Mytheon Lawsuit Surfaces, Open Beta Continues

Massively brings word that True Games Interactive has filed a lawsuit against Petroglyph, claiming that development of their massively multiplayer action RPG Mytheon has gone well beyond its deadline and original budget. They're now demanding that the source code be turned over so they can finish up the game themselves:
According to the court documents, the original agreement required Petroglyph to deliver a "Gold Master" (ready for distribution) copy of the game by November 15th, 2009 -- a delivery date later amended to February 1st, 2010. In mid-March, Petroglyph stated that a Gold Master version of Mytheon should be ready by the end of March, but additional funding was needed. The publishable copy was not received by the end of March.

True Games' complaints can be summed up in a short paragraph from the official document: "The repeated, unreasonable demands by Petroglyph for additional funds and concessions, combined with Petroglyph's apparent unwillingness or inability to deliver the final product, poisoned the working relationship between TGI and Petroglyph, such that the entire multi-million dollar venture is in danger of collapsing."

For Petroglyph's part, CEO Chuck Kroegel claims: "It was NEVER conceived to be a full-blown MMO, which costs upwards of $15 million and three to five years to complete. The trend, however, over the last months has been to move this game to the scope of a full-blown MMO."

Despite the tussle, True Games community relations associate Jack Reed did a little damage control on the official forums:
Last week, a complaint was filed on behalf of True Games Interactive against Petroglyph Games regarding the development of Mytheon. Despite these activities, Mytheon will proceed through Open Beta and launch officially in the near future. We cannot provide more details at this time.

Players and fans of Mytheon will not be affected in any way. We are committed to delivering a fun and unique game play experience with the release of Mytheon.

Thanks, Blue's News.