Turbine Sues Atari Over Stormreach Support

Turbine, the developer and operator of upcoming freemium Dungeons & Dragons Online, Eberron Unlimited, has sued game publisher Atari for breach of contract and fraud, accusing the game publisher of reneging of various obligations in support of the previously published Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach.

According to court filings, the lawsuit arises from "a business relationship to create and market an online Dungeons & Dragons game in which one party — Turbine — has consistently met and exceeded the requirements of the parties' contracts and in which the other — Atari — has consistently breached its obligations, sought to take unfair advantage of Turbine and extract additional benefits, and acted in an unfair and bad faith manner."

Turbine states the basis of Atari's failing to promote Stormreach was based on a desire to compete in the same genre, with its own internally-developed D&D MMO. Or as Turbine states in the complaint, Atari sought "to to free itself from its obligations under the contracts in order to clear the way for the launch of its own competing MMO service based on the D&D and Advanced D&D intellectual properties."

Courthouse News Service has posted the complaint in its entirety.

Turbine's Dungeons & Dragons Online, Eberron Unlimited is due for a full launch on September 9. The freemium version of Dungeons & Dragons Online (DDO) allows players to begin playing in the Stormreach area of the game with the option to later purchase extra locations and virtual items in the DDO Store. Players can also upgrade to become monthly subscribers and secure full access to all game content which also comes with a monthly stipend of virtual currency that can be used to purchase additional items from the DDO Store.

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