Congratulations must go out to Bruce Everiss who never gave up in his attempts to uncover the truth about the online game Evony.
The Chinese company finally threw in the towel on day two of the trial in Australia. Here’s hoping that’s the end of it and Bruce can get back to normal blogging.
The company abruptly abandoned its case against Everiss, which was being heard in the supreme court in Sydney, halfway through the second day of the case – and is now facing a legal bill of A$114,000 (£68,800) for the defence’s costs.
In a statement put out by Benjamin Gifford, the “vice development director” of Evony’s legal and intellectual property strategic division, the company said that it would not pursue the case in Australia or elsewhere. He told the Guardian that the decision had been driven by criticism from players of the game. “A lot of our players expressed opinions about the lawsuit,” he said, “and we reacted to that.”
Everiss, who lives in Coventry, declared himself “relieved” but noted that a quirk of the Australian legal process means that the case is not concluded until Evony pays a second tranche of A$80,000 of costs by 12 April. If it does not, the case reconvenes.
You should read and subscribe to Bruce on Games.
That’s great news for Bruce. Looks like the dirty tricks backfired for the Evony peeps. I checked out his blog when you sent me the link a while back.
Ars interviewed vice director of development for Evony, Benjamin Gifford. The first page isn’t that interesting but the second page has part of the transcript from the Australian case where Gifford admitted approving a press release with false information about his qualifications.