Japanese Publisher Accused of Trying a "Hostile Takeover" of Indie Studio

Small indie studio Checkpoint had a deal with Japanese publishers Marvelous to release two games by the end of 2012. Those titles, AviNation and Party Politics, are both now out.

But according to a report on Gamasutra, Checkpoint’s CEO, Brian Wiklem, has filed a suit against Marvelous, claiming that instead of forking over payments for the games, the publisher (and a former Checkpoint staffer) “conspired to try to engineer a hostile takeover of Checkpoint.”

Wiklem alleges that Marvelous, rather than pay his team $2.5 million for a continuation of their publishing (and part co-ownership) arrangement, instead teamed up with former Checkpoint CTO Christopher Masterton to go behind his back and sell a majority stake in the company to Marvelous.

It’s also alleged that Marvelous hired away 14 of Checkpoint’s developers to work at another studio, and that other Marvelous teams are using Checkpoint technology without consent.

Wiklem is accusing Marvelous of “a breach of contract, a breach of Marvelous and Masterton’s fiduciary duties as board members, and the theft of trade secrets, among other claims.”

Marvelous conspired for hostile takeover of indie studio, says suit [Gamasutra]

Originally written and published by at Kotaku.com Updates. Click here to read the original story.