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Lawyer To Pay Activision For Not Playing Call Of Duty

Lawyer To Pay Activision For Not Playing Call Of Duty

This marine is tting in a chair, staring off-screen at someone in the middle of a conversation.

Uh, say what now?
picture: Infinity Ward

A lawsuit against Activision Blizzard was dismissed last month because, according to a judge in the Southern California District Court where the complaint was brought, the plaintiffs didn’t play enough Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare to make an informed case against the maligned publisher. For eleven in Activision Blizzard’s many contentious legal battlesthings ended smoothly.

According to to report by a litigation associate at the law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (who tipped Kotaku off), Activision Blizzard was sued in November 2021 by Brooks Entertainment, Inc., a California-based company specializing in film and TV production and other forms of entertainment. However, Kotaku couldn’t find an official website for the company. Brooks Entertainment and its CEO, Shon Brookswho describes himself as an inventor, claim they hold the trademarks for the financial mobile games Save One Bank and Stock Pickers. It should be noted that Kotaku couldn’t verify the existence of these games, either. Regardlessall three of these entities, alongside Activision Blizzard and 2016’s Infinite Warfarewere at the center of the lawsuit.

In October 2021, Brooks Entertainment alleged Activision ripped off intellectual property from both Save One Bank and stock pickeras well as the identity of its owner, in Infinite Warfare. To be more specific, the complaint asserted the “main character” for the 2016 first-person shooter, Sean Brooks, was based on the company’s CEO and that all three games had “scripted battle scenes that take place in a high fashion couture shopping center mall.” There were other similarities, too, but these claims were the crux of the complaint.

But if you’ve played just an hour or so of Infinite Warfare, you’d know this is all wrong. For one, the main character isn’t Corporal Sean Brooks at all but rather his squadmate CommanderNick Reyes, a space marine who becomes the captain of the game’s primary militia. Moreover, while there is a scripted battle scene in a shopping mall, it takes place in far future Geneva, one of many in-game locations, and Sean Brooks ain’t in it. You play as Reyes the entire time.

In January 2022, Activision’s counsel wrote to Brooks Entertainment’s counsel that the complaint “contain[ed] serious factual misrepresentations and errors, and that the claims set forth therein are both factually and legally frivolous.” If the company didn’t withdraw the lawsuit, Activision would file Rule 11 sanctions, penalties requiring the plaintiff to pay a fine for submitting dubious or improper arguments without substantial—or, for that matter, accurate—evidentiary support. And that’s exactly what happened in March 2022, when Activision filed its motions for sanctions against Brooks Entertainment, saying the plaintiffs failed to play Infinite Warfare and provided inaccurate filings.

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Logitech G502 Lightspeed Wireless Gaming Mouse

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The Southern California District Court accepted Activision’s motions on July 12, dismissed Brook Entertainment’s lawsuit with prejudice (meaning the claim cannot be refiled in that court), and ordered the plaintiff’s counsel to compensate the troubled publisher for the money and time it wasted. In its conclusion, the court said the plaintiff failed to conduct a thorough and reasonable inquiry into the relevant facts about the game before filing the suit.

“Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is a first-person shooter game, not first- and third-person as alleged, and Sean Brooks does not conduct a scripted battle scene in a high fashion couture shopping mall,” the court said in its ruling in favor of Activision. “Plaintiff’s counsel could have easily verified these facts prior to filing the factually baseless Complaint, just as the Court easily verified them within the first hour and a half of playing the game.”

Kotaku reached out to Activision Blizzard for comment.

Richard Hoeg, a lawyer who specializes in digital and video game law, told Kotaku that unprotectable concepts like the names of people used in fictional entertainment are pretty difficult to copyright and claim infringement upon.

“It’s hard to say why the suit was brought up,” Hoeg said. “Certainly if a suit gets kicked out *with sanctions* it wasn’t a very good one in the first place. It might be simply hubris or it may have been counsel encouraging a suit against a well-resourced party. The suit itself says [Brooks Entertainment] pitched a game to Activision between 2010 [and] 2015. That all said, the infringement lawsuit is awful, alleging infringement on such unprotectable concepts as: ‘Shon Brooks navigates through both exotic and action-packed locations and Sean Brooks navigates through both exotic and action-packed locations.’”

