Analyzing court transcripts from the Scratch trial, Gamasutra has uncovered a $6 million development cost to date for the game, plus intriguing discussions on legal definitions of tools vs. source code.
From more than 30 pages of court reporter-transcribed details today, the Los Angeles Superior Court ended up ruling that 7 Studios needed to return DJ game Scratch's source code to original publisher Genius Products.
Genius and Numark are embroiled in a complex legal battle over Activision and its newly acquired 7 Studios subsidiary. 7 Studios has been developing Scratch for Genius, but allegedly ran out of money and was acquired by Activision, which is planning rival game DJ Hero.
The battle of the DJ's continue! Scratch The Ultimate DJ is calling all DJ's to film themselves scratching to one of the featured tracks in the game. Winners will be featured on the Scratch Ultimate DJ Youtube and will win a truckload of DJ equipment.
WorthPlaying takes a look at a pre-release version of the DJ Hero turntable controller hardware to see what it does right and where it might fall short.
"Getting gamers to shell out for a $60 controller on top of a $60 game is no easy task, especially in this economy. The proof is visible in the sheer number of Guitar Hero and Rock Band band kits that are available at discounted prices from retailers as well as secondhand. Music fans have already spent tons of money on plastic band hardware, so getting them to repeat the task is going to require a great game as well as quality hardware. The developers behind DJ Hero appear to have the former point covered (for more details, be sure to read our hands-on preview), so when Activision sent over a pre-release version of the DJ Hero turntable controller, we decided to see if the latter point held up."
More tracks have been announced for Scratch: The Ultimate DJ, the latest game to be released along the music theme.
