• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Square-Enix sued for $3.78 million

F

flipping_heck

Member
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=19477

Square-Enix is being sued by Soft-World International, a video game and magazine publisher based in Taiwan, for US$3.78 million.

According to a report on Digitimes, Soft-World alleges that Square-Enix has broken a contract signed in 2004 to distribute one of the Japanese company’s massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) in Taiwan, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Soft-World claims that Square-Enix has failed to supply the company with the relevant source code for the MMORPG, making distribution of the game problematic. The lawsuit demands the return of a royalty payment of US$3.78 million.

Soft-World International is the largest software distributor in the Chinese market, and currently handles Chinese language versions of popular MMO’s RF Online, World of Warcraft and Ragnarok Online, amongst others.
Click to expand...
 
A

aku:jiki

Member
Um, I was under the impression that S-E have no "cash" at all? Don't they put pretty much all of their revenue into new projects?
 
G

GotchaForce

Member
aku:jiki said:
Um, I was under the impression that S-E have no "cash" at all? Don't they put pretty much all of their revenue into new projects?
Click to expand...

They'll pay for the lawsuit with copies of Project Sylpheed.
 
S

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
aku:jiki said:
Um, I was under the impression that S-E have no "cash" at all? Don't they put pretty much all of their revenue into new projects?
Click to expand...

As of 2005, they have around 700,000,000 cash on hand (80bn yen), and settlement payments are ALWAYS amortized over a multi-year period so even if they had no cash on hand, they would be paying probably $500,000 from revenue every year for a few years.
 
J

Joeroll

Member
I'm sure SE doesn't see this as 'chump-change' as some of you are putting it. W-T-F!

Oh wait S-E is invincible! They have Japanese dudes shitting yen!
 
A

aku:jiki

Member
Stumpokapow said:
As of 2005, they have around 700,000,000 cash on hand (80bn yen), and settlement payments are ALWAYS amortized over a multi-year period so even if they had no cash on hand, they would be paying probably $500,000 from revenue every year for a few years.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I wasn't trying to say that they won't be able to pay this off. Thanks for the exact figure, though.
 
M

Markster

Member
I see what's going on:


Soft-World International is the largest software distributor in the Chinese market, and currently handles Chinese language versions of popular MMO’s RF Online, World of Warcraft and Ragnarok Online, amongst others.
Click to expand...
Soft-World is a Chinese company, one of those ones that you have to deal with if you want to expand into China, (since the government is not going to let you in).

Soft-World alleges that Square-Enix has broken a contract signed in 2004 to distribute [FFXI] in Taiwan, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Click to expand...
So, Square made a contract with them, since they knew there was no getting into China any other way.

Soft-World claims that Square-Enix has failed to supply the company with the relevant source code for the MMORPG, making distribution of the game problematic.
Click to expand...
In order to translate the game into Chinese, Soft-World is simply demanding the entire sourse code. Nevermind that you can probably translate the game without looking at the source code at all.
Soft-World is probably planning on pocketing the source code for internal "research" for their own games. It's much easier to use the clout of the Chinese gov't to get a game engine than to build one from scratch.
 
Joe Molotov

Joe Molotov

Member
I thought this was going to be a class-action lawsuit for mental anguish caused by undershipping Final Fantasy III.
 
N

[Nintex]

Member
The days of bankrupt SE are over, Nintendo isnt screwing them with licensing or cartridge deals. And they don't need sony to pay their bills.
 
H

Howard Alan Treesong

Member
Guys, look, SE would be happy to give them the source code but they sort of lost it. You know how it goes. You make a game, it compiles, you figure you'll never need the source code again, you slack off on regular backups, there's a crash...

Viva Japanese game development!
 
J

jj984jj

He's a pretty swell guy in my books anyway.
[Nintex] said:
The days of bankrupt SE are over, Nintendo isnt screwing them with licensing or cartridge deals. And they don't need sony to pay their bills.
Click to expand...
And they stopped making crappy $124 million dollar movies. That sure did help.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Elixir games partnering with Square Enix to boost web3 games
2
659
01011001 replied
Final Fantasy 14 Surpasses 24 Million Players, Becomes Most Profitable Final Fantasy Game In the Series
Opinion Analysis Sales-Age
31
3K
Holgren replied
  • Poll
SONY/SIE: The Balance Of Chasing Margins, Multiplat Expansion, And Maximizing The Console
Opinion Business Analysis 2 3
101
7K
vaibhavpisal replied
[GI.biz] Analysts offer predictions for 2023 in games
16
2K
Magic Carpet replied
EA donates $1 million USD to various organizations against racial discrimination
18
1K
Hostile_18 replied
Top Bottom