January 2nd, 2007 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Brand Licensing | No Comments »
It sounds like the latest games, but we just got an email about a legal battle that’s about to start between the French and US giants. In-Fusio openly accused Microsoft for seeking a way to terminate a $ 2 million licensing deal on the Xbox smash chart breaker Halo.
The fight began when In-Fusio sent their mobile game design documents to Microsoft. Once arrived, Microsoft disapproved them and continued to disapprove them without proper documentation for 11 months in a row according to In-Fusio. For In-Fusio, this meant a reason to hold off the payments to the license as In-Fusio would pay four instalments of $ 500.000 of which one was paid already. For Microsoft, this was a clear reason to terminate the agreement, which is a pain for In-Fusio as it’s already selling other halo related mobile content.
In-Fusio and Microsoft have always been known for having a good licensing relationship as In-Fusio published a number of chart breaking licenses from Microsoft. If In-Fusio is right, it might be a sign for Microsoft’s entry into the mobile gaming market. Microsoft already has it’s Xbox Live dashboard running on mobile phones, which would in combination with a game like Halo be an ideal boost into the mobile games market. Of course, it is just a wild guess, but it’s sure this lawsuit will damage the close relationship for sure.
