Ubisoft sues Black Eyed Peas for $1 million
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
French publisher takes hip-hop group to court over alleged breach of contract involving iPad and iPhone version of undisclosed Wii game.
Ubisoft has sued BEP Music--the official company name for American hip-hop group The Black Eyed Peas--for $1 million over an alleged breach of contract. The French publisher claims BEP Music failed to approve a version of a "popular Wii game" released in October 2011 for iOS devices, including the iPad and iPhone. This game is not named, but the only Ubisoft game released in October 2011 involving The Black Eyed Peas was Just Dance 3.
According to the suit, obtained by Courthouse News, Ubisoft entered into an agreement with the band in June 2011 that gave the company rights to use the group's names and likeness for console and iOS titles. The terms of the contract stated that BEP Music would notify Ubisoft within 10 business days if it approved a proposed project.
Ubisoft goes on to claim that in March this year it submitted an iOS game to the group for approval, but the band did not respond at all, therefore breaching the contract. Ubisoft claims that at the time of the breach, it had spent about $233,000 developing the iOS game, and said it has suffered damages in excess of $1,000,000 from the combined costs of development and profits lost.
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
84 comments
@theKSMM I remember those days, as for now they are just the same like the other nonsense hip-hop music
black eye pies are very smart - they know that if they associate themselves with UBIHARD they will lose untold millions in reputation and subsequent album sales. They did not approve it by not replying (I wish I could sue everyone who does not answer me back, I would be a trillion-air by now).
1 Like "Whatever happened to the values of humanity
Whatever happened to the fairness and equality
Instead of spreading love
We spreading animosity
Lack of understanding
Leading us away from unity"
its a shit game anyway
1 Like One million for either of these parties is chump change to them. The Black Eyed Peas sold out faster than a cheetah chasing the meal that's going to save her cub's life. I don't want to see anyone go broke(almost anyone) but the Black Eyed Peas suck, like hard. Their popularity is an example of idiot America.
then
will-i-am plays 5 minute show
pays off 1 million dollar debt
then
he buys 3 mid size mansions ,5 exotic sports cars and pimps out a big box chevy
2 Like Okay, now even after the ten days had passed, no one from Ubi could give BEP another call and ask what's going on. Maybe they forgot about it, maybe it got lost and they never saw it.
One reason I like Ubisoft even more, those Black Eye Peas are lucky there is no one with talent and love of music in the industry right now. The Fugees would put them to shame.
Some of their old shit isn't half bad. Way better than anything in the last 8 years or whatever. But, yeah the Fugees would put anything they came out with to shame. It is very sad the Fugees only had 1 album. They did only have 1 right?
6 Like Good. The Black Eyed Peas are a steaming pile of garbage. I don't care who sues them or why they get sued.
10 Like I'm trying really hard to care for either Ubisoft or BEP but I can't seem to give a damn
28 Like Go Ubi, the black eyed peas have become nothing but talent less morons running around on stage with autotune.......wait thats what 90% of music is now days F*** this generation.
@holtrocks black eye peas should be sued for growingly worse music. hate their crap now. remember when they used to rap?
1 Like @holtrocks lol I used to think like that, and I still hate this generation's music, but then I remembered how many times my parents said my generation's music is crap. So I guess its just a matter of taste and we just have to accept that.
12 Like @holtrocks So because you dislike this gen of music, Go Ubi? While I agree with you about autotune & BEP, I don't see that as a valid argument on this topic.
@Dark_Arcitekt well at the end of the day neither side cares to much there both loaded this is just a matter of principle not money.
3 Like It said BEP has to notify UbiSoft within 10 days of approving a project. It didn't say BEP had 10 days to approve the project, nor did it ever say BEP approved the project. I just wanted to point that out. There has to be more to it than what was reported in the article.
4 Like Did i get this right?
Ubi asked BEP for a response about a game they wanna develop and then started developing that game, invested over 200,000 dollars and BEP hasnt responded after 10 days so UBI sues them?is this how businesses are conducted these days? i wonder why UBI couldnt wait before investing money instead of getting BEP to sign a contract that forces them to respond faster. also i wonder how BEP were too busy to respond. i assume any response from BEP, via their lawyer, even a response to stall, renegotiate or ask for changes in said game could prevent the law suit.
this is just strange.
