UTV True Games Takes Over Mytheon Development From Petroglyph

Following a lawsuit last year between the two companies, publisher UTV True Games has announced that its own internal studio in Beijing will take over development for upcoming MMORPG Mytheon from Petroglyph Games. Originally scheduled to release to the public in November 2009, the online action RPG was meant to be the first free-to-play title from Las Vegas-based Petroglyph, whose previous releases include real-time-strategy games like Star Wars: Empire at War and Universe at War: Earth Assault. When Mytheon was not completed by that November or by the rescheduled date of February 2010, UTV True Games filed a lawsuit against the developer claiming it had not complied with contractual obligations. Petroglyph responded by accusing the publisher of expanding the scope of the game beyond its original design. At that time, UTV True Games claimed "the entire multi-million dollar venture [was] in danger of collapsing" as a result of Petroglyph's actions, but thetwo companies eventually announced last June that they were putting the legal dispute aside in order to launch Mytheon a month later. Though the MMORPG still hasn't seen a full release, Austin-headquartered UTV True Games revealed that its Beijing studio is now integrating changes based on player feedback received from Mytheon's beta late last year, and that the title will begin another closed beta later this month. This isn't the first time UTV True Games has seized development duties for one of its published titles. When the company opened its Beijing office in November 2009, that studio also took over Warrior Epic's updates/expansions from its original Chinese developer Possibility Space. "Moving the development of Mytheon to our internal studio is a very positive move for the game because we have total creative control over the title and we can tailor Mytheon's content to the preferences and needs of the community that has already grown around it," says UTV True Games CEO Jeff Lujan.