Atari have been bad say Turbine, they’ve not done enough to distribute the Dungeons & Dragons Online game, they have ”failed to devote the necessary resources to it.”
They also accuse Atari of dragging their feet to ensure their ”competing product”, the Champions Online MMO, benefits at Turbine’s expense. The dev wants justice for its ”past investment”.
Turbine say they employed ”dozens upon dozens of people working hundreds of thousands of hours” to develop ‘Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach’, and invested millions of monies in the project after Atari sublicensed D&D to them.
”Turbine claims Atari acted unreasonably in its efforts to promote and distribute “DDO: Stormreach,” and failed to devote the necessary resources to it,” reports Courthouse News.
Basically, Atari continued to accept payment from Turbine - like future royalties - in exchange for extending the agreement with them to develop the Dungeon’s & Dragons Online: Unlimited service, the free-to-play model. However the publisher knew it wasn’t going to see through its obligations and look for a way to ditch Turbine, citing a breach of contract.
”…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 doesn’t want to look the jerk in this piece, essentially.
Oh dear. Another game license, another lawsuit. Deliver unto us justice your honour!
Source: Joystiq
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