Richard Garriott suing NCsoft for $24m

[Nadia]

http://kotaku.com/5241911/richard-garri ... r-24000000

http://computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=214336

According to a report on Kotaku, the Tabula Rasa creator is suing the MMO publisher for a whopping $24 million. The suit was filed in the Texas Western District Court yesterday, with Garriott accusing NCsoft of "fraud".

Garriott split from NCsoft late last year after his latest MMO Tabula Rasa failed to perform at retail. We're not law experts, but we imagine Garriott's probably not very happy about what happened there... all will become clear soon.

NCsoft is yet to comment on the story.

Why Richard Garriott Is Suing NCsoft
http://kotaku.com/5242413/why-richard-g ... ing-ncsoft

[Ddrak]

NCSoft is pretty screwed if any of that complaint is remotely true. My bet is they'll settle out of court.

Dd

[Kulaf]

Richard Garriott's days as a dev are about as over as Brad McQuaids. He failed to get Ultima Online II not only out the door.....but off the drawing board. He failed with Tabula Rasa.......it's over......he's bailing out.......and he wants his golden parachute.

[Flunkie]

He is sueing because he spent all of his money being a space monkey for two weeks. Now that he's back on Earth, he's broke.

[Ddrak]

He's suing because he was smart enough to write a good contract and when NCSoft (rightly) tossed his ass out because he wasn't worth shit to them any more, they tried to screw their way out of the contract but got caught.

There's no question that Garriott is looking for a golden parachute and that his days in the MMO realm are over, but NCSoft looks like they just tried to get him to voluntarily quit when he had no intention of doing so.

Dd

[Embar Angylwrath]

It's an easy fix for NCSoft. They just have to make the guy "whole". What that means is buying him out of the contract and honoring the stock options. My guess is stock in MMO companies will still be tanking, and the exposure to NCSoft will be minimal. They might even make the guy bleed by keeping all the unperforming games in NCSoft, and spinning off a new company that keeps all the good titles. Then all they have to deal with is his salary over the life of the contract... and I'm not sure what that timeframe is.

His lawyers fucked up in the Causes of Action. There were other legal causes they could havwe applied, and in other venues. F&R is a a big firm, with many offices, they employ thousands of lawyers. The name is big, but the talent... well, that's the question isn't it?

NCSoft can beat this easily. Just pay the guy his salary over the life of the contract, and honor the options. That's all they have to do.