Madden NFL breach of contract suit vs. EA to go to trial

A California federal judge has denied an attempt by Electronic Arts to dismiss a breach of contract lawsuit brought by a former employee involving the creation of the Madden NFL franchise. The case will proceed to trial on June 17.

According to the suit, Robin Antonick allegedly developed the first version of the Madden series for the Commodore 64, MS-DOS and Apple II platforms. The suit says Antonick and EA signed contracts, including one in 1986 that agreed to pay him royalties on anything related to the original version of EA Madden, including current annual releases.

"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," said Robert Carey, one of Antonick's attorneys, said in a 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."

We have reached out to EA for their response to the suit, and will update if we get a response.