Welcome to the 1,152nd edition of Loading...
Loading... is the premier daily MMORPG news, coverage, and
commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.
We were shocked to read of a lawsuit filed late
Monday by Turbine, who's suing Atari over a license and
contract dispute related to Dungeons & Dragons Online. Atari,
who sub-licensed DnD to Turbine for development, is (apparently) trying
to back out of its agreement and take the license back just as
Turbine's launching the free-to-play DDO Unlimited next week. It's a
mess, and we'll try and sort some of it out in today's Loading...
Turbine vs. Atari.
The Pulse
You vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the
result is the Ten Ton Pulse (
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/thepulse/" target="_blank">What
is The Pulse?).
Here's today's top 5 Pulse results:
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/41"
target="_blank">World of Warcraft - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/254">Aion
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/860">Champions
Online - EverQuest
2 -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/115">Age of
Conan
Biggest Movers today :
MMO Releases
- 7/13
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/109">Darkfall
NA launch - 7/21-
FFXI
"Moogle Kupo d'Etat" Addon (release date) -
8/4 -
World
of Warcraft Update 3.2 (content patch) size="-1"> - 8/25
- CrimeCraft
(release date)
Important
Dates
- 9/4 - 9/6
- Penny Arcade Expo
(PAX) - 9/15 -
9/18 - GDC
Austin - 10/1 -
10/3 - href="http://fanfest.eveonline.com/">EVE FanFest
Releases
- 9/1 -
Champions
Online (release date) - 9/9
- Dungeons
& Dragons Online Unlimited (release date) - 9/15 (NEW)
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/177">Fallen
Earth (release date) - 9/22
- Aion
(release date) - 10/9
- Cities
XL (release date) - Early 2010
- APB
Loading... Daily
How's this for a mess of epic proportions:
href="http://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/26/turbine-sues-atari-over-dungeons-and-dragons-online-licensing/">Joystiq
broke the news on a Turbine vs. Atari $30 million lawsuit that could
have widespread impact on the nichier side of the MMO category.
You might recall that Atari was listed as the publisher of
Dungeons and Dragons Online at launch (February 2006).
Publisher might be a bit of a misnomer, though, according to
the lawsuit, in which Turbine that Atari fulfilled few of their
contractual obligations aside from sub-licensing the Dungeons &
Dragons IP from Hasbro.
Legalese aside, I think Turbine is looking at the kind of PR footwork
Atari's titles have been getting lately and wondering where the love
was (and is) for DDO. You've seldom met a more dedicated fanbase than
DDO players, and they've long been clamoring for more publicity to try
and grow the game. DDO's free to play revamp, DDO Unlimited, is set to
take the stage in a little less than two weeks, and (according to
Turbine) the response to beta has been beyond their wildest
expectations. But DDO Unlimited hasn't gotten the glitzy promo events,
the magazine cover wraps, or nearly the same level of Internet ad
proliferation of Atari games like Champions Online. However, Atari
fully acquired Champions Online along with Cryptic Studios
href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=9&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.edge-online.com%2Fnews%2Fubisoft-lost-cryptic-atari&ei=zHWVSt3NJoGGlAeogpGwDQ&usg=AFQjCNE5WXcoBoOemDMjM9WmK32PsAmC3g">late
last year for $28 million (perhaps using some of those
"payments" and "future royalties"from Turbine, to twist the knife a
little further), so it's perhaps not an apples and oranges comparison.
All that's just speculation, because speculation's all you'll get with
a pending lawsuit. Here's the kicker, though:
"Turbine claims that Atari's purported "termination"
was part of a strategy it conceived prior to the May 13 agreements that
it would either terminate Turbine as part of a shakedown, or proceed
with termination in bad faith to benefit from its own competing product
at Turbine's expense."
The ugly phrase that keeps being thrown around in this summary is
"termination of the license agreement." Is Turbine in danger of losing
their license to develop DDO Unlimited just a week before launch? Is
Champions Online, which launches less than a week before DDO Unlimited,
the "competing product" - or some other game (namely the rumored
Neverwinter Nights MMO, which is much more a DnDish competitor)? It's got to be another game, there's not much overlap between the DDO and CO markets except
in the broadest sense.
