Turbine Sues Atari Over DDO: Unlimited

Andy Chalk

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Nov 12, 2002
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Turbine Sues Atari Over DDO: Unlimited


Turbine has sued Atari over a Dungeons & Dragons Online [http://www.ddo.com/] licensing dispute, alleging that the publisher signed a licensing deal with Turbine it had no intention of honoring.

It gets a bit complicated, as lawsuits are wont to do, but according to Courthouse News Service [http://www.courthousenews.com/2009/08/26/Atari_Accused_of_Playing_a_Rough_Game.htm] it goes something like this: Atari sub-licensed the Dungeons & Dragons name to Turbine to develop the MMOG Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach, which Turbine says required "dozens upon dozens of people working hundreds of thousands of hour," not to mention millions of dollars, to complete, maintain and operate. Atari, however, "acted unreasonably" by failing to adequately support and promote the game.

The complaint seems clear enough up to that point but then it starts to get a little tricky. Turbine claims that Atari continued to take payments under the terms of the deal, "extending their relationship and paving the way for the launch of Turbine's free-to-play DDO: Unlimited," while at the same time planning to "not perform its obligations under the agreements and pretextually seek to declare Turbine in breach of the agreements."

That plan, Turbine claims, was conceived of prior to the May 13 agreement between the two companies and was part of an overall strategy to 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." Turbine says that if the deal is terminated, it will "threaten the goodwill" the studio has developed among the DDO audience.

The timing of Atari's alleged surprise farewell party does seem a bit odd with the launch of DDO: Unlimited just around the corner, but its recent acquisition of MMOG specialist Cryptic Studios could help explain it. Cryptic's superhero MMOG Champions Online launches on September 1, which just happens to be the same day the DDO: Unlimited "Head Start" for subscribers and closed beta testers begins, and as the parent company of Cryptic, Atari will almost certainly see more money from that than from its deal with Turbine.

Specific damages or relief Turbine is after in the suit haven't been revealed, but the delay isn't expected to affect the launch of DDO: Unlimited. Adam Mersky of Turbine said, "We are looking forward to next week's launch of DDO Unlimited," and noted that the studio plans to open a new high-capacity server as part of the launch. DDO: Unlimited opens to the public on September 9.


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cleverlymadeup

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oh the joys of lawsuits

tho i kinda agree that they didn't advertise it correctly or very much at all. so they could have done a better job with it
 

Abedeus

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Yeah, the game is less known in my country than EVE or Champions. But the again, only the major releases are known here - WoW, Aion, GW, WAR and AoC.

Also - funny how I have a closed beta key, but didn't want to play the game... Wonder why is that? ;d
 

SomeBritishDude

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Honestly I have very little sympathy for Turbine due to a certain event on these very forums.

Irrational maybe, but I hate thoughs guys now.
 

hansari

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Abedeus said:
Also - funny how I have a closed beta key, but didn't want to play the game... Wonder why is that? ;d
Maybe it came free from ordering Champions Online :p

Is that whats going on here? Atari is releasing two MMO's and only promoting one? (Champions Online). Why would they do that? One MMO is costly enough and costs millions right? So why would you want to oversee two?!
 

Fenring

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SomeBritishDude said:
Honestly I have very little sympathy for Turbine due to a certain event on these very forums.

Irrational maybe, but I hate thoughs guys now.
You know it'll happen again next year, and the next year, and the year after that. I'm gonna say I want Atari to win the lawsuit.
 

Pots

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I thought Atari was on the verge of bankruptcy. Is there even any money for Turbine to get?
 

ArcWinter

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What is Champions online?

I've seen DDO: Unlimited, it is a complete beast, but haven't even heard of champions online.
 

Christemo

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Turbine could sue Atari just for their shittyness. but i understand why they sue them. Atari tried to get profit from a game they didnt develop (thats how i understand it).
 

Credge

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ArcWinter said:
What is Champions online?

I've seen DDO: Unlimited, it is a complete beast, but haven't even heard of champions online.
Champions online is a super hero MMO very much like City of Heroes but with some slight changes that really change how the game plays. It's more actiony and less MMOy for one. Another, the mission structure is a tad different.
 

uhgungawa

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SomeBritishDude said:
Honestly I have very little sympathy for Turbine due to a certain event on these very forums.

Irrational maybe, but I hate thoughs guys now.
Not all of us were asshats, and some of us are still here =)
 

Therumancer

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Nov 28, 2007
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Well in general I thought Stormreach was a complete joke of a game, and needed to be axed a lot sooner than it was. I had high hopes for it, but really I felt it butchered both D&D and the Eberron liscence. I had no real interest in DDO: Unlimited.

I am however quite impressed with Champions Online. I am not sure if I quite agree with it being less of an RPG though. Really the only feature that makes it "action like" is the way it has intergrated blocking (which I have mixed opinions about). It's still stat based, you can't dodge attacks from Mobs by being fast enough. It's also arguably more stat based than CoH was because it's not just about selecting powers, but the powers operate based on differant attributes, and you need to build up the attributes that fuel the powers, as well as having a very real effect to things like strength (which effects what you can pick up for example). This means that if your like building a character with powers from multiple catagories you need to be VERY careful to have the right attributes availible for the differant stuff or else they are going to be increasingly ineffective.

