GTR dev to sue Need for Speed: Shift team?

The announcement from Electronic Arts a while back that it was making a new and supposedly better Need for Speed game, titled NFS: Shift seems to have gone down well with fans. One group it hasn't gone down well with though is SimBin, the developer of the GT: Legends and GTR racing games.

Development for the new Need for Speed has apparently been handed to Slightly Mad Studios, a newcomer to the franchise. Importantly though, it's also a developer which, according to the original press release "includes developers and designers that previously worked on GTR and GT: Legends".

In an email sent to Joystiq, the Executive Vice President at SimBin, Magnus Ling, said that the company was now considering legal action against Slightly Mad Studios over that. According to him the statements made in the press release are "incorrect, misleading and have a negative impact on our reputation as well as business negotiations." Apparently he's not an NFS fan.

Slightly Mad Studios were quick to respond to the accusation, calling it totally absurd and saying that there were actually a significant number of developers who worked on the title.

"More than 25 of Slightly Mad Studios' current staff worked on and are actually credited in GT Legends and GTR2," said Slightly Mad boss Ian Bell, "including the majority of the core development team."

"It saddens me when fellow developers make inappropriate statements like this in public but I think the fact that the first I heard of it was from you says everything you need to know about the credibility of the claims. Had there been any merit to them I am sure I would have heard sooner."

Magnus is apparently talking further advice on the issue, but stands by his claims. Are you as confused as us? Let us know in the forums.