EA may have reported record profits this year, but it's not all good news for them today. After only three days of deliberations, a jury has decided that the company breached their contract with Madden developer Robin Antonick by not paying him royalties due to him since 1996. The jury has awarded Antonick $ 11 million in damages as a result. This amount includes interest accrued for the unpaid period.
In the lawsuit, Antonick claims that he had a series of developmental deals with EA, culminating in 1986 with an iron clad contract guaranteeing him royalties for what were to be the Madden games published in the years 1990 to 1996. He was essentially to get paid for any derivative works from his games, as well as protecting his confidential information (apparently part of the code in Antonick's games.) They were basically able to prove to the jury that EA violated these terms, and that they did not make those successive Madden games without basing them on Antonick's work.
And this isn't even the end of it all. The trial will continue in the near future as Antonick will seek further damages for royalties from Madden games in 1997 until the current day, amounting to $ 3 billion. His legal team will also try to reverse earlier decisions to exclude Super Nintendo Madden games, as well as fraud charges.
This will likely not dent EA's $ 222 million net income profit, but in cases big and small, the company continues to take hits to its reputation.
Image is from John Madden Football ca. 1986 for the IBM PC Compatible
