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When the rumor hit over the weekend that several dozen Tecmo employees could be joining Tomonobu Itagaki in his lawsuit against the company, no one realized how much of an underestimate that number really was: Joystiq is reporting that Tecmo is being sued by all 300 of its employees.

Kotaku reported on the specifics of the suit, in which the workers claim that they were illegally placed on a "flexible hours" schedule and weren't paid the overtime that they feel they deserve. What's worse is that Tecmo may have created false documents while covering up accounting documents.

It looks like Tecmo's labor practices and failure to fulfill Japanese law by reporting Itagaki's lawsuit to shareholders on the same day as the filing could leave them in serious, serious legal trouble. We'll be sure to keep you updated as the drama continues to unfold.

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Following the recent news of the Xbox Live lawsuit, Microsoft has officially confirmed the free Xbox Live Arcade game being offered to Xbox Live users.

The side-scrolling title, Undertow, will be available on January 23 at 2 am (PST) until January 27, 11:59 pm (PST) as Microsoft's compensation for their Live service downtime over the holiday season.

Xbox Live's Major Nelson has issued this comment on the forums:

"If you have already purchased the game, you can contact support and they will take care of you."

Those that wish to visit the site can do so here.

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Regarding the news of the Xbox Live lawsuit, the plaintiffs' lawyer, Jason Gibson, has recently spoken with MTV to defend the lawsuit against heavy criticism by the media and consumers.

Gibson has denied allegiations that the Texas residents are seeking excessive financial benefits from the lawsuit by stating that his clients are "college-educated" individuals who treat the Live service downtime as a "real issue." Furthermore, he explains that they are seeking to be compensated for the Xbox Live services they failed to receive.  

MTV has reported that others have pledged their support with over 50 plaintiffs joining the lawsuit. Despite Microsoft's apology and their publicized promise to compensate Gold members with a free yet unconfirmed Xbox Live Arcade game, Gibson has declared that the class action lawsuit will proceed. 

Microsoft has not issued a comment in response at this time.

 

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Here's some interesting news for the legally oriented among us: According to Go Nintendo, an ex-Midway employee is suing everyone's favorite company over the Wii remote/nunchuck concept.

Apparently this Patrick Goschy is claiming that he had the idea more than ten years ago and therefore is entitled to money; as far as patents over the technology go, there's no word on whether he had any or not.

Meanwhile Nintendo is claiming that Goschy had zero involvement in the Wii's creation, and that includes ideas. View the video below. Looks familiar, eh?

And no he's not wearing pants.

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In more bad (but stupid) news regarding Microsoft's Xbox Live service, a class action lawsuit has been filed in Texas that seeks $5 million dollars in damages for Live's poor service over the holiday season.

The three individuals bringing suit against Microsoft claim that the company breached its contract because it knew that "an increase in subscriptions would increase gameplay on its servers" and yet "failed to provide adequate access and service to subscribers."

Though I join many others in scoffing at Microsoft's "failure" to foresee the increased server demand and really don't care for the unannounced free Xbox Live Arcade game being offered as compensation, how the hell could anyone have suffered damages due to poor Live service? And damages that amount to $5 million? Who are these crazies and why are you still breathing in our valuable oxygen?

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According to GamePolitics, the Florida Bar trial against Mystery Florida Attorney (MFA) has completed, but after hearing him talk for two weeks, the judge needs some serious alone time. The ruling has been delayed until next month so Judge Dava Tunis can review the transcripts and maybe clean some crazy out of her ears.

After the trial had wrapped up, MFA's last motion with the Federal court to vacate the trial was denied. So he went ahead and filed another one.

Until then, MFA is free to sow discontent and further his reputation as a lawyer.

Watch this space for more updates.

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We at GameBump have a policy about not mentioning the name of a certain troll/bully lawyer unless we absolutely have to. This not yet being one of those instances, I'd just like to say that -- whoever he is -- he faces trial today against the Florida Bar who seeks to disbar him for his legal antics as of the last few years.

His attempts to delay the trial this weekend failed, and as much as he decries the discrimination against him for his "Christian activism," because Christians are the most repressed minority in America, the trial will go on as schedule. The court has apparently even cleared out its whole schedule this week just for this.

Will MFA be disbarred? Without any legal leg to stand on, will he still try to poach grieving families and convince them to blame video games? Will he still be invited to appear on Fox News every time someone under the age of 25 commits any act of violence? Who knows. I can't see him going gently into that good night just because of a massive embarrassment like this.

If he were disbarred he would no longer be a lawyer, but one doesn't necessarily need to be a lawyer to file a civil suit for one's self.

Check out GamePolitics for full coverage.

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This article was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. It was written by Evan Lahti.

Late last month, Texas politician and gubernatorial candidate Star Locke proposed a $10,000 per-abortion tax on medical clinics and a 50 percent tax on soda that "contains added glucose, fructose, and sucrose." Likewise, Locke suggested a 50 percent "grease tax" on "all food prepared by deep-frying or cooking in any form of oil or grease for human consumption." Locke justified his radical tariffs, stating to the Amarillo Globe: "I take the position that the founding fathers took: that the power to tax is the power to destroy."

One can only imagine the ensuing riots at speculation of a $9 quarter-pounder, but though Locke's levies are illogical (if not unconstitutional), one final suggestion topped the cake: to pass a 100 percent sales tax on violent videogames into law.

While gamers shouldn't fret about paying $100 for the next Halo or Grand Theft Auto update, they should worry that Locke's "solution" is indicative of a growing trend in American politics - more than ever, legislators are pushing for laws that illegalize the sale of violent and mature videogames to minors.

Continue reading...

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