A lawsuit has reportedly been filed in a California District Court against Netflix over a game development contract based on Zack Snyder’s upcoming two-film sci-fi franchise “Rebel Moon”.
Evil Genius Games has issued a statement (via PR Newswire) announcing that it is suing Netflix for allegedly “wrongfully terminating Evil Genius’ contract to create a tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG)” for the film franchise.
The statement indicates the game company signed an official agreement with Netflix on March 22nd this year to develop the game and related materials for delivery on December 22nd in time with the first film’s release.
Evil Genius reportedly paid Netflix for a license and stopped work on other projects to focus on the “Rebel Moon” TTRPG according to the lawsuit. By May, they claim to have produced almost 1,000 pages of material across a World Bible, Player’s Guide, and Game Master’s Guide.
Evil Genius says the initial script was “missing background information vital to the story as a whole and to the world”, and they supplied “all the missing pieces” along with “a cohesive backstory for the entire Rebel Moon franchise.”
Then in late May, Netflix reportedly suddenly terminated the agreement with Evil Genius, claiming the company had violated confidentiality provisions in its contract by sharing artwork at an industry trade show a month earlier.
In the lawsuit, Evil Genius indicates it had sent the artwork to Netflix in advance of the event and say Netflix had approved its use. Documents containing the artwork were handed out to retailers by not just Evil Genius staff but allegedly two Netflix employees as well.
Two weeks later, Netflix notified Evil Genius all of its work on the project “belongs solely and exclusively to Netflix” and reportedly refused to honor its agreement to allow the release of the game and compensate the company for its work.
David Scott, Evil Genius’ CEO, says in a statement: “Our aim is to ensure our team is recognized for their fantastic work, and that we can release this game for millions of TTRPG enthusiasts to enjoy.” The company has posted more information about the suit up on its official site
Source: PR Newswire, THR
