EA Loses Case To Original Madden NFL Team Member

[Greg2600]

Trip Hawkins, who has little to do with the current EA, was pretty vehement that Antonick deserved nothing. Many programmers got royalties back then (see Todd Frye - 2600 Pac-Man), but almost always on only the game they did. It's not like he designed the game for his own company, he was working for EA. If I design a game, and get no royalty agreement, they can sell that game and 10 sequels and legally I am entitled to nothing.

I think he made out quite well, because the 1988 game is almost unrecognizable compared to the 16-bit 1990 game.

[Bojay1997]

Trip Hawkins, who has little to do with the current EA, was pretty vehement that Antonick deserved nothing. Many programmers got royalties back then (see Todd Frye - 2600 Pac-Man), but almost always on only the game they did. It's not like he designed the game for his own company, he was working for EA. If I design a game, and get no royalty agreement, they can sell that game and 10 sequels and legally I am entitled to nothing.

I think he made out quite well, because the 1988 game is almost unrecognizable compared to the 16-bit 1990 game.

This was more than a basic royalty. He was entitled to a specific percentage royalty from derivative works as well. I also can't determine from the complaint if he was an EA employee or some form of independent contractor. I would suspect the latter based on the description of the contract. He also came to EA with at least some rudimentary form of the game engine prior to signing the contract. Here is the actual complaint as filed.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/52129453/A...for-Jury-Trial