Madden NFL Football Creator Sues Electronic Arts
The man who created the first version of the uber-successful “Madden NFL Football” video game is suing Electronic Arts over tens of millions of dollars in owed royalties and potentially billions in profits over the franchise, which has sold more than 85 million copies in the more than 20 years since it hit the marketplace. As real-life professional football experiences a work stoppage thanks to disagreements between owners and players over how to split the revenue pie, now the game of football in digital form is experiencing its own financial quarrel. Antonick is seeking tens of millions of owed royalties, plus disgorgement of all profits from the sale of the game as the result of allegedly fraudulent behavior. The game franchise has reaped more than $4 billion in profits over the years. The creator has remained quiet for some time. He says he hasn’t received a royalty payment since approximately 1992.
Robin Antonick is demanding a jury trial in California, pressing claims in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that he has been cut out of the “Madden” franchise fortune. Antonick, an Illinois native, says he created the ground-breaking football video game, giving game players the chance to simulate a football game with eleven players on the field for each team. The first versions of the game were created for the Commodore 64, MS Dos, and Apple II platforms and released in 1988. He signed a development contract with EA in 1986 that allegedly entitles Antonick to royalties on derivative versions of the “Madden” game. In the years afterward, he worked on the game in a cubicle a few feet away from Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins, he says. Only recently, as a result of publicity surrounding the 20th Anniversary of the ‘Madden’ videogame did Antonick become aware that Electronic Arts did not independently develop subsequent versions of its Madden NFL software,” says the complaint. “Instead, according to recent statements by Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins, the current generation of software apparently derived from software developed by Antonick.”
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