Richard Garriott awarded $32 million in NCSoft legal battle

NCSoft unsurprisingly appealed when it was ordered to pay Richard 'Lord British' Garriott $28 million in 2010, but Garriott has won the appeal too, and is now owed $32 million.

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When Richard Garriot (Garriott de Cayeux, now he's married) triumphed in his lawsuit against former employer NCSoft last year, being awarded $28 million, the publisher unsurprisingly appealed. However, the appeals court has also found in favor of the Ultima creator, and he's now due $32 million.

The lawsuit stems from when Garriott de Cayeux and NCSoft parted ways in 2008, after working on Tabula Rasa.

Garriott de Cayeux claimed that, while quarantined after a voyage into space, he was fired, then NCSoft presented it as him leaving voluntarily. Leaving, rather than being fired, meant his stock options expired sooner, and he was forced to sell in what his lawsuit described as "one of the worst equity markets in modern history."

This lost him tens of millions of dollars, Garriott de Cayeux said, and the court agreed, awarding him $28 million in July 2010. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has now also agreed, Gamasutra reports, and so, with interest and attorney's fees on top, that comes out at today's tidy $32 million.

Lord British's latest venture is mobile and social gaming company Portalarium, which runs Port Casino Poker and Port Casino Blackjack on Facebook.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    October 26, 2011 9:45 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Richard Garriott awarded $32 million in NCSoft legal battle.

    NCSoft unsurprisingly appealed when it was ordered to pay Richard 'Lord British' Garriott $28 million in 2010, but Garriott has won the appeal too, and is now owed $32 million.

    • reply
      October 26, 2011 9:50 AM

      more hidden passages, more secret trap doors

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      October 26, 2011 9:51 AM

      damn.

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      October 26, 2011 10:02 AM

      [deleted]

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      October 26, 2011 10:04 AM

      critical hit for +4 damage!

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      October 26, 2011 10:12 AM

      Now he can go back into space!

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      October 26, 2011 10:38 AM

      Is it enough money to keep him in his castle and not be involved with any stinkers anymore?

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        October 26, 2011 10:54 AM

        Well, no.

        1) He's married now
        2) He wants to go back into space (and that's still expensive)
        3) He's still married

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          October 26, 2011 11:16 AM

          1. space is a drug apparently or makes you feel like you are on them because the man can't stop.
          2. Damnit I'll be damned if I ever let my wife blow 30 million dollars. Bodies disappear for less cash than that.

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      October 26, 2011 11:00 AM

      So what happens to NCSoft now? Can they survive an extra $32M hit?

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        October 26, 2011 11:17 AM

        Dude it's a korean MMO company they have like trillions.

        I'm sure its substantial and he's a lucky bastard, but they will definitely survive or find a way to. Especially with a AAA+ title like guild wars 2 on the horizon.

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          October 26, 2011 12:37 PM

          Yeah I guess I was thinking - as someone with a relative who works for NCSoft - what would become of their American operations (which is essentially Garriot's company consumed). They've already had tons of layoffs and she had to move to Seattle to keep her job.

          I mean I know they want to keep selling to American consumers but to what extent, I wonder, do they need to have American operations?

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        October 26, 2011 11:19 AM

        They'll just sell more dresses and emotes for Aion

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        October 26, 2011 11:40 AM

        Guild Wars 2 will probably put a big dent in that $32M once it's released and the subsequent expansions/micro-transactions get factored in. Not to mention the other games out there from them still pulling in money.

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      October 26, 2011 11:19 AM

      [deleted]

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        October 26, 2011 12:20 PM

        You might be joking... but that would actually be kinda cool. :)

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        October 26, 2011 12:29 PM

        He'd get assassinated before it officially opened to the public

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      October 26, 2011 11:21 AM

      [deleted]

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        October 26, 2011 12:21 PM

        He didn't have a serpent necklace on or something?

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        October 26, 2011 2:10 PM

        I had Richard Garriot as DM at one of the GenCons in the early 90's for the celebrity D&D meat grinder, I think they killed over 300 players in less than an hour at that session.

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      October 26, 2011 11:34 AM

      Haha! Awesome!

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      October 26, 2011 11:35 AM

      Excellent, he can buy his house back.

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      October 26, 2011 1:04 PM

      What a fucking hack. He blew $100 million at NCSoft with a terrible game; he should shoot himself into the sun at this point.

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        October 26, 2011 1:22 PM

        Aside from the memory leaks--which are not a design issue--the game was quite innovative and fun; from technical standpoint it was ahead of its time with its deferred shading implementation.

        I can feel the heat radiating from your hurt butt but I can't figure out why.

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          October 26, 2011 1:28 PM

          Because I'm friends with people who were at NCSoft at the time Garriott fleeced the company. Sure, there were some cool gameplay elements, but the development was so costly that for the asshole to demand even more money is ludicrous. The project was grossly mismanaged.

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            October 26, 2011 2:38 PM

            I have heard as much about the mismanagement and exorbitant cost in rebooting the game during development; my quibble was with "terrible game" and how you seemed to connect that with the development problems--I thought it was far from terrible although it wasn't exactly rubbing elbows with greatness.

            Thank you for responding.

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          October 26, 2011 2:14 PM

          Do you know the history behind Tabula Rasa? They spent somewhere between 3 and 4 years developing a very different game than what got released. Everyone I know who worked there thought it was one of the worst designed mmos, where you faught with musical instruments and such. It wasn't until the shit hit the fan that they did a complete 180, redesigned the whole thing to be more action orientated and overworked a whole lot of people to death to get that pos done.

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      October 26, 2011 1:50 PM

      Wikipedia says he coined the term MMORPG? Wow...didn't know that.

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      October 26, 2011 2:03 PM

      ownage!

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      October 26, 2011 2:24 PM

      He looks like Tom Green...

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      October 26, 2011 2:49 PM

      Sidejack: Who is the richest video game developer person? That is, someone who made their fortune in developing.

      I'm thinking Mike Morhaime (Blizz co-founder). There's people like Garriott and Carmack who have lots of money, but I wouldn't be surprised if Morhaime has close to a billion dollars in assets. Or is it some Japanese dude?

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        October 26, 2011 2:52 PM

        Gabe Newell. Whatever money he had going in to Valve has been multiplied many times over.

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          October 26, 2011 2:56 PM

          Doubtlessly rich, but Morhaime is a giant. Some quick googling puts Newell at $400M, and Mike at $1B+.

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      October 26, 2011 3:17 PM

      Is there a character in reamde (stephenson's newest book) that is based on him?

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      October 26, 2011 3:22 PM

      Good for him

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      October 26, 2011 3:43 PM

      They should give it to him in NCSoft points, redeemable in any of NCSoft game's item stores.

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