Richard Garriott blasts NCsoft with $24 million lawsuit
by Krystalle Voecks 
May 6th 2009 at 11:00AM
Filed under: Events, real-world, MMO industry, News items, Opinion, Tabula Rasa, Legal
When Tabula Rasa shut down in January, we thought we'd heard the last of NCsoft and Richard Garriott in the same sentence. Oh, how wrong we were. Yesterday, Kotaku broke the news that Garriott was suing his old pals at NCsoft to the tune of $24 million for fraud, and generally being a bunch of fetid arsebiscuits. Details were decidedly skimpy, however - why would Garriott go after the company so long after his departure? What had gone rotten in the state of Denmark? This morning, GamePolitics added their .02 to the mix and upped the ante with the legal documents involved - and boy, are they illuminating. According to Richard's side of the story, it goes like this: Richard & co form Destination Games, and are bought out by NCsoft in exchange for some very hefty stock options. After Tabula Rasa launches, Richard gets tapped for a space flight he signed up for some years prior. After talking to NCsoft higher-ups, he is approved for, and goes on, extended leave to take his space flight. During this time, he continues doing PR for Tabula Rasa, including Operation Immortality. Flight (and PR stunt) successful, Richard touches down to Earth, goes into quarantine in Russia, and NCsoft calls him to drop the hammer - while he's stuck in Russia, decontaminating. No choice, no warning, nothing. "So long, and thanks for all the Bane."
According to the documents, this is where the fraud comes in to play. They apparently terminated him and yet classified him as a voluntary termination - in other words "he quit." This means that all the stock options he had either had to be cashed in (at a significant loss in a craptastic market) within 90 days from his date of departure, or it was gone. To add insult to injury, the "open letter" that was purported to be from Richard Garriott to the loyal fans of Tabula Rasa? He claims it was written by NCsoft - not him. So, NCsoft - according to the court documents - terminates Garriott, sends the Destination Games team packing, shuts down TR, authors a letter they say is from Garriott to the community, then falsifies his termination paperwork stating that he left voluntarily - and was not terminated.
Considering NCsoft is already in a pretty nasty place with the current Worlds.com lawsuit going on, dealing with a series of layoffs and slipping profits, this new action against them by Garriott doesn't bode well. The question now becomes how much merit this lawsuit has - and just what NCsoft's response will be. In the meantime, stock up on popcorn folks, because this drama llama's got some legs, and we're betting this isn't going to be the last we hear about it.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
postman said on 11:09AM 5-06-2009
lol
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derella said on 11:12AM 5-06-2009
Wow. This should be interesting.
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TankZA said on 11:16AM 5-06-2009
Ego or EGO!
you decide, but still if there is any merit to this, don't expect to see any ncsoft games in the west anytime soon
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Celestial Lord said on 11:16AM 5-06-2009
Awesome. As someone who pre-ordered two collector's edition boxes of Tabula Rasa, I was extremely displeased with NCSoft's decision to axe the game before its time. I hope Richard Garriott wins.
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tiki said on 4:06PM 5-10-2009
/agree
Meanwhile said on 11:28AM 5-06-2009
D-bags suing d-bags. They're all totally shady on both sides. Screw 'em all.
Kinda scary when SOE starts looking like an upstanding corporate citizen by comparison.
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UltimateQ said on 10:51AM 5-07-2009
Your comment made me lol. You win a + from me.
JP said on 11:29AM 5-06-2009
LOL - NCSoft: The SOE of the latter part of this decade.
GOOD! Screw NCSoft. I hope RG wins all he's looking for and then some. NCSoft corp has ZERO class. None. I wouldn't put them above this type of unethical behavior.
I was a player for a long time w/ TR. He tried. Really he did. Destination Games busted their humps to try and turn that game around, but it couldn't happen. The reason falls squarley on the shoulders of NCSoft b/c of their short-sighted misgivings.
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Deadend said on 11:33AM 5-06-2009
Well I had already decided not to get involved with any more NCSoft games because they have a bad habit of shutting down games but if any of that's true I just have more reasons not to.
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Archipelagos said on 11:35AM 5-06-2009
Absolutely delicious.
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THAC0 said on 11:39AM 5-06-2009
How much do you want to bet this has to do with getting the rights to put the game up on another companies server? Tabula Rasa relaunch in the future? 2.0?
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Jess said on 11:47AM 5-06-2009
News at 4pm: Gaute Godager sues Funcom and later, a special report on Roper vs EA !
Seriously, the only megalomaniac missing to form the Four Horsemen of MMO's is Mark Jacobs.
All in due time...*cackle*
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JP said on 12:07PM 5-06-2009
Jess, read the legal docs linked. This is less about ego's, and more about being reated unfairly.
Chris Chueng is a decitful moran. Hence why NCSoft NA has gone in the preverbal shitter since he took over.
Goonja said on 12:45PM 5-06-2009
I use to call them the 4 Divas
1.Garriot
2.Brad
3.Gaute
4.Jacobs
Amana said on 7:44PM 5-06-2009
Haha Jess - that made me chuckle out loud. That rarely happens.
Nice ;p
Temploiter said on 11:52AM 5-06-2009
Wow. And here Garriot was looking like a real chode, maybe that was a false impression.
Still, he seems to have flubbed on TR, but who knows how much of that was due to NCSoft?
Only time will tell.
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Atnor said on 12:00PM 5-06-2009
This is interesting. I'll certainly be watching closely from the sidelines.
However, I'm going to spend the rest of my day trying to work in "fetid arsebiscuits" into as many conversations as I can. :)
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Krystalle Voecks said on 12:02PM 5-06-2009
:D
borgy78 said on 6:08PM 5-06-2009
Truly that expressions is rather epic. It definately raised my eyebrows..
Also what wonderful drama (on that matter, drama lama LMAO nvr heard that before) goota love the mmo industry.
Tyranor said on 12:00PM 5-06-2009
If any of this is true, these are pretty serious allegations...Not Gizmondo serious, but serious none the less.
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