Outsourcer suing Gameloft over Asphalt assets and trade secrets
Vietnamese studio Glass Egg claims employees created assets without company's knowledge
Gameloft is currently being sued by an outsourcing firm that claims its work was used in Asphalt titles without its permission, it has emerged.
Pocket Gamer reports that Vietnam-based Glass Egg Digital Media filed a lawsuit against the mobile publisher and is seeking damages fro misappropriation of trade secrets, copyright infringement and unfair competition.
The case is rather complex: Gameloft reportedly outsourced the production of 3D car models for us in the Asphalt games to Alive Interactive and Hung Thinh 3D. These two partners allegedly hired some of Glass Egg's employees - without the company's knowledge - to complete this work.
The employees in question reportedly used Glass Egg's resources and equipment to create the assets, which were then passed to Alive and Hung Thinh 3D, then to Gameloft and used in various Asphalt titles.
Glass Egg first filed a lawsuit in California on July 21st, 2017 targeting Gameloft parent Vivendi, Gameloft itself, plus subsidiaries Gameloft USA and Gameloft Iberica. The case is still ongoing, with various oppositions and requests for extension of time presented to the judge.
For example, Pocket Gamer reports Gameloft USA pushed for the case to be dismissed on the grounds that the firm has been "lumped in" with the other branches of Gameloft, but this was denied.
The most recent development in this case was Gameloft's request for a joinder, Glass Egg's opposition to this and Gameloft's objections to said opposition. All three were denied on February 12th.
There is no word on what happened to the original Glass Egg employees that used the firm's resources without its knowledge, but it's most likely Glass Egg is dealing with them directly.