Hoeg went on to say it’s hard getting “actual sanctions imposed on you” because that would be a level of bad lawsuit filing well above just a simple dismissal.

“The court basically finds the whole argument crazy,” Hoeg concluded. “Brooks Entertainment even included Rockstar Games for no reason (which didn’t help their cause with the judge). So, the sanctions here are Brooks Entertainment [has] to pay for Activision’s legal fees and costs.”

While things may have ended well for Activision this time, the disparaged publisher is still causing legal headaches. The company was just blasted by Devil devs for union-busting. Again. Ugh.

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Super Mario 64 Becomes First-Person Horror Game In Fan Project

Super Mario 64 Becomes First-Person Horror Game In Fan Project

A guy gets a mysterious letter from his girlfriend, arrives at a castle to find her missing, and loads of rooms full of monsters… It’s the setup to 1996’s classic Super Mario 64sure, but it’s also very much also a survival horror pitch, which is why this new fan-made project is such a perfect fit.

Via nintendo lifethis is Another Princess Is In Our Castle“a Super Mario 64 inspired Horror Experience,” where you “decide to come back to Peach’s castle a few years after the princess’ death, but something isn’t quite right…”

While this looks like a first-person mod, it’s actually an entirely fan-made project from the ground up, designed with the perspective in mind. While it’s currently just a short playable demo, its creator Claudio Mondin hopes to eventually flesh it out into something more substantial.

Here’s a trailer made by Mondin:

Another Princess is in our Castle – Super Mario 64 Horror Game Trailer

And here’s some gameplay footage, showing how the main point is to sneak around the castle collecting items, all the while trying to avoid a Princess who is definitely not peachy:

Like Mondin says, it’s pretty much just a demo, so don’t go expecting too much out of it, outside of some sneaking (and the very cool novelty of it). I’m going to play some more later today though, just to see what the promised mystery really is though (hopefully the ghost is just upset that her cake turned out dogshit).

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Logitech G502 Lightspeed Wireless Gaming Mouse

20% Off

Logitech G502 Lightspeed Wireless Gaming Mouse

Gaming!
Uses exclusive ultra-fast wireless tech to make sure your mouse is faster than you are, can be sued alongside special software for highly-customizable performance, and has 11 buttons to mess around with, a hyper-fast scroll wheel, and RGB lighting too .

You can download the demo and play it yourself here. I don’t wanna hear anything about lawyers in the commentseither, just go and enjoy something cool that a fan made.

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Assassin’s Creed Valhalla YouTube Leaks Tease Iron Man Suit

Assassin's Creed Valhalla YouTube Leaks Tease Iron Man Suit

Eivor in an Iron Man suit shoots a laser beam.

screenshot: Ubisoft / Andy Reloads

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla dataminers recently discovered files of an Iron Man skin that shoots a Unibeam from the chest. The skin is currently not available in Ubisoft’s digital store, but fans are hoping that it gets released sometime in the future.

The armor was found by an Assassin’s Creed dataminer named Pedder, who previously mined DLC information from the game files that later proved to be accurate. the Youtube videos show a red-and-yellow armor set that shoots a laser beam from the chest and a similar looking white variant. The Unibeam can be activated with the “Battlecry” ability in Valhalla. The pack also includes a mechanical raven, a mount, and two swords.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Update – NEW ‘Star Wars’ Advanced Mechanical Armor Set Found!

This isn’t the first time that Marvel-related Assassin’s Creed cosmetics have surfaced. Previously, Andy showed off a video of a Thanos skin called “Master of Elements.” This unreleased skin includes colorful gem-studded gloves that activate a different ability every few seconds. Some fans are a little disappointed Ubisoft hasn’t actually released any of these skins—or even confirmed their existence. Kotaku reached out to Ubisoft about whether or not these skins will be released, but was not able to obtain a comment at the time of publication.

