Original John Madden Football Programmer Wins Lawsuit Against EA, Awarded $11 Million

The original programmer of John Madden Football, Robin Antonick, has been awarded $11 million in damages as a result of a lawsuit against EA. The verdict also means Antonick can pursue the same claims against EA for games released after 1996. Antonick originally developed the first Madden title for MS-DOS, Commodore, and Apple II platforms back in 1988. According to Antonick, his contract signed with EA in 1986 stated that he should be paid royalties not only for the games he worked on, but for any subsequent derivative.

A jury in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California agreed with Antonick after three days of deliberations, finding several games EA published between 1990-1996 were “virtually identical” to Antonick’s original version of John Madden Football. The next phase of the trial will address whether EA is liable for royalties from games published from 1997 to the present. The revenues from those titles exceed $3 billion, so Antonick could be in for a bigger pay day.

Source: IGN