A Conspiracy Against Rome

To make matters worse for Perpetual, Kohnke alleges that the scheme to defraud Perpetual's creditors goes far deeper than paper transfers to a malformed corporation. According to Kohnke, Perpetual cancelled Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising in some part due to between $80,000 and $280,000 in incentives that would be owed to Kohnke upon the launch of the moribund game and the subsequent financial impact on the development of Star Trek Online. Under the third count, "Intentional Interference with Contract," Kohnke's counsel points out that "the reason that Gods & Heroes was cancelled had nothing to do with the commercial expectations for that game – it was cancelled solely due to the desire of Keene, McKibbin [Chris McKibbin, officer and significant equity shareholder in Perpetual and P2], and P2 to concentrate on Star Trek Online, which they believed was adversely affected by Gods & Heroes."

Chris McKibbin

Indeed, McKibbin said as much in his final address to the Gods & Heroes community: "After assessing all of Perpetual's opportunities, we have made the decision to put the development of Gods & Heroes on indefinite hold... Moving forward, we're shifting our collective focus, resources and development efforts to Perpetual's Platform Services division and Star Trek Online , thereby ensuring that the game lives up to the high level of expectation set by the dedicated Star Trek fan base."

But Kohnke saved its strongest words to inveigh against perceived fraud on the part of Keene, McKibbin, Perpetual, and P2. Kohnke alleges that, as early as September 27th, Perpetual knew that Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising would be cancelled and, subsequently, Perpetual would not be able to satisfy its contractual obligations to Kohnke. Still, as late as October 9th (a day before the ABC's execution) and according to Kohnke, Perpetual asked Kohnke to prepare promotional materials related to a new round of funding. Such actions in bad faith were, in Kohnke's words, "fraudulent, oppressive, and with malice."

No one at Perpetual Entertainment was available for comment by phone at the time this article was released. A case management conference date for Kohnke v. Perpetual is set for early May 2008.

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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Jeff joined the Ten Ton Hammer team in 2004 covering EverQuest II, and he's had his hands on just about every PC online and multiplayer game he could since.

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