EA Loses Lawsuit To Original Madden Creator

[Steven Bogos]

EA Loses Lawsuit To Original Madden Creator

The big name publisher has been ordered to pay out over $11 million in unpaid royalties plus interest.

After three days of deliberations, a jury in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California ruled in favor of Robin Antonick, the original designer and developer of Electronic Arts' best-selling Madden NFL Football games, awarding him over $11 million in unpaid royalties plus interest and setting the stage for another phase of the trial regarding games published after 1996.

The jury found that several Madden games published between 1990-1996, were virtually identical to Antonick's original version of John Madden Football, and used substantially similar plays and formations. The next phase of the trial will be held to determine whether EA is responsible for paying Antonick for games published between 1997 and the present, where revenues exceed $3 billion.

"This is a tremendous victory," said Rob Carey, partner at Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP and one of Antonick's attorneys. "In many ways, this trial was a test of each party's version of events. The jury uniformly rejected the idea that this game was developed without Robin's work. It is, if nothing, a good omen for the next phase of the litigation."

The lawsuit first popped up several years ago [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/108921-John-Madden-Football-Designer-Sues-EA-for-Billions], when Antonick claimed hasn't been paid in decades even though current iterations of Madden still use his code. He originally sued the company for over $4 billion in damages, as the development deal he signed with EA back in 1986 entitled him to royalties from all derivative works of his code.

EA judge ruling [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/109070-EA-Founder-Denies-Madden-Lawsuit-Claims] earlier this year allowed Antonick to proceed with his case.

Source: Hagens Berman [http://hb-ip.com/our-work/MaddenNFL]

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[Evil Smurf]

This guy is going to be so rich.

 

[Teoes]

I'm surprised this came about so soon after the judge allowed it to proceed. It's a good thing that EA have done a solid on their first quarter financials..

 

[Rhyph]

Not exactly surprising that he won. Madden hasn't changed at all from the first game.

 

[FireAza]

He's suing EA because their new Madden games are basically the same as his original version of Madden? How is he only just now becoming aware of EA's strategy for making new Madden titles?

 

[LordMonty]

He's suing EA because their new Madden games are basically the same as his original version of Madden? How is he only just now becoming aware of EA's strategy for making new Madden titles?

Swap 'Madden' for any EA sports title and thats more the truth. Same goes for Fifa and the rest, they just pump these out.

 

[Caiphus]

To be fair, reluctantly, to EA I would imagine that all NFL games would have "substantially similar plays and formations". I mean. They're both American football games. Right?

 

[fix-the-spade]

I'm surprised this came about so soon after the judge allowed it to proceed. It's a good thing that EA have done a solid on their first quarter financials..

It's a very easy thing to prove, given that he's had almost two decades to isolate and record exactly which bits of the code he wrote are where in which game.

The hard part was getting into court in the first place, EA have stalled and stalled because they must have known they were doomed should it enter a court.

 

[PunkRex]

To be fair, reluctantly, to EA I would imagine that all NFL games would have "substantially similar plays and formations". I mean. They're both American football games. Right?

I think its more to do with them using his original code. I don't know how to program games but if he put those formations and plays into the game and they agreed to pay him every time they used it, well... they owe him... alot.

 

[Scribblesense]

I always expected EA's habit of rereleasing the same game year after year to bite them in the ass.

 

[Saltyk]

This was decided based on the plays? Look, I know we all love to hate on EA and bash on them, but that doesn't sound right to me. I'm no fan of them, myself. However, this doesn't quite sit right with me. There are only so many plays you can run. If they used the plays to decide that the games were copy/pasted, I don't think that's on EA. But rather on the sport itself.

Now, if they had said it was determined by coding (which I doubt they are using the same code from 15+ years ago), features, or the general way that the game plays, I would probably be okay. But just using the plays as a basis doesn't work for me.

 

[Colt47]

This is actually a good thing. The fact he developed the code for the game and it was used for commercial sales purposes repeatedly over the course of many years, without getting ANY compensation, is just ludicrous. The only reason this cannonball of a financial disaster is happening is because the company refused to pay him his dues from the start.

 

[Dragonbums]

In other words, if EA weren't being cheap ass bastards and just paid the guy like they were supposed to the wouldn't be in this mess in the first place.

$11 million dollars lost right there in a single setting is nothing to laugh about.

