After some nasty lawsuits and some really ugly press, SouthPeak Games has announced a settlement with CDV.
SouthPeak Games hasn’t had much good press lately. Instead, the company’s behavior has painted it as a corporate bully that’s unwilling to take responsibility and actually pay people the money it owes them. However, it seems that the publisher is looking to put an end to these stories, as it’s just announced that it’s battle with (currently bankrupt) publisher CDV over unpaid royalties is now over, with everyone getting paid what’s owed to them.
According to GamesIndustry.biz, details of this resolution aren’t being provided to the public, but Southpeak is stating that it’s “been alleviated of all alleged financial obligation to CDV.”
The two companies have been engaged in a bitter legal battle, one that resulted in a U.K. court judgment against SouthPeak, stating that it owed CDV $3.4 million. SouthPeak didn’t make any visible effort to pay off this amount of money, which apparently resulted in CDV having to declare bankruptcy and wound up having 40,000 copies of SouthPeak games seized by bailiffs and auctioned off for £50,000.
According to Southpeak’s CEO Melanie Mroz, “This resolution, and the closure of the case by the courts, puts an end to the misleading and inaccurate information circulating in the public regarding these matters, and allows us to re-direct attention toward driving the continued growth of the Company.”
Mroz claims that, although “CDV in particular marked a substantial drain on our resources” and has posted a $5.8 million loss for 2010, the rest of the calendar year and 2011 will be much better for SouthPeak. Exactly what “misleading and inaccurate information” has been spread around wasn’t specified, though I’d personally be very interested to hear what these stories were.
Source: GamesIndustry.biz
