer, chief executive of Double Fine and creative director of Brutal Legend, released a brief statement Wednesday, saying, “Hey, if Activision liked it, they should have put a ring on it.”

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ben.fritz@latimes.com