Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Earlier this week MMO Culture reported on a verdict handed down from a Korean court against former NCsoft staffers accused of stealing code and art assets for Lineage III. Allegations have been flying around for some time that the stolen code/assets were in some way used in TERA’s development.

Since the news broke earlier this week, reports have been circulating the web from a number of news sites, which in some cases have given the mistaken impression that the lawsuit was linked to the legal battle between NCsoft and Bluehole Studios. In an effort to clear the air of any mistaken misconceptions, En Masse Entertainment has posted a response to the recent news, and reaffirms that Bluehole Studio is “not guilty” in the recent trial.

It is no surprise that the latest spin on the story has it that "TERA is guilty." That is wrong. For the record, after extensive Korean proceedings, Bluehole Studio was NOT found to have made any use of any NCsoft trade secrets in the form of source code or game design. In fact, TERA didn’t even exist when the Korean case against the former NCsoft employees arose, and neither did En Masse Entertainment. In Korean civil proceedings, Bluehole was also found NOT to have been responsible for the exodus of NCsoft developers.

The post also notes that even though earlier reports this year indicated that NCsoft was seeking an injunction against TERA’s NA launch, the publisher has not filed the motion.

What is a fact: If you're a legal scholar, you'll note that NCsoft hasn't filed a motion (known as an injunction) here in the US to prevent the launch of TERA. That's kind of surprising, because their legal documents originally said they would supposedly suffer grievous harm if TERA is launched.

Thus far the TERA launch is full steam ahead and for May 1st with open beta kicking off today for pre-order customers.

To our fans and followers, we want to let you all know that we are not going to let a corporate bully or baseless rumor mill derail us from focusing our efforts on delivering TERA to you on May 1, 2012.

Source: En Masse Entertainment website