Video Gamer Demands|$100 Million From Beyonce

MANHATTAN (CN) - A video game developer sued Beyonce Knowles for $100 million, claiming the pop star, acting on "a whim," destroyed its business "and drove 70 people into unemployment, the week before Christmas," with an "extortionate demand" for more money, though she already had been guaranteed "lavish compensation."

Gate Five sued Beyonce Knowles-Carter and Beyonce Inc. in New York County Court.

It claims that the diva "abruptly abandon(ed) the lucrative joint venture that she and Gate Five were pursuing to commercialize a video game called 'Starpower: Beyonce.'"

Gate Five says it had spent $6.7 million on the project, and expected to earn $100 million from it.

The complaint states: "Though she had already negotiated lavish compensation terms to which she was contractually bound, Ms. Carter, at a crucial moment in the project's development, made an extortionate demand for entirely new compensation terms she suddenly decided she wanted. When her maneuver backfired and drove away the financier (who found Ms. Carter too erratic to do business with), the pulled out of the project in breach of the agreement. Her actions were so unscrupulous that her then-manager (who is also her father) renounced them, while a senior member of the company that had agreed to finance the project condemned her conduct as 'morally reprehensible' in an email he sent to one of her talent agents."

Gate Five demands the $6.7 million it says it has spent, plus $100 million in lost profits, and wants the singer enjoined "from commercially associating with any other video game" and from using any confidential information she got from Gate Five.

It is represented by Peter Gallagher with Kennedy Johnson & Gallagher.

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