D&D Video Gaming News - Hasbro sues for breach of contact by Atari

[Lady Dragon]

One has to wonder as to the real reason for this lawsuit. Is Hasbro/WOTC really that upset over this supposed breach of contract with Bandai Namco and Atari .Or do they just want to use this to get out of a long term contract that isn't serving them anymore. Perhaps they fear Atari is going to fold or maybe they have some other company interesting in obtaining the rights in what would be a better deal for them.

 

[Gossamerblade]

One has to wonder as to the real reason for this lawsuit. Is Hasbro/WOTC really that upset over this supposed breach of contract with Bandai Namco and Atari .Or do they just want to use this to get out of a long term contract that isn't serving them anymore. Perhaps they fear Atari is going to fold or maybe they have some other company interesting in obtaining the rights in what would be a better deal for them.

WotC has always been very protective of the D&D name, and Hasbro's lawsuit is having another effect: giving more ammo to Turbine's lawsuit against Atari. One of the allegations against Atari is that they contracted to promote and distribute DDO in Europe, while concealing the fact that they were selling off their European concerns, presumably to Namco Bandai.

Atari treated Turbine and DDO poorly, and Hasbro/WotC doesn't see them doing any better with other D&D products. This is probably going to push Atari out of the D&D game (so to speak).

 

[AllisterH]

WotC has always been very protective of the D&D name, and Hasbro's lawsuit is having another effect: giving more ammo to Turbine's lawsuit against Atari. One of the allegations against Atari is that they contracted to promote and distribute DDO in Europe, while concealing the fact that they were selling off their European concerns, presumably to Namco Bandai.

Atari treated Turbine and DDO poorly, and Hasbro/WotC doesn't see them doing any better with other D&D products. This is probably going to push Atari out of the D&D game (so to speak).

Indeed.

Another poster on this thread mentioned Atari's treatment of Dragonshard. Pulling support for the game while in Beta yet still releasing it?

If I was the IP holder, I'd be extremely annoyed as Atari seems not be using the IP in good faith.

 

[avin]

Without fail, in pretty much 25 years of gaming, only Superman has been associated with as much suck as Batman.

8 bit NES have fantastic batman games.

there's also a nice game for PS2, using batman animated series graphics... not to mentionbatman lego

 

[AllisterH]

8 bit NES have fantastic batman games.

there's also a nice game for PS2, using batman animated series graphics... not to mentionbatman lego

The LEGO games are a real kick in the pants I find.

You mean to tell me that the best Indiana Jones game is Lego Indy? Even with the existence of Tomb Raider and Unchartered, we STILL cant get a good Indy game other than LEGO.

Sad...Truly sad

 

[frankthedm]

One has to wonder as to the real reason for this lawsuit. Is Hasbro/WOTC really that upset over this supposed breach of contract with Bandai Namco and Atari .Or do they just want to use this to get out of a long term contract that isn't serving them anymore. Perhaps they fear Atari is going to fold or maybe they have some other company interesting in obtaining the rights in what would be a better deal for them.

Why can't it be all of the above? And more...

infogrames, atari's owner, also has the video game rights to other hasbro properties, such as Mr. Potato Head & My Little Pony . Don't be surprised if the settlement includes those too.

Infogrames Entertainment, SA - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Inforgrames already sliced Atari's European arm off and fed it to Namco Bandai, so maybe the Atari offices were just collaborating on the game as they were doing BEFORE they seperated owners. Shame doing that after the separation may well violate some clauses in the original agreements.

Of course, since i doubt those are public documents, we won't have much to go on how an agreement with hasbro might be written... other than the 4E GSL.

Edit: Though others around here seem confident atari was mismanaging the situation. since they seem more knowledgeable on the subject, I'm going to side with that assumption until i see more details.

 

[Stormonu]

I think at least since I got my hands on the buggy ToEE, if not before, I have associated Atari with "suck". I wouldn't shed a tear if they lost the D&D brand name.

I may not be one for playing 4E at the game table, but I'd like to see a decent 4E video game, especially one that could mix real-time and turn-based (real-time in town or during travel, turn-based in combat - like ToEE, but without the crashing bugs)*. I think it'd be a real hoot if there were, say, a task bar along the bottom with the different "powers", mousing over expanded it to look like the 4E power cards and clicking it "slapped it down" into play and you'd then watch the animation of the power play out, selecting target and any other info as it moved down the "card".

As to a 4E FR game bombing because the realms changed - I don't think so, if the engine is done right. Or were all previous versions of Fallout set in the Washingon, D.C. area? Perhaps in D&D, we might see a return to Phlan?

* Heck, this afternoon I was playing Sid Meier's Pirates - the combat for taking over a city in this game is a gridded, turn-based combat and was put out in 2004. Also, there's still people playing souped-up hi-res versions of turn-based Nethack as recent as 2003 that I just looked up.

 

[frankthedm]

Was this partt posted yet?

Hasbro Sues Atari Over D&D License, Atari Responds - Dungeons & Dragons - Kotaku

"Atari has had a long and rich history with the Dungeons and Dragons franchise, investing millions of dollars into numerous critically acclaimed and commercially successful games that have generated significant revenue for Hasbro. Hasbro has resorted to these meritless allegations, in an apparent attempt to unfairly take back rights granted to Atari. Atari has sought to resolve the matter without cooperation from Hasbro. We regret that our long-time partner has decided to pursue this action. Atari will respond appropriately through its legal counsel in court."

 

[AllisterH]

Was this partt posted yet?

Hasbro Sues Atari Over D&D License, Atari Responds - Dungeons & Dragons - Kotaku

*LOL*

I've seen on gametrailers and other vg sites, the common response.

"WHAT THE HELL"

and then howls of laughter. A poster went through a list of all Atari published games and it doesn't look impressive I have to admit.

Dragonshard - see earlier in thread about Atari cutting support while in Beta yet still shipping the game.

D&D Tactics PSP - Poorly received. Metacritic ranking of 58% is not something to boast about.

DDO - Yeah, they are being sued BECAUSE Turbine believes Atari hasn't been supportive and in fact, Turbine believes Atari is actually sabotaging the game by their lackluster support

Dungeons and Dragons Heroes - Gets compared unfavourably to Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance games.

NWN2 - buggy on release and most of said blame going towards Atari who have a "push it out the door even if it is not done" attitude (I might add that this is supposedly the reason why Bioware got soured on working with Atari and thus the D&D IP).

Temple of Elemental Evil - Buggy as hell (notice a common trend here?)

Which games does Atari think Hasbro and the audience would be impressed by?

 

[Sonny]

DDO - Yeah, they are being sued BECAUSE Turbine believes Atari hasn't been supportive and in fact, Turbine believes Atari is actually sabotaging the game by their lackluster support

NWN2 - buggy on release and most of said blame going towards Atari who have a "push it out the door even if it is not done" attitude (I might add that this is supposedly the reason why Bioware got soured on working with Atari and thus the D&D IP).

Temple of Elemental Evil - Buggy as hell (notice a common trend here?)

You know, after a while you think that Atari would get the point and let the development teams actually finish the games they're making instead of pushing them out the door just to grab whatever sales they can.

Of course, that goes for the whole industry, but ToEE not getting the attention and praise it deserved because it wasn't given enough time to be properly finished and debugged is a terrible shame.