EA’s Madden Lawsuit Lost, Robin Antonick Gets $11 Million

EA’s Madden lawsuit between the gaming giant and original Madden programmer Robin Antonick has reached a verdict, in which the latter will be awarded $11 million in damages.

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, older versions of EA’s Madden were made available for free as part of an online pass.

Antonick was the developer for the original Madden on Commodore, Apple II, and MS-DOS back in 1988. Back in 2011, he sued EA for millions in unpaid royalties to claims his contract he signed back in 1986 had a stipulation where he would be paid royalties not just for the games he developed, but also for derivative works.

Madden is one of EA’s most successful if not most successful franchises in the game publisher’s history. Among the gaming population, it is considered a stigma that every year the current Madden installment will always get the Game of the Year Award. Madden games often receive the highest sales, topping even the most original and anticipated titles for that same year. From 1996 and afterwards, the Madden Series has made an estimated revenue of $3 billion.

After three days of deliberations, the jury found the Madden games between 1990 to 1996 to be “virtually identical” to Antonick’s original version. Rob Carey, who is one of Antonick’s lawyers said:

“This is a tremendous victory. In many ways, this trial was a test of each party’s version of events. The jury uniformly rejected the idea that this game was developed without Robin’s work. It is, if nothing, a good omen for the next phase of the litigation.”

There will be another phase to the trial to be held sometime in the future to determine if Antonick is owed more money for games from 1996 and afterwards. If so, Antonick will become a very wealthy man.

Do you think it’s fair that EA’s Madden lawsuit was lost to the original programmer Robin Antonick?