A Marvel collab wouldn’t even be the most unusual crossover to appear in the Assassin’s Creed series. back when Origins was still getting updates, players could stumble upon a final-fantasy Easter egg in ancient Egypt. Iron Man’s robot mount may be a little out there for medieval England, but I’d say that the Chocobo mount was far more jarring to ride into the desert sands. Assassin’s Creed‘s Fortnite-ification continues.

Despite Ubisoft’s troubles with delays and cancellations, Valhalla has enjoyed a relatively robust release schedule. This spring, the publisher launched the major dawn of ragnarok expansion, which added a ton of Norse mythology quests to the already-massive open world RPG. Ubisoft has released a Valhalla expansion every year since the game’s initial release, and it doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. So I’m not too bothered if the developers spend a little more time tweaking the skins that absolutely no one was even expecting from a viking game.

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Technology

Halo 2’s ‘Impossible’ $20,000 Challenge Finally Conquered

Halo 2's 'Impossible' $20,000 Challenge Finally Conquered

Master Chief stands next to Sergeant Johnson in Halo 2.

screenshot: Bungie/IGDB

They said it was impossible and, for nearly two decades, that seemed to be the case. But last night, a streamer named Jervalin beat Halo 2‘s “LASO deathless” challenge, earning a cool $20,000 in the process. Talk about finishing the fight.

Let’s rewind. Earlier this summer, the YouTuber Charles “Cr1tikal” White Jr.. posted a $5,000 bounty to beat Halo 2 on the highest difficulty setting, with every bonus challenge modifier turned on, without dying. In the 18 years since Halo 2‘s 2004 release on Xbox, no one had ever published evidence of completing the challenge. White’s challenge stipulates that the whole run is streamed, either on YouTube or Twitch. By July, no one had successfully stepped up to the plate, so last month, White tacked an extra $15,000 onto the bounty.

Most observers keeping tabs on the challenge had their money on Jervalin—a relatively private streamer who’s picked up a modest following for setting world records on a variety of Halo challenges—being the first person to complete it. Sure enough, late last night, I’ve crossed the finish line. (Here’s the archived stream.)

Bungie/Jervalin

Neither White nor Jervalin could be reached for comment in time for publication.

Jervalin was remarkably chill for finishing what some people, including White Jr., have called the “hardest challenge in all of gaming,” addressing viewers in the even-handed tone you’d use while moving on to the next addendum in a mostly empty community board meeting.

“All right, chat,” he said. “I think we did it. I think we fucking did it. Imagine that. Two years ago, I said, ‘I think this is impossible.’ Imagine fucking that.”

Whether or not Halo 2‘s “LASO deathless” challenge really is the “hardest… in gaming” is, of course, a subjective measure. But it’s definitely up there. You have to activate all of the game’s skulls, or gameplay modifiers that typically ramp up the difficulty. The Catch skull, for instance, makes enemies toss grenades more frequently. Famine, meanwhile, means enemies drop half the ammo they usually would. Mythic doubles the health of all enemies, while Angry increases the enemy’s fire rate. Blind removes your HUD. Assassins turns enemies invisible. (It’s not technically there skulls, however. For the challenge, Envy is left off, because that one grants you invisibility too, which does not make Halo 2 more difficult, for obvious reasons.) All together, when you turn every skull on and play on Legendary, the game’s highest difficulty setting, you more or less create a set of conditions that ensures you die instantly if you take any damage.

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Logitech G502 Lightspeed Wireless Gaming Mouse

20% Off

Logitech G502 Lightspeed Wireless Gaming Mouse

Gaming!
Uses exclusive ultra-fast wireless tech to make sure your mouse is faster than you are, can be sued alongside special software for highly-customizable performance, and has 11 buttons to mess around with, a hyper-fast scroll wheel, and RGB lighting too .

Jervalin had to rely on a few exploits to finish the challenge. To wit: He brought a banshee, a violet-colored aerial vehicle with a powerful cannon, into the final boss fight against Tartarus on the “Great Journey” level. That final fight takes place on a series of circumferential platforms hovering over an abyss. With pinpoint precision, he used the banshee’s cannon to send waves of foes careening off the edge as they spawn—before they get a chance to really even fight.

