Tera Online Rejects NCSoft's Claims Publicly in Ongoing Lawsuit

It seems now that En Masse has announced its official release date of TERA Online in North America, NCSoft has made the decision to move once again in their third lawsuit against Bluehole Studios and their partners over the intellectual property behind the development of TERA. For those unfamiliar with the situation, many of the head developers of the Korean-based company Bluehole Studios were former members of NCSoft's team dedicated to creating Lineage 3. When said project was cancelled, the developers went on to found Bluehole Studios and code TERA Online using many of the same concepts as well as the Unreal 3 Engine associated with their work under NCSoft. Because NCSoft feels this is rightfully their intellectual property, they have gone on to bleed Bluehole Studios dry in each of their past two regional launches, winning lawsuits and sizable payouts but never actually preventing the launch of the game.

Of course now that gears are in motion for TERA Online to launch in North America, things are getting heated between Bluehole and NCSoft once again, with En Masse stuck in the middle of the brawl. Though En Masse had avoided making a public statement before now, they tend to listen to the pleas of their community and caved in to peer pressure with an official statement from Vice President Chris Lee:

"We are disappointed that NCsoft is attempting to mar the launch of TERA. Unfortunately we can't discuss much publicly due to the sensitivity of legal actions, but we do outright reject the NCsoft claims, and we are going to do everything in our power to defend and protect ourselves.

To all our supporters who have been anticipating the arrival of TERA – please know that this situation has no impact on our continuing efforts to realize the vision we have for our game. We are committed to making TERA awesome and delivering the game to you on time on May 1. Thank you for your patience and support."

Though the outcome of this is unclear, I believe a horde of rabid fanbois led by Fatwa would prevent any legal actions from actually blocking TERA Online's North American launch on time. In the end I hope NCSoft and En Masse are able to settle this lawsuit like civilized corporations should, and host an Elin VS Lyn mud wrestling match.

VS

Special thanks to TERA community member "mamemimomu" for creating possibly the first TERA themed Meme.