Jim Sterling being sued for 10 million dollars

Foul mouthed hater (imo) Jim Sterling, who has made a career from e-begging and mocking aspiring developers is finally getting his comeuppance.

"If game critic and video-maker Jim Sterling has a nemesis, it’s game developer Digital Homicide. That name might not sound familiar, as they’re a small studio that has only released a couple of games on Steam, but they may soon enter notoriety after this month’s unprecedented actions.

On March 16, Digital Homicide formally filed a lawsuit in Arizona District Court, accusing Sterling of “assault, libel, and slander” to the tune of $10 million. (The only reason “assault” is listed is because libel is, legally speaking, part of a broader category when filing a lawsuit. Ignore that.)

Digital Homicide claims Sterling, whose real name is James Stanton, has “falsely accused [Digital Homicide] and caused damage” to the company. According to court documents, the company is asking for $2.26 million in direct product damage; $4.3 million in emotional, reputational, and financial distress; and $5 million in punitive damage requests. That adds up to $10.76 million, and it’s nothing to scoff at.

Digital Homicide is representing themselves in the lawsuit, and do not have an attorney. They’re currently crowdfunding support for additional help, saying all donations will be kept anonymous.

Co-founder Robert Romine told me the lawsuit has been in the works for roughly four months, and that Sterling crossed a line with “continued coverage and harassment of every single title we have ever posted”. (Just yesterday, Sterling posted a six-minute video tearing apart their new games.) Romine also said he recently received a package full of faeces in the mail, despite “multiple requests private and public to the individual [Sterling] to inform his subscriber base to stop harassing me”.

Romine said he’s been in discussions with “a premium online defamation law firm as they agree we have a case and are seeking funds to acquire their services.” Thus, the crowdfunding.

Besides a humorous tweet that may or may not reference the lawsuit, Sterling hasn’t said much.

“It would be unwise to say much at this time,” he told me. “All I can tell you is that I am dealing with this situation and that I am fully confident about it.”

This isn’t the first time I’ve written about Sterling butting heads with a developer, but it’s the first time he’s been hit with a lawsuit over it.

The tumultuous relationship between Sterling and Digital Homicide is not new. A number of Sterling’s YouTube videos involve him playing through random games found on Steam, and many of them aren’t very good. This is part of Sterling’s bread-and-butter: making fun of bad games.

(It’s is not all he does, obviously. Sterling’s weekly Jimquisition video rants cover a number of other industry topics.)

The drama began when Sterling published a 10-minute video of Digital Homicide’s first-person shooter Slaughtering Grounds in November 2014, dubbing it the “new ‘worst game of 2014’ contender” and a game where “the awfulness just doesn’t stop”. The game did not get much attention outside of Sterling’s videos; in fact, one of Sterling’s critical videos is the second Google result for Slaughtering Grounds and the first result when you do a search on YouTube.

In response to this criticism, Digital Homicide published two videos — both removed, though archived on Sterling’s channel — where the developers call Sterling “a fucking idiot” and accuse him of not playing the game correctly."

More in Kotaku's incredible scoop: http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2016/03/17/angered-game-developer-sues-critic-jim-sterling-for-10-million

Freedom of speech and freedom of press, case dismissed.

They're just a pissed off crappy developer who created shitty games that netted them nothing financially and are looking for a way to make money their games didn't produce.

Meh this isn't the first time Jim Sterling been sued and accused anyways.

There was a point where I felt Sterling went beyond game criticism. He did sort of go after these guys a little too personally. Why take so much time and effort to poop on crap games everyone knows is crap and no one will buy anyway?

Jim is an idiot

I hope they run him to the ground, fat pos

TC should be sued for libel

@Bread_or_Decide: they actually went out of their way to insult Jim after he criticized their games. There's plenty of shitty games the man plays, yet only one has tried attacking him this vehemently.

Wow..Give me a freaking break. Anyone can review any game however they choose. If he said something blatantly false about the developer then that is worthy of consideration, but otherwise he can say whatever the heck he wants about his opinion of the games.

What has Jim conned people into?

He has a Patreon, but that doesn't make him a Con Artist.

