A Producer's Accusations Continue to Cause Controversy

The article from The Sunday Times about the allegation of theft surrounding Joint Task Force and Battlestation: Midway continues to cause furor. According to the article, Mithis and MGE have filed various complaints with the Hungarian authorities against SCi Entertainment, the publisher of the two games, accusing the company of breaking into their offices and stealing source code for the two games, originally under development there.

Jane Cavanagh, CEO of SCi Entertainment, has categorically denied the accusation: "We would never normally comment upon such relatively minor matters and have only done so to clarify the position. We wish to correct what we believe are a number of misleading statements and material inaccuracies, particularly in this instance as allegations raised in the article appear to relate to a totally different and unrelated company or companies." As publisher SCi merely "exercised normal contractual rights to take over the development of the software in November 2005, following its dissatisfaction with MGE's ability to deliver on its contractual obligations," he added.

To further complicate things, Dutch publisher HD Publishing, co-publisher of Joint Task Force with Vivendi Games, added its own statement of denial: "HD Publishing is not aware of any criminal or civil proceedings brought against it in Hungary or anywhere else in relation to Joint Task Force."

What is the exact nature of the complaints is anybody's guess. Joint Task Force is currently scheduled for an autumn release, while Battlestation: Midway is scheduled for release during SCi's 2007 fiscal period.