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Topic: Hasbro sues Atari, seeks termination of D&D digital rights. (Read 8376 times)
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Montague
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1297
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http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3177372So what specific wrongdoing does Hasbro accuse Atari of committing? When Atari sold off their European operations to Namco Bandai earlier this year, they entered into an agreement with the Japanese publisher (and Hasbro competitor) to distribute Atari products (including D&D Online) outside the U.S. until the year 2014. And according to Hasbro, this agreement violates their contract with Atari Not sure what this means for DDO, but Cryptic's alleged unannounced 4th edition D&D MMO would be dead in the water if this goes through. Makes one wonder if this doesn't have more to do with Cryptic's performance as opposed to Namco.
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When Fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross - Sinclair Lewis.
I can tell more than 1 fucktard at a time to stfu, have no fears. - WayAbvPar
We all have the God-given right to go to hell our own way. Don't fuck with God's plan. - MahrinSkel
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eldaec
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11843
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I don't imagine Cryptic would find it difficult to rebrand D&D4Online as "Here, take a quest, now kill some shit asshole, ok here's some loot, repeat" online.
They have some experience in this area.
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"People will not assume that what they read on the internet is trustworthy or that it carries any particular assurance or accuracy" - Lord Leveson "Hyperbole is a cancer" - Lakov Sanite
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Montague
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1297
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I don't imagine Cryptic would find it difficult to rebrand D&D4Online as "Here, take a quest, now kill some shit asshole, ok here's some loot, repeat" online.
They have some experience in this area.
Good point. Not to mention there's plenty of minor RPG IP's to buy. Rolemaster Online here we come.
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When Fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross - Sinclair Lewis.
I can tell more than 1 fucktard at a time to stfu, have no fears. - WayAbvPar
We all have the God-given right to go to hell our own way. Don't fuck with God's plan. - MahrinSkel
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Ingmar
Terracotta Army
Posts: 19280
Auto Assault Affectionado
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If they're really making a game that is mechanically D&D4e they'd also have to make some fairly large system changes in order to avoid just walking into another lawsuit. The transition would be harder than just reskinning a Marvel game with the Champions IP, I think.
Also I already posted this in the NWN Online speculation thread...
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The Transcendent One: AH... THE ROGUE CONSTRUCT. Nordom: Sense of closure: imminent.
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Mrbloodworth
Terracotta Army
Posts: 15148
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« Last Edit: December 18, 2009, 01:12:33 PM by Mrbloodworth »
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Soln
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4737
the opportunity for evil is just delicious
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I don't imagine Cryptic would find it difficult to rebrand D&D4Online as "Here, take a quest, now kill some shit asshole, ok here's some loot, repeat" online.
They have some experience in this area.
Good point. Not to mention there's plenty of minor RPG IP's to buy. Rolemaster Online here we come. My God imagine. Complicated, but light years ahead of D&D IMO.
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Ingmar
Terracotta Army
Posts: 19280
Auto Assault Affectionado
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Rolemaster without charts to look at? Charts were pretty much the entire point of that game!
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The Transcendent One: AH... THE ROGUE CONSTRUCT. Nordom: Sense of closure: imminent.
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Stabs
Terracotta Army
Posts: 796
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I think 1up's slant may be wrong. DDO is the subject of a catfight between Atari and Turbine. Codemasters are sitting on the fence until it's resolved which has unfortunately meant they felt they couldn't adopt the F2P model so successfully used by Turbine. Now what Turbine are probably after in the court case is for Atari to relinquish the licence so that they can take it over. Hasbro pressurising Atari may well encourage Atari to resolve this in Turbine's favour. Codemasters would then be able to work with Turbine to sell the game in Europe. So what I think is happening is in one corner we have Atari and in the other corner we have Turbine and Hasbro. I think it would be much healthier for DDO if Atari could be cut out of the loop and with the others arrayed against them this could happen. DDO is currently quite expensive to run for Turbine and Codemasters as they have to pay Atari royalties. They also have to pay for marketing because of the non-fulfilment of its obligations to market the product by Atari which is at the heart of the Turbine v Atari case. If Hasbro can wrestle back digital rights they would probably licence Dungeons and Dragons to Turbine who already have a game running with a solid player base and (following the success of their F2P launch) quite high revenues. There's some quite detailed amateur analysis by players on the DDO board: http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=213727http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=208807http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=220214I think these show that it's way more complex than simply DDO's in trouble as 1up suggest. Quite possibly these manoeuvres will save DDO, getting it out from under the yoke of a pretty onerous royalties agreement regarding money that Turbine has to pay Atari to operate the game.
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« Last Edit: December 18, 2009, 05:14:29 PM by Stabs »
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pxib
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4701
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« Last Edit: December 19, 2009, 04:20:15 PM by pxib »
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if at last you do succeed, never try again
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UnSub
Contributor
Posts: 8064
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Already being discussed here. My read on it is: 1) Atari vs Turbine is over the future of the MMO version while 2) Habro vs Atari is because something didn't check all the contracts when they sold out their European operations to Namco Bandai. In theory, Atari could go back to Namco Bandai and pull the D&D titles to settle things, but I'm not sure if either Namco or Hasbro would accept that. It looks like Hasbro wants the D&D licence back.If Hasbro does get the licence, Cryptic's rumoured D&D title would be dead (Cryptic pretty much being Atari Online) and there is a chance Turbine's might be as well. Hasbro might want to offer up the licence to an entirely new company for an entirely new pool of money.
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Stabs
Terracotta Army
Posts: 796
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schild
Administrator
Posts: 60345
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Whoever wins, we lose.
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Slyfeind
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2037
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Rolemaster Online here we come.
Where have you been? Welcome to twenty years ago. DAOC was going to be Rolemaster Online too, for what that's worth. Yeah, I have a feeling if Hasbro gets all other D&D shops shut down, they're going to lose out too....
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"Role playing in an MMO is more like an open orchestra with no conductor, anyone of any skill level can walk in at any time, and everyone brings their own instrument and plays whatever song they want. Then toss PvP into the mix and things REALLY get ugly!" -Count Nerfedalot
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