Considering what happened at the Super Bowl, maybe they decided never to show their faces again.
@Killer6b9 @Bangerman15 That Josh Duhamel gets to hit whenever he wants now that he's not making Transformer movies.
20 Like Where is the love, Ubisoft? I've got a feeling that Black Eyed Peas would never purposely betray Ubisoft! Maybe Ubisoft and Black Eyed Peas can meet halfway to make a negotiation. So let's get it started!
1 Like The love? Both sides made a business deal involving a clear contract and entered into this contract for the purpose of making money.
No love was involved nor does love belong here as this is the realm of cold cash.
1 Like Assassin's Creed doesn't use BEP songs so it won't affect the release date of ACIII. Therefore, I don't care! :D
@BetaVulgarisNobody cares about AC3. Seriously, that game is such a piece of crap and Runescape is like a million times better!!!
3 Like @emperiox @BetaVulgaris The fact that you say 'and Runescape is like a million times better!!!' gives it away. It doesn't work if you're so obvious. Better luck next time.
1 Like @Szeiden @emperiox @BetaVulgaris Clearly, it did work.. look at some of the responses.'WAT RUINSCAEP HAHAHA LULUL SO STUPID NUB.''OBVI PPL CAER BOUT AC3 IT HAZ HIGH PREORDERZ LOL'.
8 Like @emperiox Wait what? Runescape? seriously? HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA
1 Like @Cedar-Teeth @emperiox Just saying although its a yearly installment which I think is bad, the team that made AC2 has been working on AC3 since they finished the latter, while a whole new team has been doing the Ezio games which would explain the lack of polish that people want. But I say this with everygame almost, just play the game and give it a shot first before throwing down judgment that it sucks or rocks.
1 Like @emperiox RuneScape was fine before they started handing out free stuff to keep people from quitting and the number of preorders pretty much proofs how many people care about ACIII. ;)
4 Like Actually a TON of people care about AC 3. The sad thing is, it's going to be worse than Revelations. Each year the franchise gets a little worse. This game will be no different. STOP YEARLY INSTALLMENTS!!
@berethor099 @emperiox @BetaVulgaris
In actuality, you would be correct in saying that. The games have been gradually going down in quality up until now. But think about why that is. ACII was a full-fledged sequel to AC1, so it got a ton more features and the story was long and well thought-out.
ACB and ACR were mere additions to Ezio's story, not real sequels in the sense that we got a new ancestor in a new era with totally new features to boot.
So it's really no wonder... But, even though the quality has been gradually going down because we were being fed more of the same, ACB still held a close score to ACII. While the quality did dip a little, it wasn't so much that I'd consider it a true dip in quality.
ACR on the other hand did bring a lot to the table, but the story was very short, and features like Den Defense and Desmond's Story were just annoying. Not to mention, a third journey with Ezio that served no greater purpose than to witness the end of Altair and ultimately Ezio's lives, was just contrived. His story could've ended in ACB if they just added a couple more sequences or even just one to really deliver a true ending... and they could've left Altair alone.
So while I agree that yes, the quality of the games has gradually gone down over the years, I don't see any reason to believe ACIII will suffer the same fate considering it is a true sequel as ACII was to AC1, whereas ACB and ACR were not.
@Slinqy @emperiox @BetaVulgaris
I think they've been going downhill everysince AC 2. Sure, brotherhood was good but not as good as AC 2. And Revelations was terrible. I mean WTF was with Desmonds section? Just garbage.
1 Like @berethor099 @emperiox @BetaVulgaris
ACIII has been in development since the release of ACII. It's not a yearly installment. They thought long and hard when developing ACIII. It's no where near the same tier as the ACII and ACII dlc-like sequels; it's way above them.
By the way, Revelations is the only game that really dipped in quality. Brotherhood was actually a decent addition to the AC series, despite the lower but still respectable rating, and it can be clearly seen why that is when you consider how good of a story ACII had, and how much of a progression it had made from AC1. So, there really is no pattern yet-formed by which such a statement as yours can be justified.
3 Like @berethor099 @emperiox Actually I think ACIII will be a huge leap just like ACII was. New fresh character, new RELEVANT minigames/content and instead of just increasing his arsenal they chose to remove most of the weapons to make him less overpowered. Also, the Desmond story will finally continue while in AC:R it was all kind of on standby. But let's just wait and see. :)
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