I’ve been covering the Halo community for a while now, and can’t recall a time where I’ve seen players pretty unanimous in an opinion, let alone a positive one. Sure, halo-infinitethe latest game in the series, has its issues, which players are not shy about criticizing. But there remains a reverence among even the biggest names for Bungie’s original games since the mid-2000s, and the mind-bogglingly impressive feats players are able to pull off.

The run garnered praising desde Halo streamers like Remy “Mint Blitz” and Luc “HiddenXperia.” Emanuel Lovejoy, the coach for Cloud 9, arguably the best professional Halo team on the planet right now, called Jervalin to “legend.” so did Spacestation Gaming’s UberNick. the Halo pro Kyle Elam noted how yesterday’s scrims—basically, matches between pro players that don’t count toward the official seasonal record—were put on pause so players could collectively watch Jervalin get it done. “Gonna need Jervalin to make a Twitter so we can actually @ this legend [clapping hands emoji],” Halo esports analyst and caster Alexander “Shyway” Hope said. It has been a genuine delight to witness such universal acclaim from all corners of the community.

But the most heartwarming moment—the sort of moment that proves Este, not the toxicity that inhales so much oxygen out of the room, is what video games are all about—happened in the final seconds of the stream: Jervalin’s family runs into the stream, embracing him in an almost suffocatingly tight bear hug. $20,000 is nice. That’s nicer.

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Higround Unveils Sonic the Hedgehog Themed Keyboard Collection

Higround Unveils Sonic the Hedgehog Themed Keyboard Collection

Photo of a Sonic the Hedgehog Keyboard

the sonic the hedgehog video games are more or less about one thing: blasting through a level with as much speed as possible. So as lovely as this Sonic-themed keyboard from Higround is, it seems almost antithetical to the spirit of the games, at least if you don’t have all your key positions perfectly memorized.

The keyboard is part of a new ‘capsule collection’ (yes, we’re just as upset about writing those words as you are about reading them) from Higround, who partnered with Sega to help pay tribute to the company’s most recognizable characters and one of its most beloved consoles.

Image for article titled These Sonic the Hedgehog Themed Keyboards Could Ironically Slow Your Typing Speed

The collection includes t-shirts, pants, bags, keycap sets, and even mouse pads, but the highlight definitely has to be the three heavily-themed keyboards. The most flamboyant of the bunch features elaborately decorated keys (with TTC Speed ​​Silver switches underneath) recreating the iconic Green Hill Zone from the first sonic the hedgehogwhile a slightly more subtle alternative mirrors the key art for sonic adventure 2.

The last keyboard of the bunch pays homage to the Dreamcast, with the console’s logo on the space bar and the arrow keys matching the colors and labels from its controller’s action buttons. Each keyboard appears to be completely free from labels to prioritize the artwork on the keycaps, but in reality, the alphanumeric labels have been moved onto the side of each key for aesthetic reasons, prioritizing form over function. At least there’s some form of safety net.

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Amazon Fire 65" 4K SmartTV

40% Off

Amazon Fire 65″ 4K Smart TV

looks good
Aside from being 65″ in size, this TV offers UHD 4K visuals which are a constant feast for the eyes, features HDR to make sure you can appreciate the full range of colors and contrasts, and it also allows you to use it as a hub for all of your streaming services.

Higround’s Sega collection officially becomes available starting at noon, PST, on August 5, through the company’s website. Wthread pricing hasn’t been revealed for any of the items yet, other keyboard releases from the company have ranged in price from $135 to $145.

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Symphony Of War Is A Steam Hit Perfect For Fire Emblem Fans

Symphony Of War Is A Steam Hit Perfect For Fire Emblem Fans

Warriors prepare to fight in one of Symphony of War's tactical battles.

screenshot: Dancing Dragon Games

There’s been a raft of intriguing strategy RPGs this yearbut one of my favorites so far is Symphony of War. It’s been climbing the charts on Steam in recent months, and for good reason. From a distance it looks like another Fire Emblem knockoff. Up close it’s doing enough interesting things to stand on its own, and I really recommend you give it a shot.

Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga quietly came out on Steam in June and has been rack up positive reviews ever since. Developed by an indie team called Dancing Dragon Games with a history of RPG Maker projects, it’s a trope-filled military drama about civil war and demonic threats. But you can pretty much ignore all that. Beneath the predictable plot and airbrushed character portraits is a deep strategy game that’s hard to put down. Personally, I think it’s even better in the strategy department than Triangle Strategy.

Make no mistake: Symphony of War is old-school. While newer entries in the Fire Emblem series have delved deeper into visual novel elements and relationship mechanics, it’s focused almost exclusively on renewing the nuts and bolts of classic grid-based battles. What works so well is that Symphony of War nails the basics and also adds plenty of new wrinkles for fans to dig into (especially those who also dug last year’s Dark Deity).

gif: Dancing Dragon Games / Kotaku

The biggest one is that each individual unit represents an entire squad made up multiple types of fighters. Maybe there are some knights in front flanked by pikemen while wizards and archers rain down death from the back. When two units move next to each other and throw down, a mini-turn-based skirmish ensues. Mages in the back cast fireballs and healing spells while knights in the front dish out melee damage. Combat unfolds across two rounds, with attackers getting the first turn and the defending side going second. Some fighters can only attack on the first or second turn, while others will occasionally luck into a bonus turn. The action is easy to follow and yet also opens up plenty of room for customization.

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Vertagear Summer Sales 2022

Up to $200 off

Vertagear Summer Sales 2022

Ergonomic premium quality
Vertagear has a number of gaming chairs on sale right now. One in particular that caught our eye is the PL4500 which is embroidered with Swarovski crystals down to $500. You can also get one of their RGB kits to add a set of lights to either the top cutout sections around the headrest or a bottom LED kit for $200 to light up underneath like your chair is in Need for Speed: Underground 2.

Adding more subtle layers of complexity are unique fighter bonuses and an extensive research tree. Horseback fighters get to attack first without retribution. Infantry provide defensive bonuses to nearby units. And archers can naturally attack from a distance without facing counter-attacks. These and other stats can then be augmented and magnified by researching new tech. Rather than leveling up specific units, you’re growing the overall capabilities of your army.

A map shows where grid-based combat takes place in Symphony of War.

screenshot: Dancing Dragon Games

in this way Symphony of War forces you to sometimes think like a 4X strategist while playing like a traditional JRPG enthusiast. Instead of customizing one single party and fighting through a dungeon, you’re building up a small army of them and taking on a whole battlefield. Completing missions faster and capturing enemy units and buildings along the way nets you extra money and points that can then be poured back into outfitting your various crews. Just a few novel tweaks and the decades-old tactical JRPG formula feels fresh and modern again in 2022.

A few other games have also taken hybrid approaches to tactical RPGs recently. The Iron Oath and Songs of Conquest both come to mind. The former is a roguelike with battles that take place on a hexagonal grid. The latter also sports a hexagonal battlefield in service of map exploration and city-building closer to a 4X game. They’re really promising games in their own right (and still in Early Access), yet neither is as focused on plumbing the depths of leveraging small advantages so one group of animated sprites can wipe the floor with another.

Symphony of War is far from a perfect package, but it offers one of the more meaty and innovative takes on the tactics RPG formula I’ve come across in years.

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Game Broke After Spending $100,000

Game Broke After Spending $100,000

A screenshot of Diablo Immortals shows jtisallbusiness' Barbarian fighter.

screenshot: Blizzard / jtisallbusiness / Kotaku

Devil Immortal‘s pay to win mechanics have been controversial since the game launched back in June. Now they’ve also apparently broken the game for at least one YouTuber who reportedly spent over $100,000 on beefing up his Barbarian character. The player’s win rate is seemingly so good the game won’t even match him against other players, torpedoing his prospects of competing in the latest Rite of Exile end game event.

over the weekend, Devil Immortal YouTuber jtisallbusiness asked viewers if he should try to refund his $100,000 account as a result of the issue. He claimed that he spent so much money immediately following the game’s release that he was able to easily overpower almost every opponent in the game’s PVP Battlegrounds mode. As a result, he had hundreds of wins and only a few losses, pumping up his MMR (match-making rank) so high it became impossible to queue with anyone else.