Anyway Jim's videos on Digital Homicide and his Critique on their games are COMPLETELY valid and anyone else who plays or looks at their games can clearly see how much of a sham they are. They have 3 games on Steam Greenlight that are not only the same game, but are intended to be sold separately and The only differences between them is camera angle and character swaps.

Jim can't help it if his Fans are rabid and lynch the hell out these guys, but what are you gonna do when you have 300,000+ subscribers that watch his videos? Tell them to not do a thing they really shouldn't be doing anyway?

Internet is gonna Internet no matter what you say.

Are Digital Homicide going to include the interview where they try to doxx Sterling? Frickin morons.

This

Also I like Jim Sterling, he always seems to make good points and the Jimquisition is very good

Konami should sue as well, he started a smear campaign against them while making money off derogatory t-shirts.

Konami probably has awsome lawyers.

@uninspiredcup: Konami deserves all shit they get after they strong armed Kojima into not accepting an award for MGS:V.

Please can we ban this shitty TC I'm sick of these stupid threads.

And they aren't going to get shit. Their games suck balls, they constantly harass him, and every criticism he wages against them is deserved.

@Vaasman: He's put up about a dozen videos specifically targeting them.

Your opinion seems somewhat biased.

He exposed Digital Homicide for putting dozens upon dozens of trash on steam greenlight. These supposed "developers" say they keep developing their early access crap games, but how can they when they make about 2 new asset flips games everyday.

This is a waste of the courts time, this will never be a lawsuit.

Also, you can't just put imo between brackets behind everything, without even bothering to back up what you say. It doesn't work that way (imo)

Where are the mods, honestly. Do you pay them all off?

Your first comment was completely unneccessary and only proves just how immature you really are.

Maybe they should apoligize to everyone for releasing such a shitty game.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/329950/

@thepclovingguy: 1. Nobody forced 2. Steam refunds for any unsatisfied consumer

Mr Sterlings vitriolic attacks of Digital Revolver aren't required. The most logical motive, 100-500K plus views of ad revenue, per an attack. As well as ingraining himself on gaming culture through bombarded repetition, perpetuating his career.

As has been demonstrated, this man isn't the first to do it. However uninformed in the industry, "Angry" Joe will always whip up a video screaming about something in a theatrical manner, demonizing all involved.

e.g... http://wccftech.com/dice-level-artist-reacts-angry-joes-battlefront-rant-truth-bending-tiring/

This man potentially spent hundreds (possibly thousands) of hours of man work, only to be torn down in a 15 minute uninformed video making more money than he ever did, off the back of it, the mans livelihood. a piñata to be battered with gleeful ill ntent towards a clear, and insidiously inevitable goal.

Sad.

@uninspiredcup: He is not attacking them, just criticizing them for releasing crappy games. Seriously, Steam greenlight is such a failure at its current state.

Yup, there is no law for saying how you feel. He's trashing the game not the individuals people by name who made it. Plus they are crowdfunding a legal defense? lolz

@LegatoSkyheart: Jim hasn't conned anybody, Cup is being Cup.

There's not a bannable, or even really a mod worthy offence here, guys. He presented a discussion, alongside his terrible opinion. Let's focus on the former.

Uninspiredcup is Jim Sterlings brother/

Yet your threads are still shitty and you should be banned, sniper/jankarop.

Freedom of the press/speech. Case is dead. Next.

I'm surprised he hasn't gotten the boot a long time ago

</thread>

Update - 12:25 pm: Digital Homicide has taken down its crowdfunding request “due to harassers donating amounts specifically to cause charges rather than donations and charge backs to cause financial fees...[W]e will be seeking another avenue for donations”

"Romine also said he recently received a package full of feces in the mail"

http://kotaku.com/angered-game-developer-sues-game-critic-jim-sterling-fo-1765484317

If you make shit games, and your shit games fail to sell because critics do their job and warn people about them, you have not case. Furthermore, suing on a weak case further opens the developers up to a counter lawsuit, and these guys don't have the resources to insulate themselves.

