A video game company claims Atari breached a licensing agreement for it to develop a new form of "Dungeons & Dragons." Turbine, the plaintiff, develops and operates "massively multiplayer online role-playing games," or MMOs.
The complaint in New York County Court alleges that Atari granted Turbine a sublicense to "Dungeons & Dragons" and "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" so that Turbine could develop and operate a subscription-based MMO called "Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach."
Turbine claims Atari acted unreasonably in its efforts to promote and distribute "DDO: Stormreach," and failed to devote the necessary resources to it. It claims Atari breached the agreements by accepting payments - including future royalty payments - in return for extending their relationship and paving the way for the launch of Turbine's free-to-play "DDO: Unlimited" service, though Atari knew it would not perform its obligations under the agreements and knew it would pretextually seek to declare Turbine in breach of the agreements.