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Richard Garriott wins $28 million in NCsoft suit
eyeswideopen
Member Posts: 2,414
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6271808.html?tag=latestheadlines%3Btitle%3B1
Garriott wins $28 million in NCsoft suit
By Laura Parker, GameSpot
Posted Jul 29, 2010 11:37 pm PT
Ultima creator wins out against former employer for breach of contract and fraud.
Just a few months after returning to Earth following a 12-day, US$30 million trip to the International Space Station, famed video game entrepreneur Richard Garriott, a.k.a Lord British, announced he'd be leaving Korean publisher NCsoft after seven years with the company in order to pursue other interests.
Six months later, Garriott revealed he was actually fired from NCsoft, and subsequently filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court of Texas against the company for breach of contract and fraud amounting to US$24 million in damages.
Garriott's complaint was that he lost millions of dollars when NCsoft forced him to prematurely sell a number of stock options the company had given him in just 90 days, rather than the 10-year period he was promised under his contract if he were ever to be fired.
The suit also claimed that Garriott received this information while still in post-flight quarantine after having returned from the International Space Station, and that the announcement he made regarding his departure from NCsoft was actually written by the publisher.
Now, Austin daily newspaper the Statesman is reporting that a federal court jury has awarded Garriott US$28 million in the lawsuit after a three-day trial in the US District Court in Austin.
"I am extremely pleased with the jury's decision," Garriott said in a statement. "The facts were clear that my departure from NCsoft was not voluntary. I am very pleased with the final award."
A lawyer representing NCsoft, Laura Merritt, said the Korean publisher will be "considering all options for next steps in the legal process."
Although the initial lawsuit was for US$24 million, the Statesman is reporting that Garriott had asked for US$47 million in order to cover the profit lost by selling his stock options so quickly.
Garriott began working for NCsoft after the publisher bought his Austin-based company, Destination Games. While there, he headed up the six-year development effort for the sci-fi massively multiplayer online role-playing game Tabula Rasa, which launched in late 2007 to lukewarm reviews and technical problems.
Two weeks after Garriott's departure from NCsoft, the publisher shut down Tabula Rasa servers.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
Comments
Nice to hear that Garriott won from NC$uck... Now lets hope he can exchange that $28Mo for the rights of Tabula Rasa, including the databases, so he can make the game he once wanted to make
I've increasingly become aggitated at NCSoft recently, so Grats to Garriot on his case.
I really hope that they didnt close Tabula just because of this dispute, it held a lot more promise than most of the recent MMO launches.
That's the best piece of news I've seen for a long time in this space.
He must have had a legitimate case, and he also deserves that money so much more than NCSoft does.
I have a feeling that's EXACTLY why they shut down TR. By forging his "departure statement" AND forcing him to short sell his stocks, they knew they were going to get sued and lose. If the game were still running, he could have also sued for a stake of it, and that wouldn't have made it as easy as simply losing 28mil in this limited lawsuit.
Edit: By the way, who wants to bet NCsoft pulls all operations out of the U.S. and moves them to Korea, now that they realize what they could have gotten away with at home won't fly here?
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
The only thing I find unbelievable in this is that NCSoft stock will be worth millions in 10 years
The man is a genius if you ask me. He created Ultima Online which, in my opinion, was the greatest game of all time. Its current state is a mess but that is because he is no longer involved with that project. I liked Tabula Rasa and saw great potential there but NC Soft apparently isn't interested in good games so it is dead. I am very happy to hear that all went well for Mr. Garriott and I wish him the best of luck with whatever he chooses to work on next - and do I ever hope he works on another game!
I still have played nothing that has even come close to a small fraction of what Ultima Online was.
-------------------------------------------------------------
"I have no idea what''s going on." - Tasos Flambouras
Thing is, prior to TR and other NCsoft management/game failures, they would have been a sure bet. Nowadays, not so much. They'll be lucky to be in business in 10 years.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
Well, it does sound like they screwed him on a legal contract, but it boggles the mind that they ever gave him such a contract in the first place.
Completely over-rated Developer who grew famous more on the labor of others than his own accord. TR pretty much proved it.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
NCSoft represents something like 60% of Korea's income, they are hideously huge.
But since they have permenantly disabled my 5 year account containing nearly every NCSoft game ive ever bought (and all the blood and sweat put into them) I doubt I'll ever be botherd to open another account with them.
so here's my mid-digit to them o/'
ER...you should take a look at recent NCSoft financials, they are riding pretty high these days on the success of Aion and their upcoming games should continue to carry them just fine.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
From what I've seen, AION ( in the NA ) has done nothing but decline. Profitable maybe, but hardly successful now. City of Heroes is on it's last legs pretty much. This is after they had to shut down how many mmos now, 3-4? The only games left are the Lineages.
So perhaps I'll rephrase: they'll be lucky to be in business outside of the asian market in ten years.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
YES YES YES!! I dreamed of this day. Hallelujah
It was obvious they shut down TR, to forge his departure and get his stock options for minimal price right before Aion came out.
I'm pretty sure, part of the lawsuit was also getting TR license along with the 26$ mil. Eventually, we might see NCSoft shutting down its US centres and TR being reopened.
REALITY CHECK
Lets all keep hoping for this day to come true
This is very interesting. I do not like him, but I did like that TR was something different and quirky, if not completely fleshed out and not extremely well done or polished. It was fun and interesting. NCSoft has made some confusing and poor business decisions in the West. Of course, Arenanet and Aion are both seeming work out very well here. I know I will be pouring lots of money into them via Guild Wars 2 if it is anywhere near as good as the first, regardless of the publisher. This does make me more wary of them, though.
"Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true you know it, and they know it." Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, 2007
WTF? No subscription fee?
Seeing as how he and his brother pretty much made Ultima 1-4 I think you are talking out of your backside. Most full development teams with millions of dollars and huge publishers cannot begin to come close to the excellence that were those games. Labor of others? Seriously? I think you should stop smoking whatever the hell that is because it has seriously degraded your ability to think.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/7300033012
gw2 say hello.
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Yeah, when it releases and NCsoft doesn't fuck something up down the line, we'll talk. And I doubt GW2 is going to keep them afloat in the NA for 10 years. The original Guild Wars was released during NCsoft's heyday. That time is over.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
Even if what he said was true about making him rush TR he did screw up before releasing changing what he wanted to do every time to come out as a mess.
Just because he made ultima doesn't mean he can't screw up in games.
But who demanded the changes? Him, or NCsoft? Hmmm..........
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
Hehe. Good. NCSoft can crash and burn for all I care.
Aion is still in the top ten on Xfire so it can't be that bad. In asia it's stil huge. L1 and 2 are huge in asia. CoX is profitable. Guild wars 2 is beeing made and Blade & Soul is in the production. yea NCSoft is so in trouble.. they only have 3 big games, 1 smaller and 2 new AAA games in production..
Nobody can tell how companies will be 10 years after now, whether divisions will have been sold, or another merger taken place. But 5 years is easier to oversee, and I'm pretty certain GW2 will still be around then, GW is still strong after 5 years and lots of people playing it. ANet devs also stated that they plan GW2 there to be for the long haul, so NCSoft will be there too outside the Asian market as ANet's publisher.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Yeah I was thinking the same thing. Richard Garriott is a gaming legend. I look forward to his next project.
Players in asian countries also use X-Fire, so how does X-Fire prove how good it's doing in the NA? Hope there's no more server mergers in 6 months or so.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
ugh, you make a good point