It would help in this instance if there were direct statements that themselves bear the weight of the harm done to the sales of their games, and that's difficult to prove. I highly doubt he can prove it's Jim Sterling's claims that assets to their games are stolen resulted in the games selling poorly. Rather it's just shitting on shitty games that are in the same league of awful as Big Rig Racing and suffer the fate of horrible games that get horrible ratings isn't something you can sue over.

It seems this whole issue came when the company flagged a Jim Sterling video for DMCA takedown. In one video on YouTube Digital Homicide is crying Jim Sterling said they had released four games when in actuality the released five games... and they made a big issue out of it like he's lying and that had consequences. Their grasping at straws against him. They should simply accept they make shit games, and they should revel in it like everybody else that makes shit games.

If anything, this company put a bullseye on their back when put a DMCA takedown on his review of their game. That was what started this and frankly I think that's such a scummy thing to do I really don't care that Jim Sterling was relentless in shitting on their shitty games after that.

Heavy accusations by Jimmy. He better back up his claims.

@lamprey263: What they should do is actually make a game. There was at one point Jim actually praised them for actually trying. I don't remember the game, but he was impressed with that game because it was from DH.

Jim sterling might not be entertaining and somewhat of a twat....but these developers are beyond stupid.

Is this the fat guy that dresses like a nazi?

I don't think saying "freedom of speech, case closed" works here.

I mean...libel laws obviously exist, and slander laws obviously exist, so there are definitely limitations on what you can publish in the media. If you publish something that is untrue, and which causes reputational/financial damage to another party, then that might be enough to ignore the whole freedom of speech part.

Freedom of the press is trickier, especially since games journalism probably doesn't fit in neatly with ideas of "the press".

Also, it depends on where they file their case as well. Americans love their free speech, but I suspect the UK (where Sterling is from) and other places may be more likely to side with the injured party.

Anyway, just spitballing here. Maybe they have something. Who knows.

Wait what? What exactly did he do that justifies being sued for $10 million dollars?! Cause if all he did was post a negative review on a video game then the developers can go **** themselves.

@intotheminx: Yes . Although It's doubtful he actively walks around all day dressed like a member of the Gambino crime family.

So.... their game is garbage and Jim is doing them a favor by mentioning it and making it relevant.... what are they complaining about? They should be thanking him. This whole thing reeks of a PR stunt on the developer's part to get even more exposure.

Man, i don't like Jim, but the dev did make a sh*t game and deserve the bad PR.

As for the doo doo package/if true/ that's on Jim not telling his fans to stop, so i can why they're suing* him. /*not sure if it writen right/

Sounds like a pr stunt, this guy is propably looking for attention.

He doesnt seem right in the head anyway. Honestly, he is just a hypocrite, first he insults and harresses Jim Sterling and now he whines about hate messages.

I would definitely start a crowd funding campaign for banning unispiredcup from this forum lol

Nahh, he is still a good guy despite his continuous efforts to provoke people.

OMG, DH filed a lawsuit without having representation (and makes me wonder to what extent they consulted an attorney) and then had the gall to beg for alms to fund their litigious nonsense?

Tells you a lot about your plaintiff. Sterling's hands may or may not be clean, since he engaged in some borderline disparaging conduct, but the penultimate defense to libel and slander is whether the statements were truthful. So in all actuality, this case is gonna settle or get dismissed or somebody is going to bleed out financially before they get there. Neither of these groups has the necessary war chest to fund a civil suit like this.

Not only did they filed lawsuit without legal representation but they actually started a go fund me campaign and are asking donations for their lawsuit campaign .

as if the lawsuit itself wasn't already an epic fail...

Lol, OP obviously has his panties in a wad for Jim. This won't stick. It's going to be entertaining seeing the upcoming Jimquisition vids on it though!

Digital Homicide are scammers and they have a rather extensive "history" of shitware games churned out at high speed, high price, and terrible quality. They've earned every poor review they receive.

About time. Hopefully he loses too, don't even care how lame of a lawsuit it is. uninspiredcup might be one of the few individuals who share my disdain for this individual. He's everything a skeptical, gaming journalist shouldn't be. He survives purely on sensationalism and loves to toot his own horn with his awful logic. The only people who like this guy are dummies who support the watering-down of gaming journalism.