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Atari getting sued by Hasbro aswell!
Papadam
Member Posts: 2,102
Seems like Turbine is not the only ones not happy with Atari. Hasbro, who owns the D&D IP, is sueing Atari for fraud.
"While unfortunate that we had to take this action, it is crucial for us to protect the Dungeons & Dragons brand," said Greg Leeds, President of Wizards of the Coast. "We have been working for several months now to reach resolution with Atari, and they have left us with no other choice than to pursue legal action."
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/marketwire/0570071.htm
I wonder what creative deals Atari can come up with when they release Star Trek Online to grab as much money as possible 
If WoW = The Beatles
and WAR = Led Zeppelin
Then LotrO = Pink Floyd
Comments
www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/96934-Hasbro-Sues-Atari-Over-D-D
"Wizards of the Coast, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hasbro, learned earlier this year that Atari "may have" sub-licensed the Dungeons & Dragons digital game rights to Namco Bandai Partners, a competitor of both Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast. Such a deal is forbidden under the terms of Atari's licensing contract."
Atari should have died with the 2600 era.
"There is only one thing of which I am certain, and that's nothing is certain."
Actually Atari did die with the 2600 era, the Atari you know now was once called Infogrames and had such properties as Test Drive, Test Drive Off-Road, Civilizations, and many others under different developers acquired during different times. This information comes from wikipedia [link 1] [link 2].
I also know this because I was around during the time they changed their name - and one of my favorite racing games of all-time was/is TDOR for its simplicity and inspiring damage models that gave rise to the greatest multiplayer mini-game ever devised in my teenage household: "Crunch time" (driving around and ramming other players off the road, never really caring about finishing the race). Only later did the meaning of that phrase change from something fun to something that makes me cringe and resent my job.
Hasbro was part of Infogrames.
Interesting they're such separate entities now.
It's because of the Atari / Infogrammes relationship that Atari owns a lot of IP rights too.
They own quite a bit of stuff that would benefit gamers if it was released.
In addition for a long time they controlled the games imports to Australia via Ozisoft which had been owned by Infogrammes AND Atari owned many of the computer magazines here too.
It was practically a monopoly for a while (I think it is improving now)
Nothing says irony like spelling ideot wrong.
Atari bought Microprose as well didn't they?
That's the reason there's been no new releases of X-Com, Master of Orion, and Master of Magic games in ages, despite their popularity...
It really is a shame that these big conglomerate corporations are just sitting on great game IPs and letting them rot.
Somewhere, in the mind of some accountant, they think that by sitting on these IPs they make them rarer and more valuable (law of supply and demand)?
And because that IP had a good reputation once they think that the IP has a 'goodwill' value which is retained.
Sadly, they don't understand people. Gamers are fickle. New IPs are being developed and many IPs are only valuable because of the talents of the individuals working on them. You leave them to sit and they are out of sight and out of mind.
Anyway, can anyone link to the court filing for this case please?
(I can never find what I am looking for in US Courts)
Nothing says irony like spelling ideot wrong.
Okay...
I found this
The case is Hasbro, Inc. v. Infogrames Entertainment S.A. a/k/a Atari, S.A., case number CA09-610ML, and it was filed on December 16, 2009, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island.
(source: http://www.patentarcade.com/2009/12/case-update-hasbro-inc-v-atari-sa.html )
But I cannot find the filing as a pdf file.
Anyone know how?
It might be linked in here somewhere?
http://www.newsrunner.com/topic/science-and-technology/281328890/0
Nothing says irony like spelling ideot wrong.
http://www.mercuric.net/hasbro_atari_complaint.pdf
Happy to help.
yep everybody want a piece of game pie but nobody wants to make them so lets sue to get our piece of the pie.
what i dont get is this why bandai bother with d&d when they got one-piece they could make an mmo and they would gain
billion of player since one piece is from asia
and its one of the most popular online right now(manga)the weirdo at bandai that decided to go the d&d route instead of
make one piece a videogame must be drunk.
men
ONE PIECE AN MMORPG
hell that serie as been on for 10 years in asia its aas epic as warcraft
430 episode and counting as been released,9 movie and a 10th coming this chrismas
what baffle me is how come not one in mmo industry yes even the owner or publisher bandai,or whaever their link is with this serie
all of them havent done an mmo with this serie hell its bigger then lord of the ring gees
DnD is a more well-known IP in the western population, particularly in the US.
One Piece is "just another anime" by most standards here.
If Bandai wanted to appeal to a western audience, they would do well to get a western IP.
wtv they do one thing is sure ,the website i listen one piece from said it all
the main problem asia face is translating their stuff be it game cartoon or movie
to some exemple other nation can relate to. you know what the website did.they had to translate literally what that situation x meant
and let me tell you some serie that looked cheesy and bad made a lot more sense when the trenslation was proper
often its just translated word for word and word for word is often very bad
Yes.
Because of the differing language, they might have some problems translating meaningful dialogue. All different forms of language have that difficulty in some way or another.
However, what is also missing from the context is the culture. There are some taboos and norms that are alien to westerners, and often times, eastern cultures have a difficult time conveying the importance of a situation when it includes them.
DnD, however, is your generic fantasy setting. You can use it for just about anything because it has its own culture that translates well to many.