If he wins the next case- and EA has to pony up $3 billion dollars?
Well then, EA is going to be in one fat stinker heading towards bankruptcy.
I hope he wins.
If not for them using his coding, but for all the shitty things EA has done to studios who had the unfortune of working under them and the workers in said studios that sweat like dogs to make their stupid deadlines.

 

[Dragonbums]

This was decided based on the plays? Look, I know we all love to hate on EA and bash on them, but that doesn't sound right to me. I'm no fan of them, myself. However, this doesn't quite sit right with me. There are only so many plays you can run. If they used the plays to decide that the games were copy/pasted, I don't think that's on EA. But rather on the sport itself.

Now, if they had said it was determined by coding (which I doubt they are using the same code from 15+ years ago), features, or the general way that the game plays, I would probably be okay. But just using the plays as a basis doesn't work for me.

He is talking about the coding. Not the plays themselves.

They promised him that everytime they used his code, they would have to pay him for it.
However EA decided to be cheap and not pay him his dues.
The first phase was for the Madden games in the mid 90's.
Now the second phase is going to be from then, all the way up to today.
And considering how he's doing this immediately it is safe to assume that the man knows without a doubt that EA is STILL using parts of his code without paying him.
The fact that EA tried to block him from doing it is a small indicator of such.

 

[tdylan]

He. Could. Go. All. The. Way!

 

[Saltyk]

This was decided based on the plays? Look, I know we all love to hate on EA and bash on them, but that doesn't sound right to me. I'm no fan of them, myself. However, this doesn't quite sit right with me. There are only so many plays you can run. If they used the plays to decide that the games were copy/pasted, I don't think that's on EA. But rather on the sport itself.

Now, if they had said it was determined by coding (which I doubt they are using the same code from 15+ years ago), features, or the general way that the game plays, I would probably be okay. But just using the plays as a basis doesn't work for me.

He is talking about the coding. Not the plays themselves.

They promised him that everytime they used his code, they would have to pay him for it.
However EA decided to be cheap and not pay him his dues.
The first phase was for the Madden games in the mid 90's.
Now the second phase is going to be from then, all the way up to today.
And considering how he's doing this immediately it is safe to assume that the man knows without a doubt that EA is STILL using parts of his code without paying him.
The fact that EA tried to block him from doing it is a small indicator of such.

On those grounds I am okay with it. But the article says:

The jury found that several Madden games published between 1990-1996, were virtually identical to Antonick's original version of John Madden Football, and used substantially similar plays and formations.

Which states that it was based on plays and formations. Which I find... disturbing. Sounds like he could sue the NFL.

As long as it's based on the coding or some blatantly obvious thing (like every time the player scores a touchdown John Madden dances a jig) I have no qualms. I suppose you could blame it on the wording of the article, though.

 

[CriticalMiss]

In other words, if EA weren't being cheap ass bastards and just paid the guy like they were supposed to the wouldn't be in this mess in the first place.

$11 million dollars lost right there in a single setting is nothing to laugh about.

If he wins the next case- and EA has to pony up $3 billion dollars?
Well then, EA is going to be in one fat stinker heading towards bankruptcy.
I hope he wins.
If not for them using his coding, but for all the shitty things EA has done to studios who had the unfortune of working under them and the workers in said studios that sweat like dogs to make their stupid deadlines.

I think the $3 billion is just how much the game has made over the years, not how much he will be paid out. Even if he gets just a fraction of that it's still going to be a big stinky poo in EA's cornflakes. Let us hope he wins

It might actually cause EA to do something *gasp* original with one of their sports games instead of reverting to their copy-paste-changeboxart strategy.

 

[Dragonbums]

In other words, if EA weren't being cheap ass bastards and just paid the guy like they were supposed to the wouldn't be in this mess in the first place.

$11 million dollars lost right there in a single setting is nothing to laugh about.

If he wins the next case- and EA has to pony up $3 billion dollars?
Well then, EA is going to be in one fat stinker heading towards bankruptcy.
I hope he wins.
If not for them using his coding, but for all the shitty things EA has done to studios who had the unfortune of working under them and the workers in said studios that sweat like dogs to make their stupid deadlines.

I think the $3 billion is just how much the game has made over the years, not how much he will be paid out. Even if he gets just a fraction of that it's still going to be a big stinky poo in EA's cornflakes. Let us hope he wins

It might actually cause EA to do something *gasp* original with one of their sports games instead of reverting to their copy-paste-changeboxart strategy.

I doubt it.
I would wager that they would just make even more ambiguous deals.
Their downfall in this case was that the contract was too specific.