EA Sports just can’t catch a break lately, and now they have been ordered to pay $11 million in damages to Robin Antonick, programmer of the first version of Madden for MS-DOS, Commodore 64, and Apple.
At the time Antonick was working on the original John Madden Football game, he signed a contract that stated he would not only be paid for the game then, but also for any “derivative works” in the future. EA Sports failed to comply with the latter part by not paying him royalties and as a result, found themselves in the middle of a lawsuit that was filed in 2011.
Antonick specifically was focused on the Madden games from 1990-1996 as they most closely resemble his original creation. The court found that the games during that period of time were almost identical and ruled in favor of Antonick.
The Madden games after 1996 could also be seen as “derivative works,” so this case may not be over if he so chooses to challenge that those games should be considered in that category as well. This decision could almost be seen as an opening of the floodgates for EA Sports as there are over 15 years of games since that time.