If Atari took the royalties money, bailed on
their commitments, and now might be pulling the license out from under
Turbine just a week before launch, no wonder Turbine's a little peeved. On the other hand, Atari's seems to say that Turbine got a little
carried away with the money they spent revamping DDO into DDO
Unlimited, and now they're simply after more money. Atari complained
that Turbine's supposed "concealment of information and withholding of
royalty fees" were grounds for terminating the contract, which would
mean that the DnD license reverts to Atari.
What a mess. It's hard to see how the fans can be a winner no matter
who wins the lawsuit. If Atari loses a $30 million lawsuit, that would
probably trickle down to put a crimp in Cryptic's future plans. If
Atari wins, the future of DDO might be in jeopardy. Meanwhile, DDO
fans, take heart: we've confirmed with Turbine that DDO Unlimited's
march to launch is proceeding as planned. But we'll keep trying to
figure out the implications of this, but feel free to share your
insights in the
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=45750">Loading...
forum, you legal beagles.
Shayalyn's
Epic Thread of
the Day
From our
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=139">WoW:
General Discussion Forum
Felicia
Day from "THE GUILD" gets asked about her carpet @Blizzcon '09
"Does the carpet match the curtains?" That's what a BlizzCon fan asked
redheaded acrtress
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felicia_Day">Felicia Day
from The Guild.
Khalus found the question, and Day's response, so amusing that he
posted the video in our World of Warcraft forum, and now a sort of
impromptu Ten Ton Hammer Felicia Day Fan Club seems to be emerging.
Does Felicia Day's carpet match her curtains? You'll have to
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=45714">watch
the video to see if this epic question receives an answer,
and then add your own bit of fan adulation to the
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=45714">thread.
==============================
Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread
"That was truly classic!
My vote is 'no, they do not match,' btw."
- Igimund
==============================
Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums?
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=32559">Tell
us!
4 new MMOG home-grown articles today, many from
BlizzCon! 78 in August!
938 in
2009!
New Coverage and Guides At Ten Ton Hammer Today
More Articles:
-
EVE
Online Sins of a Solar Spymaster #25 - Unholy Dust
Many of the top developers in the MMOG industry have been making major
announcements as the summer convention season rumbles on, and CCP is no
exception as the Icelandic developer brought us the one-two punch of
Unholy Rage and the debut of a new title set in the EVE universe, Dust
514. In the latest edition of Sins of a Solar Spymaster, the Mittani
tackles these two announcements and sheds some light on what impact
they may potentially have on New Eden. -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/randybuehler/interview">iPhone
/ PC MMOTBS Mind Twist - An Interview with Randy
Buehler
Mind Control Software has managed to grab some of the top talent of the
trading card game industry to aid in the creation of their upcoming
online competitive platform strategy game, Mind Twist. With Richard
Garfield, the man behind Magic: The Gathering, guiding the vision, Mind
Twist will bring platform play in the form of a turn-based online
strategy game to players. To get more information, Ten Ton Hammer spoke
with former Wizards of the Coast Vice President of Digital Gaming
turned Mind Control Vice President of Business Strategy, Randy Buehler.
Try saying that five times fast! -
New
CrimeCraft Video Shows Off the Latest Skills
CrimeCraft has officially launched and Vogster has sent us a new video
to show off some of the skills the game has to offer. The new video
provides a look at some of the fun little things you get to play with
in CrimeCraft like remote mines and cluster rockets. Hey, who doesn't
like shooting their opponent in the face with a missile? -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/champions/editorial/review">Champions
Online - Overall Impressions from Beta
The launch date of Champions Online is looming just over the horizon.
With the NDA lifted, the Champions Online Ten Ton Hammer Staff sat down
to give their honest thoughts on the state of the beta.
Hottest Content:
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/blizzcon09">BlizzCon
2009 href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/blizzcon09">
Coverage Portal - EVE
Online Sins of a Solar Spymaster #25 - Unholy Dust - Video:
Fan Impressions from style="font-weight: bold;">BlizzCon 2009 -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/randybuehler/interview">iPhone
/ PC MMOTBS Mind Twist - An Interview with Randy
Buehler - Behind
Closed Doors with Blizzard - The 2009 Blizzard Summit - Blizzcon
'09: Starcraft 2
Hands-on Preview - BlizzCon
2009 - The Changing Face of Battle.net - Video:
Fan Impressions from BlizzCon
2009 - BlizzCon
'09 Opening Ceremonies - WoW's Cataclysm
and Diablo 3's Monk Class - In
the Business of Fun: A Video Q&A with The Syndicate's
Sean "Dragons" Stalzer
Thanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
-Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer team
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited Game Page.
