Hasbro vs. Atari Dungeons & Dragons Lawsuit Detailed

After familiarizing themselves with Hasbro’s lawsuit against Atari over the Dungeons & Dragons license, the editors at Ars Technica have written up an article summarizing its contents and speculating about what it might mean for future D&D-based video games.

According to the lawsuit, “Namco Bandai, which has been supporting Dungeons & Dragons through its marketing website and customer support functions in these countries, obtained Hasbro’ s confidential information about Dungeons & Dragons from Atari, and held itself out as a publisher of Dungeons & Dragons digital games previously published by Atari. Atari sold at least four of its subsidiaries actively engaged in Dungeons & Dragons licensed activities to Namco Bandai. Yet Atari has steadfastly denied any relationship between itself and Namco Bandai with respect to Dungeons & Dragons.

“Despite Hasbro’s repeated questions about how its property was being managed in these countries, if Namco Bandai was not managing it, Atari has continuously refused to answer in any meaningful way.

“Hasbro can no longer trust its brand in the hands of Atari, and brings this action to confirm its right to terminate Atari’s license to Dungeons & Dragons.”

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Depending on how this lawsuit turns out, Atari stands to lose a lot of money since the Neverwinter Nights games are a major source of income for the publisher. From a video game standpoint, though, this could be a good thing: it seems unlikely that developers such as Bioware and Obsidian aren’t going to keep on receiving contracts to make Dungeons & Dragons titles. These games are both critical and commercial successes every time they’re released, so it’d be stupid for Hasbro to stop employing quality studios to make these titles.

However, looking at a list of the most popular D&D games reveals a common thread behind them: developers like Bioware and Black Isle (which eventually became Obsidian Entertainment). Maybe Hasbro should cut out the middleman and instead just start employing studios that can develop products of suitable quality to do their better IPs justice. Or maybe Hasbro should just give the license to a publisher willing to deliver better and more varied Dungeons & Dragons games in the future.

I honestly don’t think BioWare would even want to do a non-MMO D&D title anymore since it would compete with their own IPs, so Obsidian Entertainment is undoubtedly our best hope for future titles. After purchasing the franchise from Interplay years ago, maybe it’s time for a return to Icewind Dale?

I’d also like to know what will happen to the Baldur’s Gate and Torment franchises if Atari loses the D&D rights. Does their ownership revert to Hasbro? Or does Atari still retain them, but with no way of actually making use of them?