The plot thickens, and so does our confusion! What may have looked like an old story a couple of weeks ago, has since been twisted and turned around several times by the companies involved in an alleged theft of software and hardware connected to Battlestations: Midway and Joint Task Force. On one side, we have SCi Games and Most Wanted Entertainment (HD Publishing's Hungarian development studio). And on the other side, we have the Hungarian duo MGE Software - Mithis Entertainment, (former?) developers of Battlestations: Midway and Joint Task Force.

Last week we did our best to report a confusing series of news and statements given by SCi and HD Publishing (story), as both companies denied the allegations made by MGE and Mithis, including the theft of Battlestations: Midway's source code. Now we are confrunted with a new statement from accusing party MGE Software, detailing its own view of the tangled situation.

MGE claims that they still own the rights and source code for titles such as Joint Task Force, Battlestations: Midway, and Nexus: The Jupiter Incident (great game!). However, they recently discovered that all of their game development projects had been deleted from the computers of Mithis Entertainment (MGE's subcontractor), and that the software and servers were missing. The company alleges that former Mithis employees conspired to take the software, and in turn hand the code over to Most Wanted Entertainment and SCi.

Gamasutra follows up on the story with more details about MGE's past dealings with SCi, and ends with this final remark from MGE's statement:

"And the question of questions that still remains unanswered by SCi - how and when did it get hold of the source code, which it admits that it has, and was this done in a legal manner? MGE will continue to take every possible measure according to the laws in order to protect its rights."

All the while, SCi is jubilant as Hitman, Tomb Raider beat projections.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)