SouthPeak suing Majesco over My Baby 3
Joystiq has confirmed with SouthPeak Games that the company has taken legal action against Mama game publisher Majesco Entertainment, specifically regarding the right to publish My Baby titles in the United States. The litigation was spurred by an announcement last month that Majesco would be publishing the Nobilis-developed My Baby 3 & Friends, an action SouthPeak claims Majesco wasn't legally allowed to take.
For its part, SouthPeak issued this statement on the impending litigation: "We are exceptionally proud of our success in making the My Baby franchise a leader in the North American market; our innovative sales, marketing and PR strategies brought My Baby to a huge audience and built a loyal fan base for future products. SouthPeak continues to hold the rights to subsequent My Baby games and we intend to vigorously protect those rights." Additionally, we've confirmed that, while SouthPeak claims a contractual right to publish "subsequent My Baby games" in the US, Nobilis owns the My Baby IP. So, whose baby is it? That remains to be contested (Majesco and Nobilis reps hadn't responded as of publishing).
And while SouthPeak recently acquired a $10 million loan, as well as another $5.5 million injection announced just this week, the company's still running into financial and legal issues left and right. "It's no secret that CDV is currently in dispute with SouthPeak Games along with many other companies, whilst CDV is itself in administration," SouthPeak exec Jonathan Hales told IndustryGamers recently, responding to the seizing of 40,000 units of SouthPeak stock by bailiffs on behalf of CDV. "We have sent High Court Enforcement Officers in last Friday and they took 40,00 units -- two trucks worth of stock -- out of the warehouse that SouthPeak uses. They had until yesterday to apply to court to stop that being sold at auction and as far as I'm aware they didn't make an application. We've also frozen the money from their distributor Centresoft," reps from CDV said.
It looks like the custodianship of My Baby is just one of many legal battles SouthPeak may be facing in the coming months.
