Again, too little information is available publicly to decide who is in the right and who is in the wrong here. My previous theories on this lawsuit are apparently proven wrong by this:

Activision said in a statement that Double Fine's claims are "meritless and, in fact, Activision has every intention of exercising its legal right as Brutal Legend's publisher to release the game."

So I don't know what's up anymore. But the claim that Brutal Legend competes with Guitar Hero is a bit strange?

One of the key points in the long and tangled dispute between Activision and Spark Unlimited revolved around a suspiciously similar question: whether the development agreement between the two companies had actually been terminated despite the fact that they no longer had any working relationship. In court documents filed in an attempt to block the release of Spark’s Turning Point: Fall of Liberty Activision claimed, “Because Spark developed its current games during a time when the Development Agreement was still in effect and Spark was obligated to work exclusively for Activision, Activision is the owner of the games currently being developed by Spark, including all Intellectual Property, Underlying Properties, and Product Technology.”

Of course it’s hard to know the specifics of the legal action between Double Fine and Activision without studying the court documents but all of this sounds mighty familiar.

First of all, the notion of Brutal Legend sales eating into potential Guitar Hero games is ludicrous; they are *not* one in the same sort of game. It's like saying Polyphony Digital's accquired the Ridge Racer series, but puts some sort of conspiracy at work wherein they do nothing w/ it b/c they're afraid the RR games will harm Gran Turismo sales; it's a dumb assumption to base anything on b/c the two are different types of stylings of a same general genre, as one's a hardcore simulation racer and the other's a free-spirited arcade romper. There's crossover in the fanbase to an extext but by and large they're going for different segments of the market, and the same can be said for Brutal Legend and Guitar Hero. I figured Activision would have the common sense to figure that one out on it's own ;)

On a more personal note, though I'm not the biggest EA fan (the monopoly deal w/ the NFL still gets to me), I have to commend their recent attempts at spreading the herd and buffing it w/ a more diverse range of cattle (publishing stuff other than Madden and Fight Night), even if the sales for those games haven't been spectacular. I don't want to see EA go back to that late-90's/early 2000s' sort of way (the way that killed Thrill Kill for 'bs' reasons, for example), and-beyond these latest attempts selling better-I want them to publish Brutal Legend so that they can take another stab at how to properly market these new IP. The October (is it October?!?) release is still somewhat "pushing it" in terms of crowding it w/ other major releases, but this year looks much better than last in that respect w/ so many of the big names getting pushed back to '10, which should help BL's case, but only if EA markets it sufficiently. Also, out of all the 3rd party publishers, they have the best possibility to do this; Activision's obviously goofed around w/ their publishing status on this game and Ubisoft..well they maybe could've had a good stab at marketing the game properly but some of their marketing efforts from last gen still leave a lot to be desired. Hopefully Activision doesn't block the game's release; it'll mean one less potentially great game for all of us to play later this year, and that'll hurt everyone in the end.

In regards to Guitar Hero as it relates to Brutal Legend, Activision wanted Brutal Legend but only if Double Fine would agree to make it part of the Guitar Hero series. Activision wanted, as a condtion of development money and distribution rights, that Double Fine make Brutal Legend a sequell of Guitar Hero.

Activision had envisioned that when they purchased Vivendi that Brutal Legen would either be part of Guitar Hero and compliment their sales and marketing plan or simply not exist, and therefore not be a competing title.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090722/ap_on_en_ot/us_games_brutal_legend_lawsuit:

"But Double Fine's suit claims Activision never showed interest in the game and canceled it in 2008 after it acquired Vivendi Universal Games. That was after an effort to convert the game into a "Guitar Hero" sequel failed, the suit claims."

However, all that aside, Activision now says they actually want to publish the game. I suppose that Double Fine makes out better financially if EA gets to be their publisher.

Either way, I suspect that Brutal Legend will be released.