According to the the Hollywood Reporter, yesterday (August 14th) a hearing was held in a Los Angeles courtroom concerning a $20 million lawsuit brought by Axl Rose against Activision Blizzard for featuring former GUNS N' ROSES band-mate Slash in Guitar Hero III.

By the end of the hearing, the judge indicated that he was going to toss Rose's fraud claim but allow his breach-of-contract claim to continue, setting up a potential trial next February.

Rose's attorney Skip Miller promises it will be a "very interesting" affair.

In the suit, Rose and his Black Frog Music claimed that the video game publisher fraudulently induced him into authorizing "Welcome to the Jungle" for use in the popular game by telling him during negotiations that it wouldn't feature any reference to Slash, the guitarist with whom he has been famously feuding for years.

One of the big problems for Rose has been that the game was released on October 28, 2007. The front cover of Guitar Hero III featured Slash in one of his classic poses. And yet, Rose's lawsuit wasn't filed until late November 2010 - more than three years after Rose's agent sent Activision an e-mail objecting. Activision's lawyers pointed out that Rose knew about the objectionable material for quite some time yet didn't file soon enough to be within the statute of limitations.

Why did Rose wait?

"The reason I did not file a lawsuit is because Activision -- through my managers and representatives -- offered me a separate video game and other business proposals worth millions of dollars to resolve and settle my claims relating to GHIII," said the GN'R frontman in a deposition.

Read more at the Hollywood Reporter.