Saber Interactive accuses Spintires publisher Oovee Games of defamation
James Batchelor
Editor-in-Chief
Wednesday 22nd June 2022
Oovee Ltd
Saber Interactive
A long-running legal dispute between Saber Interactive and Oovee Games has escalated with the former accusing the latter of defamation.
Spintires publisher Oovee issued a press release via a law firm announcing it has asked a court to throw out claims it faces from Saber. Eurogamer reports Saber has since filed a defamation claim in response to these allegations.
A spokesperson told the site: "Nearly every line in Oovee's press statement contains a falsehood or a misrepresentation."
Meanwhile, Spintires -- the game at the centre of the dispute -- remains unlisted on Steam, despite a brief return earlier this year.
The disagreement between the two companies has been running since the driving simulator launched in 2014. The game was originally developed by Saber coder Pavel Zagrebelnyy, who signed a deal with UK-based publisher Oovee to bring his project to market.
Spintires went on to sell millions of copies and is the company's only release to date.
However, the two firms disagreed over several factors, including which company owned the rights to Spintires and how much Zagrebelnyy was paid, with Saber telling Eurogamer its employee had received less than half of what he was owed.
In 2016, it was agreed that Oovee owned the rights to Spintires and that Saber was licensed to make "improvements and enhancements."
Saber later developed the console versions and worked with Zagrebelnyy on two sequels, Mudrunner and Snowrunner, which sold several million copies.
Oovee told Eurogamer these come under the aforementioned improvements and enhancements, and claims it is owed 25% of the royalties from both games, amounting to tens of millions of dollars.
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