Dark and Light MMORPG game developer NPCube dismissed and convicted by French Court

PRLog (Press Release) – Mar 18, 2008 – CLERMONT-FERRAND,

Foreword:
On April 27, 2007 VWORLD filed a lawsuit against Reunionese developer NPCube, and jointly against Mauritian publisher Farlan Entertainment and Mr Cesar Jacquet, on the grounds of software and technology counterfeit, non-respect of the right to being credited and paternity, unfair competition and parasitism.


NPCube then sued VWORLD before the Commercial Court of Clermont-Ferrand during September 2007 on the grounds of unfair competition and damage to NPCube's reputation.
NPCube was accusing VWORLD of being liable for the difficulties it faced in the development and commercialization of its Dark and Light MMORPG. NPCube was also accusing VWORLD of having interfered with and damaged both partnerships signed between NPCube and the University of Reunion Island, within the framework of the first phase of the E-Campus project, which was financed by European structural funds (ERDF), and between NPCube and the Chinese company SnailGame in order to carry out the development of the Asian version of the Dark and Light MMORPG.
NPCube also claimed it was using a technology called SCAPER for the development of the seamless terrain client part of its Mafate game engine, used in Dark and Light, the Asian version of Dark and Light and E-Campus.
NPCube was demanding €710,000 of damages.

On March 13, 2008, NPCube has been entirely dismissed of all its claims by the Commercial Court of Clermont-Ferrand, which ruled that the various failures encountered by NPCube were by no means imputable to VWORLD. The Court also ruled that the Mafate game engine was making use of the V-world technology, rebranded VWorldTerrain in 2004, and not of a « SCAPER technology».

NPCube is convicted and fined €50,000 in damages to VWORLD.