C'mooon Turbine, did we need still this?!!?!!!

[Vivanto]

Never liked that thing showing up there, for obvious reasons. Downloaded the new installer, got it all set up and there it is, staring at me and laughing with fat pockets. When you'd think it's finally getting to an end with that lawsuit and stuff. :/

[GlassCannon]

Booooo!!!! Off with its head!

Er... I mean, off with that Atari Logo!


Can I get a custom launcher skin without the logo? Or, could you folks at Turbine throw some info at us on how to change it?

[Velexia]

Turbine will continue in good faith with Atari even now, until they have finally severed all business with Atari, even if Atari won't do the same.

[Ulurjah]

Turbine will continue in good faith with Atari even now, until they have finally severed all business with Atari, even if Atari won't do the same.

Turbine will continue in good faith with Atari even after the suit is either settled or litigated. They have no choice until 2017 when Atari's deal with Hasbro expires. Unless Turbine winning this suit would give Hasbro cause to terminate their contract with Atari ... in which case... that would be awesome.

[Lorien_the_First_One]

Turbine will continue in good faith with Atari even after the suit is either settled or litigated. They have no choice until 2017 when Atari's deal with Hasbro expires. Unless Turbine winning this suit would give Hasbro cause to terminate their contract with Atari ... in which case... that would be awesome.

Unless of course the suit results in the termination of the licence to Turbine to sell an online D&D game in exchange for cash, which is definately a possibility the way that suit is worded.

[Ulurjah]

Unless of course the suit results in the termination of the licence to Turbine to sell an online D&D game in exchange for cash, which is definately a possibility the way that suit is worded.

One of their contentions is that Atari committed fraud in their dealings in an attempt to engineer a breach of contract in order to dismiss the license. Turbine has asked the court to recognize this, which would grant them a lot of immunity from having the contract nullified.

Turbine holds all the cards here. Atari is basically forced into a position of settling and paying Turbine a lot of money (which Atari currently doesn't have) as well as making concessions ... or they have to face the suit in court. Facing the suit in court will take years most likely. During those years, Turbine will continue to be able to develop and provide the DDO service, while only placing their royalties owed Atari into escrow most likely. Because they have alleged fraud and in their complaint they are asking for millions back that Atari owes them, now that it's in the court system, they can just put that money away in escrow and withhold it from Atari.

All the while, Atari cannot release any public info about the NWN MMO they are making, since they don't have the legal right to actually release or market such a product.

Essentially, unless Atari can get a judge to dismiss the case (not likely as Turbine wouldn't have filed without evidence), then Atari is screwed. If they settle with Turbine, it will cost them money they don't have (They have very poor liquidity and most of what they have appears to be going into the MMO they're making but will not be able to release and make money on unless they can get Turbine's contract voided) ... and part of any settlement will be new contracts written up that protect Turbine from Atari voiding the contract. So settling isn't even an option for Atari.

But ... neither is going to court. Going to Court does the same thing to them. They have to pay the legal costs, plus deal with PR nightmare, plus risk losing the license from Hasbro (I'm sure there's a dereliction clause), plus sit on all the sunk cost that's already gone into making the NWN MMO, plus continue to fund development if they think they can survive the suit. And they won't be able to even begin the legal process of nullifying their license to Turbine until after the suit is decided one way or the other, along with appeals.

In other words ... Turbine holds all the cards.

[UnderwearModel]

Both parties agreed that Turbine owed more money to Atari than Atari owed Turbine.

Turbine paid royalties in advance for the license until 2016. A few hundred thousand it sounds like.

What Turbine is asking for is $30 million for the amount of money Turbine poured into developing and marketing DDO. Turbine took over marketing of DDO in North America because Atari dropped the ball.

If Atari takes back the license then DDO cannot continue which is then causing Turbine a lot of lost revenue.

So far, we are getting one side of the argument and Atari looks like the bad guy. I want to see what Atari posts in 30 days or so.

[Ulurjah]

Both parties agreed that Turbine owed more money to Atari than Atari owed Turbine.

Turbine paid royalties in advance for the license until 2016. A few hundred thousand it sounds like.

What Turbine is asking for is $30 million for the amount of money Turbine poured into developing and marketing DDO. Turbine took over marketing of DDO in North America because Atari dropped the ball.

If Atari takes back the license then DDO cannot continue which is then causing Turbine a lot of lost revenue.

So far, we are getting one side of the argument and Atari looks like the bad guy. I want to see what Atari posts in 30 days or so.

Sure, all we've seen is the complaint. And I can already tell you what Atari will say. It will be something like "We found inconsistencies in Turbine's reported earnings and had reason to believe they were not meeting the terms of their license agreement with us" or something similar to that.

It will be for the court's to decide. But logically speaking, Turbine doesn't file this complaint if their books are dirty.

[smatt]

Unless of course the suit results in the termination of the licence to Turbine to sell an online D&D game in exchange for cash, which is definately a possibility the way that suit is worded.

Ya, then Turbine could build the greatest MMO ever......... One based on the uber intellegent all knowing greatest mind ever...... They could call it........ DDBorroO

[maverik99]

Hi all im Vincenzo from Italy and i have the same problem...
Client don't update the game and dont start the game..

[sasha1]

Sooooo What is the ETA for this. I hate it also when mine comes up saying "DATA CENTER ERROR" Please give us a ETA soon!!!!!!!.....