Axl Rose’s Tardiness May Cost Him Guitar Hero Lawsuit

As you maybe remember, last year Axl Rose (pictured above, apparently) filed a lawsuit for $20 million against Activision regarding their super popular game Guitar Hero III. Rose was under the impression that the game’s creators lied to the rock star regarding Slash‘s involvement with Guitar Hero, and failed to live up to their contractual obligations – but the presiding judge has rightly questioned, if Rose has such a problem with it, why wait 3 years to say something?

With the game being released in 2007, Rose left it many long years before filing the lawsuit, and it looks as though his habitual sluggishness may have cost him the case. Even though Rose’s laywers contacted Activision soon after the game was released, they lost momentum and it all fizzled out until a few years later.

Rose attempted to justify why it took him so long, explaining in a deposition, “The reason I did not file a lawsuit is because Activision, through my managers and representatives, offered me a separate video game and other business proposals worth millions of dollars to resolve and settle my claims relating to GH III. From December 2007 through November 2010, Activision was offering me a Guns N’ Roses-dedicated video game, a game dedicated to music from the Chinese Democracy album, and other proposals.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Rose originally filed the lawsuit on account of fraud and breach of contract. The fraud part didn’t last very long, due to the statute of limitations, so now all that’s left is the breach of contract part.

Rose and his people claim that Activision made out in writing that the game would have nothing to do with Slash, or Slash’s post-GnR project The Velvet Revolver, which is what caused all the drama in the first place, but the judge ruled in a tentative order recorded by a legal newswire that “the only extrinsic evidence supports Activision’s interpretation and does not support Rose’s interpretation” – meaning there was only a verbal agreement, hence the 2-year statute of limitations.

You should probably quit while you’re behind now, Mr Rose. But something tells me you won’t.

UPDATE: 13/02/2013

Vintage Vinyl News has reported that Axl Rose’s lawsuit against Activision has been dismissed. Rose was attempting to sue Activation over the use of Guns N’ Roses track Welcome To The Jungle in the video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. A judge threw out the lawsuit, citing the 2-year statute of limitations on such matters. Although Guitar Hero III was released October 2007, Rose didn’t file his lawsuit until over three years later in November 2010.

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