Beyoncé Faces $100 Million Lawsuit for Killing Dance Game

Tom Goldman

Crying on the inside.
Aug 17, 2009
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Beyoncé Faces $100 Million Lawsuit for Killing Dance Game



A game developer is suing singer Beyoncé Knowles for putting a ring on a dance game and then abandoning it.

One of the most successful genres in the videogame industry's new motion-based initiative is the dance game. Titles such as the Wii's like gangbusters [http://www.amazon.com/Just-Dance-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B002MWSY3O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1304012143&sr=8-1], prompting other stars such as Destiny's Child group member and solo artist Beyoncé Knowles to try to throw their hats into the ring. Knowles was going through the motions to create her own dance game, but may not have followed through, and is now being sued for more than $100 million for the damage she allegedly caused.

A game developer called Gate Five filed a lawsuit in New York this week against Knowles for irreparably damaging the company's business and causing a loss of millions of dollars. Gate Five says that Knowles signed an agreement to star in a title called Starpower: Beyoncé, which would have had players dancing along to the singer's music through motion-based devices such as the Wii or Kinect [http://www.amazon.com/Kinect-Sensor-Adventures-Xbox-360/dp/B002BSA298/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1304012642&sr=8-1], but then dropped out.

The lawsuit claims Knowles "made an extortionate demand for entirely new compensation terms" in the middle of development, which caused an investor to back out. During the week of Christmas 2010, Gate Five founder Greg Easley says Knowles told him: "That's it, I don't want to hear from you guys, go away."

This reportedly resulted in the developer's 70 employees losing their jobs as they no longer had a project to work on. "We'd much rather make a game than litigate," Easley added. "But we want to recover damages that Gate Five suffered."

The figure of $100 million is said to be the projected amount of profits that Gate Five estimated to earn from Starpower: Beyoncé, while it may have lost around $7 million from the investor that backed out. It sounds like an exorbitant amount of money, but it's not that far-fetched when considering the popularity of motion gaming and dancing to songs such as "Jumpin' Jumpin."

Source: New York Magazine [http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/04/irreplacable_beyonc_sued_for_b.html]

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Nikolaz72

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Apr 23, 2009
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I think its fair. The sum is a little large but its obviously supposed to start large and settle smaller in order to get money to those people (Or new jobs) who lost their jobs because of her/managers decision. 100 Million is waayy too much though. I would start at 20, then perhaps go down to 10 through the trial. . Its about what they can say they lost in sales time and investment.
 

Aura Guardian

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Apr 23, 2008
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mireko said:
[HEADING=1]
WHOEVER WINS

WE LOSE​
[/HEADING]
I'm confused. What do you mean by "we"?

Nikolaz72 said:
I think its fair. The sum is a little large but its obviously supposed to start large and settle smaller in order to get money to those people (Or new jobs) who lost their jobs because of her/managers decision. 100 Million is waayy too much though. I would start at 20, then perhaps go down to 10 through the trial. . Its about what they can say they lost in sales time and investment.
I agree. 100 million is a bit much but I agree none-the-less.

Onyx Oblivion said:
Recoup actual losses, fuck this "potential" $100 million shit.
Nevermind...he said it best
 

Wolfram23

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Mar 23, 2004
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Onyx Oblivion said:
Recoup actual losses, fuck this "potential" $100 million shit.
I mostly agree with this, although I think there should be extra thrown in for the breaking of a contract. Otherwise what's the point of the contract?
 

Shadow-Phoenix

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Mar 22, 2010
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Onyx Oblivion said:
Recoup actual losses, fuck this "potential" $100 million shit.
They couldn't make the game any better or improve upon ideas so they then decide to blame Beyonce...how quaint.
 

Dogstile

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Jan 17, 2009
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Recoup actual losses, then take slightly more to teach her she can't do that to a company and get away with it.

100 million? No way.
 

ZeroMachine

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Oct 11, 2008
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Shadow-Phoenix said:
Onyx Oblivion said:
Recoup actual losses, fuck this "potential" $100 million shit.
They couldn't make the game any better or improve upon ideas so they then decide to blame Beyonce...how quaint.
Did you even read the article?

Way I see it, she signed a contract. I don't know the numbers, but they damn well have a right to sue her ass for diving out of the contract like that.

I never liked her before. This just made it worse.
 

MetallicaRulez0

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Aug 27, 2008
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I'm posting here simply to announce how little I care about this game, this developer, and this so-called "artist". She's hot, but an artist she is not.

100mil is a pretty laughable figure though. Even if your game sold ridiculously well, you'd make what, 20-30 million? That's being generous.
 

Sonicron

Do the buttwalk!
Mar 11, 2009
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100 million is too much. That said, they should be given more than what they'd sunk into the project at the time it was cancelled; after all, those folks were out of a job all of a sudden, and they should at least be given adequate compensation.

Then again, why not 100 million? I can't stand Knowles and her ilk. Make her pay through the nose!
 

jp201

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Nov 24, 2009
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RaikuFA said:
BTW isnt 100 mil just pocket change to her?
no its not. some artists make a lot of money from other things but 100 million dollars is 100 million dollars.
 

Kaymish

The Morally Bankrupt Weasel
Sep 10, 2008
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100 million in what is assume is US dollars is never chump change to anyone sure when you do have alot it loses some value but it never gets to the meaning of 5 cents to the average joe its closer to $100

but i think it is fair those games for the brain dead and little girls can bring in a massive amount of money