I am not sure how people have been getting the idea that it's an action game, other than the block function. If it was really Twitchy I wouldn't be playing it. If anything there is more stat crunching and micromanagement than City Of Heroes ever conceived of.

As far as the subject goes, really I can't say I care who wins this one. Honestly I feel Atari doesn't have the right attitude to develop D&D properties. I think their censorship tendencies destroyed Temple Of Elemental Evil (and brought about the demise of Troika) as well as damaging Neverwinter Nights 2 to an extent (no more whorehouse? it's now a dancehall... wow... like the original was just sooo hawt. Way to stick it to the censors Atari!). I kind of hope that the liscences get swiped back by WoTC and leave both Turbine and Atari hanging because really, both of them have failed to do justice by a liscence that was made to "sing" by both Black Isle, and SSI before them.
 

TechNoFear

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According to the brief (Turbine's side of the story)..

ATARI and Turbine signed a 5th ammendment to the D&D licensing agreement in May 2009, in which Turbine paid ATARI advance royalties.

ATARI conducted an audit and now claims millions in unpaid royalties, threatening to cancel the license agreement with Turbine if not paid.

Turbine has responded by suing ATARI for $30 million plus. (ATARI has a $22 mill value based on share price yesterday).

Turbine claims ATARI failed to distribute and promote DDO, thru all of the ammendments.
Turbine claims ATARI forced Turbine to relinquish exclusive rights to D&D based MMOs in order to launch DOO in 2006.
Turbine claims ATARI acted in bad faith accepting monies for the May 2009 amendment, knowing ATARI was going to claim further monies (based on the audit) and had no plans to honour the agreement to promote DDO:EU relaunch.
Turbine claims ATARI is doing this to benifit ATARI's own D&D MMO (NWNO).
 

TechNoFear

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Therumancer said:
Well in general I thought Stormreach was a complete joke of a game, and needed to be axed a lot sooner than it was. I had high hopes for it, but really I felt it butchered both D&D and the Eberron liscence. I had no real interest in DDO: Unlimited.
When did DDO get axed?

DDO is still running and according to ATARI making millions.

Lets hope ATARI don't pull the same tactic on Cryptic and threaten to close Champions down (unless paid millions in extra royalties). [if Turbine's brief is correct]
 

uhgungawa

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TechNoFear said:
Therumancer said:
Well in general I thought Stormreach was a complete joke of a game, and needed to be axed a lot sooner than it was. I had high hopes for it, but really I felt it butchered both D&D and the Eberron liscence. I had no real interest in DDO: Unlimited.
When did DDO get axed?

DDO is still running and according to ATARI making millions.

Lets hope ATARI don't pull the same tactic on Cryptic and threaten to close Champions down (unless paid millions in extra royalties). [if Turbine's brief is correct]
Atari owns Cryptic, so unlikely
 

Therumancer

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Nov 28, 2007
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TechNoFear said:
Therumancer said:
Well in general I thought Stormreach was a complete joke of a game, and needed to be axed a lot sooner than it was. I had high hopes for it, but really I felt it butchered both D&D and the Eberron liscence. I had no real interest in DDO: Unlimited.
When did DDO get axed?

DDO is still running and according to ATARI making millions.

Lets hope ATARI don't pull the same tactic on Cryptic and threaten to close Champions down (unless paid millions in extra royalties). [if Turbine's brief is correct]
Perhaps I misunderstand, but is DDO: Stormreach not effectively being replaced by DDO: Unlimited?

The impression I get is that Stormreach is being axed and effectively being replaced by a new product using the same liscence, which seems (from what little I know) to be trying a Korean model of being free to play and primarily supporting itself off of an item shop.

Atari, which is now involved with another MMO doesn't like competing with the liscence they rented out and is basically trying to drive them out of business.

Honestly I'm not surprised that the liscence made millions based on the name along, but really it was probably the worst excuse for an MMORPG I ever played. I could justify that comment, but it would go beyond the context of this discssion.

At any rate, apologies if I misunderstood, but it definatly seemed to me like Turbine was effectively axing Stormreach and replacing it with an updated version, and Atari was trying to axe that.

I guess I was kindof incorrect in saying it's dead so much as someone is trying to kill it.

Honestly I think there is some potential in the D&D Intellectual Properties to support an MMO, but DDO was an extremely bad example of how to go about it, and is effectively squatting on a property that could be doing so much more.

Truthfully I wouldn't be surprised if right now Atari has plans to effectively run 3 MMOs since I think they are also responsible for Star Trek Online. So they might figure they can run a heroes game, a science fiction game (Trek), and want to develop a fantasy game based on their D&D Liscence which they effectively need back. This is purely speculation however, but I'd figure I could run multiple MMORPGS if they were differant generes without competing with myself.
 

uhgungawa

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Therumancer said:
Perhaps I misunderstand, but is DDO: Stormreach not effectively being replaced by DDO: Unlimited?

The impression I get is that Stormreach is being axed and effectively being replaced by a new product using the same liscence, which seems (from what little I know) to be trying a Korean model of being free to play and primarily supporting itself off of an item shop.
Nope, same game just adding a F2P part to it.
 

Nurb

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not all lawsuits are unwarranted, they're actually needed sometimes. Shocking right? Licensing issues like this and not doing a job you were paid to do *cough* Duke *cough*, are legitimate reasons.