“I would say it’s probably around, somewhere around 48 to 72 hours somewhere in between that of only trying to queue for a Battleground and never being able to get one,” he said.

Jtisallbusiness contacted Blizzard about the issue almost a month ago, and said he was eventually told the problem would be addressed in a couple weeks. Now, however, his clan of him OneTimes is competing in the Rite of Exile to defend its Immortals title against other players as part of Devil Immortals elaborate end game. The only problem is Jtisallbusiness can’t join them. Part of the questline requires participating in a standard Battlegrounds PVP match, but because of his matchmaking limbo he was unable to qualify.

“So basically I’m stuck as the clan leader in the Immortals clan not being able to queue us up for Rite of Exile at all,” he said. “I can’t do anything about it.” Adding to his frustration from him is the fact that he’s trying to make money off Devil Immortal as a streamer and content maker, an effort now seemingly stymied by his early spending spree (other videos are devoted to showing off his collection).

For many other players in the community, however, it’s a chef’s kiss moment for everything they hate about the game’s monetization. “Congratulations, you just ‘won’ in a p2w game,” reads one of the top comments on his YouTube video discussing the issue. “Can’t complain about that, you got what you paid for.” Others shared similar sentiments, and the video itself was downvoted thousands of times.

Players on Reddit, where links to it were being passed around, were equally unmoved. “I know it’s his money from him and people can do whatever they want with theirs but come the fuck on man. 100k?! On Devil Immortal?!” wrote one person. “When someone’s Devil character is worth close to my entire mortgage,” wrote another.

Blizzard and jtisallbusiness didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. It’s also not yet clear how the situation will affect the rest of his clan, which includes players he said have each poured thousands of dollars of their own into the game. Once the Rite of Exile is completed, the top 30 challengers are pitted against a single Immortal who is transformed into a raid boss. One thing seems certain: It will not be Jtisallbusiness.

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Entertainment

Pat Carroll dead: Voice of Ursula dies aged 95

Pat Carroll dead: Voice of Ursula dies aged 95

Pat Carroll, the actress known for voicing the underwater villain Ursula in Disney’s animated tale, The Little Mermaid, died on July 30. She was 95.

The Emmy Award-winning actress passed away at her home on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, while recovering from pneumonia, according to Variety.

Carroll found a niche as a comedian on the late-night circuit beginning in the 1940s, and voiced several cartoon characters through the years before earning an Emmy for her work on Sid Caesar’s Hour.

Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, Carroll’s family moved to Los Angeles when she was five years old, and she picked up acting in local productions shortly after.

She graduated from the local, all-girls Immaculate Heart High School, whose notable alumni include Meghan Markle, Diane Disney (the daughter of Walt and Lillian Disney), Mary Tyler Moore, Lucie Arnaz, Tyra Banks and Yara Shahidi.

After enlisting in the Army, she attended the Catholic University of America, and began her career in the industry with the 1947 film Hometown Girl.

She co-starred as Prunella in a 1965 production of the musical version of cinderellaand worked on Laverne & Shirley, Busting Loose, The Ted Knight Show and She’s The Sheriff.

Other appearances included The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Love Boat, Designing Women and ER.

She won several theatrical awards for her one-woman show on Gertrude Stein. The recorded version won a Grammy for Best Spoken Word, Documentary or Drama in 1980.

In 1989, she played the villainous sea witch Ursula and sang Poor Unfortunate Souls, a role she once said was one of her all-time favourites.

She reprized the infamous character’s voice for a number of Disney video games and television shows, most recently in 2020 with The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse short series.

Carroll is survived by daughters Kerry Karsian, Tara Karsian and granddaughter Evan Karsian-McCormick.

This story originally appeared on Fox News and is republished here with permission.

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