Mercury to sue "persecutors" after chart data falsification accusation

Mercury Games' Leo Zullo has lashed out at what he describes as the firm's "persecutors," after it was revealed that the company published incorrect chart data regarding Ubisoft-published titles on its website.

While Zullo admitted that the firm's site had carried false data from the UK charts, the former Digital Jesters director said that the publication of the data had been a mistake, which was quickly rectified.

The Mercury Games website launched last week, complete with a page titled 'Corporate Success Stories'. Hirohisa Ono of developer Kaos Kontrol, which claims it is owed money by the now defunct Digital Jesters, told GamesIndustry.biz: "We immediately noticed that they had falsified data from Chart-Track by digitally removing the publisher name 'Ubisoft' in the charts and replacing them with 'Mercury Games'.

"Other creditors also noticed this and alerted Chart-Track who, in cooperation with Roger Bennett from ELSPA, immediately took action and instructed Mercury to remove their entire corporate page entitled 'Corporate Success Stories'," Ono alleged.

ELSPA declined to comment directly on the issue, but director general Roger Bennett stated: "There was a misunderstanding and it is being resolved."

Zullo admitted to GamesIndustry.biz that incorrect data was published on the site, stating: "Someone got carried away and put it up accidentally. It was down within the hour."

According to Zullo, Mercury Games is being "persecuted" by two individuals who allege that they are owed money by Digital Jesters. Zullo ran Digital Jesters, which went into liquidation last year, together with Terry Malham - who is also now employed by Mercury Games.

Zullo said that Mercury plans to sue the individuals involved, but declined to give their names or to answer any further questions regarding the legal action which the firm plans to pursue.