Turbine sues Atari - DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE®: Eberron Unlimited™ Forums

GoldyGopher · 08-26-2009, 10:12 AM

Not sure this has been posted yet...

http://www.courthousenews.com/2009/0...Rough_Game.htm

MANHATTAN (CN) - A video game company claims Atari breached a licensing agreement for it to develop a new form of "Dungeons & Dragons." Turbine, the plaintiff, develops and operates "massively multiplayer online role-playing games," or MMOs.
Thousands of players can participate in an MMO and interact with each other simultaneously.
The complaint in New York County Court alleges that Atari granted Turbine a sublicense to "Dungeons & Dragons" and "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" so that Turbine could develop and operate a subscription-based MMO called "Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach."
Turbine says it employed "dozens upon dozens of people working hundreds of thousands of hours" to do so. Turbine claims it spent millions of dollars on the franchise and continues to invest money to operate and maintain the service.
Turbine claims Atari acted unreasonably in its efforts to promote and distribute "DDO: Stormreach," and failed to devote the necessary resources to it. It claims Atari breached the agreements by accepting payments - including future royalty payments - in return for extending their relationship and paving the way for the launch of Turbine's free-to-play "DDO: Unlimited" service, though Atari knew it would not perform its obligations under the agreements and knew it would pretextually seek to declare Turbine in breach of the agreements.
Turbine claims that Atari's purported "termination" was part of a strategy it conceived prior to the May 13 agreements that it would either terminate Turbine as part of a shakedown, or proceed with termination in bad faith to benefit from its own competing product at Turbine's expense.
Atari says Turbine invested millions of dollars in developing and promoting the DDO franchise to demand more consideration from Turbine than called for by their agreement.
And it claims that Atari's purported termination of the license agreement, in addition to threatening Turbine's past investment, threatens the goodwill that Turbine has developed with the thousands of players who play "DDO: Stormreach" and are expected to use the "DDO: Unlimited" service.
Turbine is represented by Jeffrey Simes at Goodwin Proctor

EDIT link to Filings: http://www.courthousenews.com/2009/08/26/Atari.pdf

rimble · 08-26-2009, 10:15 AM

Yeah! Get 'em! Get 'em!

Cedrica-the-Bard · 08-26-2009, 10:15 AM

I knew all the delays had to be related to some legal issue. And there it is.

Harncw · 08-26-2009, 10:16 AM

wow nice catch!

Thrudh · 08-26-2009, 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoldyGopher

And it claims that Atari's purported termination of the license agreement

What does that mean? If Atari terminates the license agreement (and Atari still owns the D&D licens?), does that mean Turbine has to shut the game down?

Lorien_the_First_One · 08-26-2009, 10:20 AM

Go Turbine!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thrudh

What does that mean? If Atari terminates the license agreement (and Atari still owns the D&D licens?), does that mean Turbine has to shut the game down?

Turbine has the license, Atari had distribution rights and from the sound of it, a piece of every dollar sold.

ThrasherGT · 08-26-2009, 10:22 AM

This..............is...................AWESOME!!!! !! LOL

Seriously, though, I'm glad to see Turbine standing up for itself! I hope they settle out of court, or else this will take YEARS to be resolved..........

Draclaud · 08-26-2009, 10:23 AM

I wonder if Atari's own "competeing product" would be NWN Online...

Marketroid · 08-26-2009, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thrudh

What does that mean? If Atari terminates the license agreement (and Atari still owns the D&D licens?), does that mean Turbine has to shut the game down?

As a legal matter we can't comment on the particulars of the case, but this action is not expected to impact our launch next week.

Gladiator_206 · 08-26-2009, 10:27 AM

This sounds awesome, finally news about turbine going after atari! Go Turbine!

DSC · 08-26-2009, 10:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoldyGopher

Turbine says it employed "dozens upon dozens of people working hundreds of thousands of hours" to do so.

