SCi Denies Theft Of Battlestations: Midway Source Code // UPDATE

Reports over the weekend (re)revealed some serious allegations against British publisher SCi Games, which according to The Sunday Times newspaper is being accused by Hungarian studios MGE and Mithis of illegally removing software and hardware connected to Battlestations: Midway, Joint Task Force and other games, including the source code for the long-delayed Battlestations: Midway (currently planned for the PC and Xbox 360). The paper quotes the lawyer acting for MGE and Mithis as saying:

"A number of complaints have been filed with the Budapest police with regard to the illegal removal of software and hardware connected to the Battlestations: Midway, Joint Task Force and other games... [with complaints of] unlawful penetration into Mithis' computers, copying, sabotage and deletion of games' data and infringement of IP rights."

Indeed, the game may have come into SCi's posession (as they already confirmed some time ago), but the publisher clearly denies any wrongdoing on its behalf in this matter. In an official statement given to Gamasutra yesterday, SCi head of communications, Chris Glover, suggests that The Sunday Times has confused the games Battlestations: Midway and Joint Task Force as a single title and that the majority of complaints referred to in the article do not therefore relate to Battlestations: Midway.

Moreover, SCi also suggests that there were no specific allegations against the company, and that SCi acted "completely professionally and complied with all its contractual obligations" when they decided to take over development of the game in late 2005, following dissatisfaction with MGE's progress.

As for the game's current status, here's what SCi told its shareholders back in March:

"Over the last six months we have established a new development studio in Budapest.

This team is currently working on the completion of Battlestation: Midway, which we plan to release in the 2007 financial year."

UPDATE: HD Publishing, the publisher of Joint Task Force, also felt like responding to this whole mess:

"HD Publishing b.v. is not aware of any criminal or civil proceedings brought against it in Hungary or anwhere else in relation to 'Joint Task Force'. HD Publishing b.v. has not been contacted by any member of the Hungarian police force and we know of nothing beyond what has been printed in the press over the weekend.

Furthermore, during 2005 legal proceedings relating to 'Joint Task Force' were initiated against MGE and Mithis in the English High Court. We believe that any complaint that may have been made to the police by MGE and Mithis in relation to 'Joint Task Force' and the involvement of the media is simply a transparent attempt to bypass the English court proceedings and an unreasonable attempt to try to apply pressure.

In any event, HD Publishing b.v. categorically denies any suggestion that all or the majority of any police complaint is directed at HD Publishing b.v., or concerns 'Joint Task Force' alone. All of the reported complaints of MGE and Mithis appear to be made indiscriminately against all publishers of games formerly being developed by Mithis."

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)