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Judge overturns ruling in John Madden Football designer's case
Despite winning his case against Electronic Arts back in July, John Madden Football designer Robin Antonick will not see his promised $11 million. The San Francisco Chronicles reports US district judge Charles Breyer has overturned that ruling. Breyer said there was no clear evidence that Antonick's work had been copied by EA without his permission. Breyer added that jurors in the original ruling weren't shown Antonick's game alongside EA's subsequent efforts, as the law requires in copyright infringement disputes, and therefore were unable to make a proper evaluation. Antonick's lawyer Robert Carey said they plan to appeal Breyer's new ruling, of course, and added that evidence showed EA "used his source code without permission." Antonick first filed suit against EA back in 2011. The original John Madden Football launched in 1988 on the C64, Apple 2 and on MS-DOS. The modern incarnation of the series is one of EA's most successful franchises. Antonick is currently working on a basketball game called Grudge Match.
Original Madden creator developing street basketball game Grudge Match
Robin Antonick, the original creator of the John Madden Football series, recently took to Kickstarter to fund his latest project, Grudge Match: Street Basketball. Grudge Match is an arcade-style basketball game in development for PC, Mac, Linux and Ouya by Antonick and co-founder Robert Lindsey's new startup, the Indie Sports Network (ISN). According to its website, the ISN's goal, to "be a disruptive force in the sports gaming industry," has a lot to do with its Indie Sports League, Market and Gym/Lab systems, which Grudge Match will use. The League is an online multiplayer modeled after Major League Baseball's farm system, indicating tiered "pro" levels and a leaderboard-style ranking system. ISN describes the Market as a place where players can buy and sell in-game creations "like eBay and iTunes for gamers." The Indie Sports Gym and Lab are the part of the ISN's operation that could cause the "disruption" that Antonick talks about in the project's Kickstarter pitch. The Lab features a coding and scripting system that allows players to create basketball stars, moves, and other in-game items to sell in the marketplace. Antonick envisions the creation system as a means of turning the players into developers as well, as Grudge Match seems to lean heavily on community-created content. The Kickstarter project is aiming to raise $500,000 by December 8, and the Indie Sports Network is currently planning to launch the game in late 2014 or early 2015. Antonick has been involved in an ongoing lawsuit with Electronic Arts over alleged unpaid royalties related to his work on the original John Madden Football game. A US District Court jury ruled in favor of Antonick in July, awarding him $11 million.
Original Madden NFL designer awarded $11 million in EA lawsuit
A US District Court jury in the Northern District of California has ruled in favor of Robin Antonick, the original credited designer for EA's Madden NFL series, in his lawsuit against publisher Electronic Arts, awarding him $11 million. Antonick's lawsuit against EA sought unpaid royalties for iterations in the series released between 1990 and 1996. The jury found that games released during that time "were virtually identical to the original version of Madden NFL Football, developed by Antonick," according to a press release issued by Hagens Berman, the law firm representing Antonick. The release also notes that Antonick and his attorneys will "seek to appeal previous rulings that excluded Super Nintendo games and fraud claims from the jury deliberations." Antonick's case will now move forward to the next phase, in which the court will decide whether EA owes Antonick royalties for games in the series that launched from 1997 to today.
Jury finds Antonick's claim against EA has not expired in case for Madden royalties
A California jury determined that the statute of limitations in the lawsuit filed by original Madden series creator Robin Antonick against Electronic Arts has not run out, according to a press release from Antonick's legal representatives. As a result, Antonick has been deemed eligible for unpaid royalties, as well as "punitive damages and disgorgement of all profits arising from the $5 billion Madden NFL franchise and related sports videogames" released between 1990 and 1996. "Damages relating to 1997-2013 games" will be tried at a later date. Originally filed in 2011, the suit claimed that EA breached a development contract signed by Antonick in 1986 that entitled him to royalties on derivative versions of the game. A federal judge then denied EA's motion for dismissal in April 2013. Games in the series leading up to Madden NFL 97 in 1996 were handled by external development studios such as Visual Concepts and Bethesda. Madden 97 was the first game developed by now-internal studio EA Tiburon, and also the first game created for PlayStation and Sega Saturn. The jury determined that Antonick "did not suspect any wrongdoing by EA before 2005. It also found that a reasonable person would not have known about the claims before 2005," when determining that the statute of limitations on the case did not run out. The jury will now decide what to award Antonick in unpaid royalties and profits from the games launched between 1990 and 1996. We've reached out to both EA and Antonick's legal team for statement, and will update accordingly.
John Madden Football designer's lawsuit against EA going to court
Robin Antonick, designer of John Madden Football for 8-bit computers, will have his case against EA proceed to trial June 17, after a federal judge denied EA's motion to dismiss Antonick's lawsuit. Antonick filed in 2011, seeking royalties and a cut of profits from the Madden series' subsequent success. "We have very compelling evidence indicating that EA used Mr. Antonick's ground-breaking code and design elements as the basis for both past and present Madden NFL titles," Robert Carey, one of Antonick's attorneys, said in a press release. "Yet, EA has failed to compensate him as required by his agreement or give him proper credit for his work. We look forward to proving our case at trial, and we are very confident that we will prevail." Antonick claims he signed a deal with EA in 1986 entitling him to royalties from derivative works, and claims that the later Madden games all count as derivative from his game. [Image: Mobygames]
Trip Hawkins disputes Madden lawsuit claims
Robin Antonick, a designer on John Madden Football, filed a lawsuit against EA recently, looking for monetary compensation and credit for his work. He claims the current generation's installments were "derived from software" he helped develop. But according to statements from Trip Hawkins (via LA Times), Antonick's recollection of the past is a bit off. First of all, he says that Antonick didn't work side-by-side with Hawkins in the office as he claims, but was rather a contractor who worked out of his home in Chicago. Hawkins also claims that Antonick was "one of many" people who worked on the game and wasn't responsible for "driving the game" at any point. Apparently there's press corroboration to some of this, as well -- Hawkins' four-year stint developing the game would be referred to as "Trip's Folly" internally, suggesting that Antonick's role was more diminished than he suggests. Hawkins also claims that Antonick was only commissioned to work on the first 8-bit game, and wasn't tapped to help work on subsequent 16-bit versions of the game, which he claims needed "more advanced" programmers than Antonick. [Image: Retro Games DB]
Boom! Original John Madden Football designer files lawsuit against EA
No, John Madden isn't the person who designed John Madden Football. That credit goes to a man named Robin Antonick, who created the first game in the megahit sports series (and its little-known spinoff, Tough-Actin' Tinaction) for C64, Apple 2, and MS-DOS back in 1988. Twenty-three years later, the series is a multi-multi-million-selling institution, and he's seeking some of the revenue from it in addition to the credit. Antonick has filed suit against Electronic Arts, seeking (as Reuters puts it) "tens of millions" in royalties, plus a portion of the enormous profits EA has made on the series. "According to recent statements by Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins," Antonick's complaint reads, "the current generation of software apparently derived from software developed by Antonick." And though "he was responsible for the development of virtually all of the ground-breaking technology at the heart of the game," Electronic Arts has not issued a royalty payment to Antonick since 1992, according to the claim -- though it has tried to settle in the past. [Image: Retro Games DB]
