Lord British Wins Big Over NCSoft

Logan Westbrook

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Feb 21, 2008
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Lord British Wins Big Over NCSoft



Ultima creator and space tourist Richard Garriott has won millions of dollars in his lawsuit against publisher NCSoft.

Last year Garriott sued [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/91510-Richard-Garriott-Sues-NCsoft] Korean publisher NCSoft for fraud, saying that the company had fired him, but his departure had been "re-characterized" as a voluntary resignation. Because of this, he said, he had lost millions of dollars because by "resigning" he had only 90 days to exercise his stock options, rather than the years he'd have had if he'd been fired, which meant he'd had to sell in a very depressed market.

After a three and a half day long trial, the court awarded Garriott $28 million, enough to cover the profits he claimed he had lost out on from the sale of his stock. Garriott said that he was pleased with the jury's decision, but NCSoft's lawyer said that it was considering its options for taking the case further.

Garriott joined NCSoft in 2001 and when his studio Destination Games was acquired by the publisher. He parted ways [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/87378-Richard-Garriott-Leaves-NCsoft] with NCSoft at the end of 2008, just weeks before his game Tabula Rasa was shut down [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/87610-Tabula-Rasa-Shutting-Down].

Source: Austin-American Statesmen [http://www.statesman.com/business/technology/garriott-wins-28-million-jury-award-in-ncsoft-831054.html] via Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/garriott-wins-USD28m-from-ncsoft]


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Exterminas

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Sep 22, 2009
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28 Million? Seriously? You can make that kind of money as a single person, by deveploping crappy video games, like Tabula Rasa?
 

rockingnic

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May 6, 2009
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I bet you he could live just fine off of the money he already had before the lawsuit... Wish I got $28 million lol
 

fenrizz

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Feb 7, 2009
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Exterminas said:
28 Million? Seriously? You can make that kind of money as a single person, by deveploping crappy video games, like Tabula Rasa?
It's more about the money he could have made of NCSoft stocks.

OT:
Good for him, I like Lord British.
Crazy man.
 

silver wolf009

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Jan 23, 2010
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Jesus. 28 million? well what are you going to do with that money Mr lord British commander space marine sir?
 

Exterminas

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Sep 22, 2009
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fenrizz said:
Exterminas said:
28 Million? Seriously? You can make that kind of money as a single person, by deveploping crappy video games, like Tabula Rasa?
It's more about the money he could have made of NCSoft stocks.

OT:
Good for him, I like Lord British.
Crazy man.
I know that. But he probably got the stocks as part of his payment, hence the fact that he couldn't sell them whenever he wanted to.
 
May 28, 2009
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Now he can invest in making sure his online avatars are well and truly invulnerable.

silver wolf009 said:
Jesus. 28 million? well what are you going to do with that money Mr lord British commander space marine sir?
He got Jesus too?
 

sephiroth1991

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Dec 3, 2009
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And yet we're in a recession, this how we make money people just sue people.

Maybe he will use that money constructively maybe a straight jacket.
 

Rad Party God

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Feb 23, 2010
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Well, Guild Wars 2 is being developed by ArenaNet and not by NCSoft.

Lord British... what's so big about him?, on my point of view, he's an egocentric maniac, in all the games he develops, his "alter ego" has to appear in some way or another. Also, Tabula Rasa, from what I've heard, wasn't all that great in the first place, so yeah, 28 million for a failure is a bit steep even for a huge company as NCSfot.

Let's hope that doesn't affect the development of Guild Wars 2. =S
 

fanklok

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Jul 17, 2009
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silver wolf009 said:
Jesus. 28 million? well what are you going to do with that money Mr lord British commander space marine sir?
Obviously train a private army of space marines.
 

Starke

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Mar 6, 2008
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Exterminas said:
28 Million? Seriously? You can make that kind of money as a single person, by deveploping crappy video games, like Tabula Rasa?
Nah it's for the company firing him, and then saying, "nu-uh, it was his idea to leave." Having had a company pull that on me, I'm fairly sympathetic.
 

Ralackk

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rockingnic said:
I bet you he could live just fine off of the money he already had before the lawsuit... Wish I got $28 million lol
I think he spent most of that going to space...
 

MrHero17

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Jul 11, 2008
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Whatever you think of Garriot the courts seemed to have agreed with him that what NCsoft did was unlawful. If they had marked him down as fired they wouldn't have had to go to court.
 

lockeslylcrit

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Dec 28, 2008
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Lord Mountbatten Reborn said:
Now he can invest in making sure his online avatars are well and truly invulnerable.
I admit, I laughed because I'm old enough to have figured out ways of killing him in the old Ultima series.
 

Antari

Music Slave
Nov 4, 2009
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Lord British still has the power to oneshot! Woot! He may be crazy but he made some good games.