ACTIVISION SUED AFTER MAN SUFFERS PERIPHERAL RELATED ACCIDENT

November 23 2009

Santa Monica, CA – When the great video game crash of 1983 occurred there were few American companies able to weather the storm. Companies such as Games by Apollo and US Games were decimated by the collapse and relegated to the dark annals
of video game history. Even the once mighty Atari was on the ropes and would never fully recover from the damage. One company though, formed by a group of defectors from the Atari stable, would start to flourish as Japanese companies started to rebuild the market. Now that company, Activision, is one of the world’s largest videogame companies.

With massive franchises such as ‘World of Warcraft’, ‘Guitar Hero’, and ‘Call of Duty’ Activision Blizzard is about as big as any videogame company could ever dream of being. The recent launch of ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’, the biggest entertainment launch in history, is evidence of just how dominant the company has become. With that success, though, often comes a great deal of unwanted attention. Now the company is facing a lawsuit which may endanger one of the very things that has helped to bring so much success to the company and could forever change the videogame industry.

“On November 17, 2009 my client was engaged in a marathon gaming session, playing primarily games published by Activision Blizzard. During the course of this gaming session my client suffered a fall which doctors predict may result in permanent paralysis, which will result in loss of income and serious personal harm. This injury was direct result of the use of peripherals required to play games published by Activision Blizzard,” said Michael Kemp, lawyer for David Yard of Los Angeles. “Yes my client chose to play these games, but because of the nature of them he was not able to choose a less dangerous control scheme. By being forced to use these specific controllers, Mr. Yard was put into a precarious position that resulted in his fall. This was direct result of Activision Blizzard’s persistent use of such controllers which are manufactured in order to boost the company’s bottom line.”

Yard was apparently playing ‘Guitar Hero’ with the guitar controller, balancing on the skateboard for ‘Tony Hawk Ride’ and wearing the limited edition night vision goggles from the latest version of Call of Duty at the time of the fall. Doctors predict that with therapy he may be able to walk again.

“Activision Blizzard takes to utmost care in designing our peripherals and all are tested to the limits of safety and security. Of course we recommend that all plays practice smart and responsible behaviour when using any of our products and we cannot accept responsibility for any unsafe behaviour,” said a spokesperson for the company. “While we have a great deal of sympathy for Mr. Yard and his situation we will fight this challenge with great diligence the ensured that all responsible gamers are able to use our products.”

In recent years Activision has been on the forefront of new and elaborate control peripherals for their software titles. Traditionally such unique input devices have performed poorly but recently have resulted in major financial boons to certain companies.

“The real argument will be that players are forced to use these devices to interact with the games instead of a traditional controller. Because he was obviously taking on a little too much they may have difficulty in convincing a judge that he was put into this position by the company, but due to the nature of his injuries they may end up reaching a compromise, like being able to use normal controllers,” said Scrape TV Gaming analyst Graeme Hawthorne. “I doubt though that this will have any major effect on the way Activision or any other company does business, at least until someone dies after being trapped under a pile of plastic guitars and drum kits.”

Activision Blizzard using one controller at a time, for both safety and a quality game play experience.

Douglas Havermore, Games Correspondent

NEWS > GAMES > ACTIVISION SUED AFTER MAN SUFFERS PERIPHERAL RELATED ACCIDENT

LINK IT! http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Games/Pages-2/Activision-sued-after-man-suffers-perpheral-related-accident-Scrape-TV-The-World-on-your-side.html	TWEET IT! http://bit.ly/7Jrkz7	BOOKMARK IT!