The book can finally be closed on author John Beiswenger's lawsuit with Ubisoft over similarities between his book Link and the Assassin's Creed franchise. While Beiswenger's case, which claims that Ubisoft stole/borrowed specific ideas from his book (namely the use of a device to experience ancestral memories), resulted in Link suffering some serious gamer backlash, the author remained steadfast in his goal: to delay Assassin's Creed 3 from its October release date…permanently.

As expected, however, Ubisoft's headache has come to an end, or at least Beiswenger has seen the error of his ways, and Assassin's Creed 3 is back on track for release. Rather than Ubisoft having to pay out a hefty sum to Beiswenger in order to acquire the rights to his book and for damages, the author himself dismissed the suit.

Earlier this year, Beiswenger's lawyer issued a statement that claimed his client was unfazed by the negative reaction, and believed himself still to be in the right. That must have changed.

Since Beiswenger dismissed the suit, though, this means that he has the right to re-open the claim within a year. That also means that Assassin's Creed 3 might be safe, but it doesn't mean that Assassin's Creed 4 is.

No reason is given for Beiswenger's change of heart, only that he chose to exercise his right to dismiss it at any time. Maybe preliminary discussions scared the guy off, or maybe Ubisoft vowed to cut him into a small share of AC3's sure-to-be-hefty profits, there's no way of knowing.

While it seemed like in the end both parties would end up winning — Beiswenger with a nice settlement and Ubisoft being able to release Assassin's Creed on October 30th — things just didn't work out for the author. And to make matters worse this will give gamers even more ammunition to wage against him.

Did you ever expect Beiswenger's lawsuit to make it to the trial phase and potentially delay the release of Assassin's Creed 3? Is this the last we hear of the author and his novel?

Source: Gamesta