The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

Beyoncé sued over aborted videogame deal

Crazy in litigation

Beyoncé has been branded a grinch after she decided not to endorse a dance videogame, driving the developer to sack dozens of coders in the week before Christmas.

New York studio Gate Five is suing Beyoncé for "a bad faith breach of contract", alleging the curvacious chanteuse pulled out of the project on what "appeared to be a whim".

As a consequence, the company claims, it has incurred costs totalling more than $6m (£3.6m) and had to fire 70 staff, effectively destroying Gate Five's business.

Court documents state Jay-Z's wife, referred to as Ms. Carter, "made an extortionate demand for entirely new compensation terms she wanted". This, it is claimed, drove away the financial backer, who found her too "erratic" to do business with. Beyoncé soon quit the project too, claiming a breach of agreement.

During an interview with New York Magazine, Gate Five founder Greg Easley said: "In early December everything was still a go. And then the week of Christmas, she said that's it, I don't want to hear from you guys, go away, resulting in 70 people losing their jobs."

The dance title was to be developed for motion-sensor gaming and the company reckons it would have generated $100m (£60m) in sales. ®

Easy fix.

Take game source.

Perform global search / replace, changing all instances of "Beyoncé" to "Insane Cow".

Recompile.

Trademark "Insane Cow".

Ship game as "Insane Cow dance moves" or similar, with a disclaimer on the box saying; "Any resemblance between our Insane Cow and any actual cows with genuine sanity issues living or dead is entirely unintentional".

15
0

Well...

At least that's one utterley shit game that never made it to the shelves.

4
0

Does it matter ?

To the 70 guys toiling on the game, I think it did.

3
0

It matters.

"And does it really matter in the great scheme of things?"

Matters to the people who lost their job. Twunt.

6
3

If this is true

Beyoncé is well-positioned for the 2011 Naomi Campbell Person of the Year Award.

2
0

More from The Register

New Lumia 925: This, loyalists, is the BIG ONE you've waited for
Nokia veep drills high-end master plan for El Reg
Android device? Ooohhhh, you mean a Samsung phone
Koreans nabbed nearly all the Q1 profits – more even than Google
Review: HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook
All roads lead to Chrome?
Borked your iDevice? Pay EVEN MORE to have it fixed by Applecare
Or scream at their hapless techies on their forums
Euro PC shipments plummet into bottomless pit of DOOOOM
11th quarter of decline, 20pc drop on last year - Gartner
Report: AT&T dropping Facebook phone after dismal sales
Turns out folks won't buy that for a dollar
Notebook sales to surge, says notebook seller
'Intel and Microsoft will save us'