Slitherine were ”caught in the middle” because it was a BBC brand, and the UK broadcaster ”wasn’t prepared to start a fight” with EA. They chose to rebrand.
EA took offense to the word Battlefield being used in the title published by Slitherine. The UK publisher had a deal with BBC History for Battlefield Academy, which was a flash game, and released a casual strategy title by that name for PC in 2010.
A month later EA claimed it was infringing on their Battlefield series from DICE, and their legal action halted release of Battlefield Academy for PSP, Mac, iPad, Xbox 360 and DS.
”We were caught in the middle because it was a BBC brand. They’ve been really helpful but the BBC wasn’t prepared to start at fight with EA for a minor wargame,” said Slitherine’s Marco Minoli. ”But we couldn’t change the name because it was a licence we acquired.”
Production of the game stopped during the dispute which was settled in July this year. In the end the legal tussle was won by financial attrition - EA simply had deeper pockets.
”We decided that for purely financial reasons it was best to reach an accommodation with EA. It caused a lot of problems and has been difficult, we had to rebrand the game entirely. It cost us tens of thousands of dollars and we lost a big commercial opportunity.”
”We missed out on the PSP game, it was already in submission at Sony, but it took so long that now we’re trying for the PS Vita instead,” added the marketing director.
The strategy series has been renamed to BBC Battle Academy, and the publisher hopes new demos and an Operation Market Garden add-on can get interest back, although ”when you lose momentum like that it’s difficult to get back,” admitted Minoli.
”I guess what we learned was copyright infringement is based on how deep your pockets are, not who’s right and wrong.” Slitherine describe the turn-based strategy as an ”approachable war game that found an audience outside of our niche gaming fans.”
Check out Slitherine’s website for more information on BBC Battle Academy.
