Bohemia Interactive slams Codemasters over marketing of Operation Flashpoint 2

Posted Feb 26th 2009 10:00AM by John Callaham
Filed under: Biz, FPS, Multiplayer

Bohemia Interactive originally developed the first Operation Flashpoint game for publisher Codemasters. That game was released in 2001. Since then Bohemia has struck out on its own and made their own military shooter games under the ArmA title. The first was released in 2007 and the sequel, ArmA II is due out later this year. Codemasters, however, kept the rights to the Operation Flashpoint name and in 2007 announced their plans to release Operation Flashpoint 2, using an internal development team at the company.

Even though Codemasters made their intentions clear two years ago, Bohemia Interactive is just now going after Codemasters over their claim that Codemasters is making a sequel to Operation Flashpoint. In a press release today, Bohemia Interactive stated they have sent Codemasters a letter from their attorneys " . . . protesting Codemasters' marketing tactics which tout Codemasters' upcoming game Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising as the "return of" or "official sequel to" the genre-defining game Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis. "

Gallery: Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising

Gallery: ARMA 2 Screenshots

While Bohemia admits that Codemasters does have the rights to the Operation Flashpoint title, Bohemia 's attorney claims, "In the license agreement, Bohemia Interactive expressly reserved the exclusive right to develop sequels to the original OFP game,"Bohemia Interactive CEO Marek Spanel adds, "Since Codemasters has no right to use the Bohemia Interactive game engine or any other component of the Bohemia-developed game, how can it rightfully claim to produce a 'sequel'?"

Spanel states, "We can't stop Codemasters from releasing a game using the words Operation Flashpoint. But it is not right to promote this game as the 'official sequel to the multi-award winning Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis or the 'return' of Bohemia Interactive's 'genre-defining military conflict simulator.' The awards were given for the game created by Bohemia Interactive - not to a name." There's no word yet if Bohemia plans to turn this "protest" into a full fledged lawsuit if they do not get what they want from Codemasters. So far Codemasters has not yet responded to Bohemia's protest.

Tags: arma, arma-ii, bohemia-interactive, codemasters, operation-flashpoint, operation-flashpoint-2