Jury Rules Original Madden Designer Eligible for Unpaid Royalties

[RaychelSnr]

A jury ruled today in favor of Robin Antonick, the original designer and developer of Madden NFL Football today in his quest to receive royalties he says he is owed from the Madden NFL series.

In today's ruling, the jury tackled the statute of limitations issue and came back with a ruling in Antonick's favor, sending the case a step closer to resolution. The jury will have to determine now what (if anything) to award Antonick out of $200 million in revenues for games released between 1990 and 1996. A separate phase of the trial will determine damages relating to the 1997-2013 games.

In the case, Antonick alleges that he signed a series of publishing and development contracts, which culminated in a 1986 agreement that requires EA to pay Antonick royalties on any derivative works related to the original version of Madden NFL.

Antonick is seeking a dollar amount in the millions.

“This is a major validation of Mr. Antonick’s testimony,” said Rob Carey, Antonick’s attorney. “This was by far EA’s strongest defense, and the jury’s verdict unanimously supported Mr. Antonick, which also means the jury probably thinks some significant information was concealed.”

While it is doubtful the end result will have much of an impact on the Madden franchise as a whole, we are expecting to hear much more from this case in the coming weeks as it continues to march onwards towards some semblance of a resolution.

[ghettogeeksta]

Re: Jury Rules Original Madden Designer Eligible for Unpaid Royalties

Yeah take it out of the NFL exclusive license budget!

[The JareBear]

Re: Jury Rules Original Madden Designer Eligible for Unpaid Royalties

Very curious to see exactly how much he receives?

[footballfan41]

See EA i have told you for years You needed to change the name of the Game,

[BleedGreen710]

Re: Jury Rules Original Madden Designer Eligible for Unpaid Royalties

Maybe with EA Sports getting involved in all this legal stuff the NFL will reconsider the exclusive license.

[footballfan41]

BleedGreen!!! did not think bout that until you said it, but Lord I sure do hope so, Not that i don't like EA..1st we are forced to play Madden if we want to play a up to date NFL game, 2nd it would not hurt EA if another company or two came and gave them a run for there money in football video games, I think it would be great for gamers as a whole!!!!!!!!!! it would lease make EA do more to Madden then every other year making it fell like a update to last year game,
Look at COD with EA making Battlefield, them guy making COD step it up every year just because they can't set back and bring money, they have to do more and more every year, they are a lot of other games the same way...Take 2K baseball, and now with EA doing NBA Live, 2K will have to step it up with NBA 2K...I think it's great, Let the best Game / Gamers win.....I love it...cause you really i mean Really set back and think,..EA should be soooo sooo far ahead in NFL and NCAA that no other companies to catch them, but it's not like that if a company started making one today, in a couple years they could be hand and hand with EA....that's sad.....

[canucksss]

Re: Jury Rules Original Madden Designer Eligible for Unpaid Royalties

Bring back NFL 2k

[cmehustle]

Bring back NFL 2k

Yea, not sure that will happen as EA probably ****s money at this point and can afford to throw this guy a few mil. But dam what a break!!! Can you say Ca Ching!! I bet when he came up with the idea for Madden in what 86, he never saw this coming!

[RustyShark]

He only won on the statute of limitations claim. All this means is that his law suit isn't going to be thrown out because too much time has passed since the breach of contact. They haven't even gotten to the merits of the case (whether or not the contract is valid and what the contact means). Not that this wasn't a significant hurtle but it doesn't really mean a whole lot.

[NateDogPack12]

Does anyone know why there are two different time periods that are tried separately?

[The_Rick_14]

Re: Jury Rules Original Madden Designer Eligible for Unpaid Royalties

He only won on the statute of limitations claim. All this means is that his law suit isn't going to be thrown out because too much time has passed since the breach of contact. They haven't even gotten to the merits of the case (whether or not the contract is valid and what the contact means). Not that this wasn't a significant hurtle but it doesn't really mean a whole lot.

Yea slightly misleading title for some who will read "eligible" as guaranteed to get money. I'd say if he does in fact have signed contracts stating what he claims then he'll probably get some money from EA but if there are any holes in there then he may not.

[jyoung]

Does anyone know why there are two different time periods that are tried separately?

Probably because the code base for Madden changed dramatically after 1996 when they moved from SNES/Genesis to PS1/Saturn/N64.

[sactown_13]

BleedGreen!!! did not think bout that until you said it, but Lord I sure do hope so, Not that i don't like EA..1st we are forced to play Madden if we want to play a up to date NFL game, 2nd it would not hurt EA if another company or two came and gave them a run for there money in football video games, I think it would be great for gamers as a whole!!!!!!!!!! it would lease make EA do more to Madden then every other year making it fell like a update to last year game,
Look at COD with EA making Battlefield, them guy making COD step it up every year just because they can't set back and bring money, they have to do more and more every year, they are a lot of other games the same way...Take 2K baseball, and now with EA doing NBA Live, 2K will have to step it up with NBA 2K...I think it's great, Let the best Game / Gamers win.....I love it...cause you really i mean Really set back and think,..EA should be soooo sooo far ahead in NFL and NCAA that no other companies to catch them, but it's not like that if a company started making one today, in a couple years they could be hand and hand with EA....that's sad.....

wait, what? of course it would hurt EA's bottom line, why do you think they spend the cash to buy the exclusive license? Give gamers additional choices and gamers will use them. I do agree with your statement that the consumer would win in that situation though.