Man, there is no way that Turbine has ever had four dozen people working on DDO. I suppose if you count up all the temps over time...

Vivanto · 08-26-2009, 10:28 AM

Finally, kick em' in the nuts Turbine!

Ustice · 08-26-2009, 10:29 AM

Great catch. Thanks!

Aspenor · 08-26-2009, 10:31 AM

Finally. Atari was milking this contract for all it was worth, it was totally obvious.

Psyk0sisS · 08-26-2009, 10:34 AM

Quote:

And it claims that Atari's purported termination of the license agreement, in addition to threatening Turbine's past investment, threatens the goodwill that Turbine has developed with the thousands of players who play "DDO: Stormreach" and are expected to use the "DDO: Unlimited" service.

Well...not sure what to say about that statement LOL

Though, it does bring back SOME goodwill by Turbine's lawsuit

GoldyGopher · 08-26-2009, 10:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marketroid

As a legal matter we can't comment on the particulars of the case, but this action is not expected to impact our launch next week.

Marketroid, Thank you for the response, I got to be honest even you little response is far more than I believed I would receive directly from Turbine.

Please note that many thousands of fans are "supporting" Turbine's position. After reading reading the pleadings I am surprized we have a game at all.

deadmanet · 08-26-2009, 10:48 AM

Woot! Bout time I read some good(sorta, kinda irritating what's been going on) news around here. Here's hoping Turbine somehow manages to get full control of DDO.

Psyk0sisS · 08-26-2009, 10:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deadmanet

Woot! Bout time I read some good(sorta, kinda irritating what's been going on) news around here. Here's hoping Turbine somehow manages to get full control of DDO.

That, or they'll get a big ol check back for their own efforts...and we'll probably see a huge paid ad blitz hosted by Atari. Either way, if Turbine wins, its a win win for all of us!

ArkoHighStar · 08-26-2009, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DSC

Man, there is no way that Turbine has ever had four dozen people working on DDO. I suppose if you count up all the temps over time...

just because they don't post does not mean they don't exist, plus they are counting the original dev team, which you can see by going to the credits

Drfirewater79 · 08-26-2009, 11:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marketroid

As a legal matter we can't comment on the particulars of the case, but this action is not expected to impact our launch next week.

It may not effect the launch but it could very well shut the game down should turbine lose this war. My hopes is Turbine wins it and prevents Cryptic Studios from launching a NWNonline game like expected is the issue

Quote:

Originally Posted by Draclaud

I wonder if Atari's own "competeing product" would be NWN Online...

I think it is and i called it from day one .... Atari was under-advertising and promoting DDO cause they where gonna make another game later on. It made sense to me then and nothing has changed now i just think it is stupid that it took Turbine this long to figure it out when i have been saying it for more then 2 years now and even made a big statement about it when atari took on cryptic..... I just hope no one plays champions online which is also an atari product through cryptic and instead checks out DC Universe.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Psyk0sisS

Well...not sure what to say about that statement LOL

Though, it does bring back SOME goodwill by Turbine's lawsuit

That is the line that scares me ... cause it means should the court side with atari DDO is done for good. It means that Turbine will not be able to produce new content in the Dungeons and Dragons universe and that Atari will be with cryptic making NWNO which as its based in Forgotten Relms mean it will take away 90% of DDO:U's population thus terminating DDO not just turbines license.

For turbine to come out of this in one peice they need to pray that the courts do not allow Atari to make a competing product ... if Atari takes its name off of DDO I am sure the loop hole they are looking for will be there and allow Turbine to keep subletting the license from Atari while Atari goes on to make NWNO as a different project. If the courts do this it is possible neither game will get any attention or in best case NWNO wins cause of player issues with Turbine and DDO:E up to date.

Personally if it turns out NWNO is a go and DDO is destined to die then i wont be playing any Atari MMO or Cryptic Studios and will never play another Turbine game again either.