Payment to Game Controller Designers AXED?

Curt Vendel (holding guitar) and Legacy Engineering Group

Legacy Engineering, the team that say they designed the new Gene Simmons Axe controller for Guitar Hero, has made a statement claiming that over 5 (total) months spent working on the project have not been compensated for.

The Legacy Engineering Group claim they were contacted in Mid December 2007 by I2G and asked for a line of gaming products for Simmons. Legacy and chief designer Curt Vendel say they've "never been paid or compensated for the immense effort that went into the design and engineering of the product."

"It's a shame that our talents and abilities were used, and abused and taken advantage of - something that perhaps Gene Simmons personally should know."

While noticeably unhappy, Legacy promotes that they are extremely pleased with the end result of the product and even give insight to how the device was worked on.

Perhaps a more interesting story is that they also say they developed a controller based on Gene's Punisher guitar.