Baldur's Gate EE - Dispute is Over Unpaid Royalties?

Couchpotato

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We all know that Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition was pulled at Atari's request, but we never knew why. Thanks to Gamebanshee they have an industry source that requested to remain anonymous tell us why.

Two weeks ago we reported that Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition was pulled at Atari's request, and also noted that Atari was selling the title on Steam themselves. Now that we have been contacted by an industry source that requested to remain anonymous, we might know why.

Apparently Beamdog hasn't paid Atari the royalties that they were owed, which led the publisher to ask them to pull the title from their services, and delay both Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition's patch and the release of the sequel's remastering.

However it has to be noted that the circumstances surrounding this aren't clear at all. Something like Atari informally telling Beamdog that they could delay payment is hardly out of the realm of possibilities, but right now we have no elements to assume that, and this amounts to pure speculation.

We contacted both Atari and Beamdog to comment on this. While, as of this posting, Atari hasn't gotten back to us, Beamdog president Trent Oster reiterated that they're working with Atari to resolve this dispute, though he wouldn't confirm or deny whether what we heard from our source is true.

We'll let you know if we hear more news, and I'm certain I echo the sentiments of the GameBanshee staff at large when I say my hope is that this gets resolved sooner rather than later.
More information.
 
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One might imagine that whether royalties had been paid or not would be a pretty black and white situation.
Not with Atari who is in the middle of bankruptcy once again. Look at Sega who is now suing THQ for $900K over COH 2 pre-order sales. It's always about money.
 
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Not with Atari who is in the middle of bankruptcy once again. Look at Sega who is now suing THQ for $900K over COH 2 pre-order sales. It's always about money.

Exactly - there might have been 'gentleman's agreements' in place which Atari is now trying to wiggle past due to insolvency
 
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This is why you get EVERYTHING in writing.
 
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My guess is its not Black and White. I'm thinking the issue is not whether; but how much. That's what is in dispute.

Is Beamdog in the same situation that Interplay when they had their dispute over royalties with Bioware? I doubt it.
 
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Exactly - there might have been 'gentleman's agreements' in place which Atari is now trying to wiggle past due to insolvency

This.

Seems like the most likely explanation to me.

pibbur who claims that as a physician(-has-been) he is entitled to know everything. Sort of.
 
Making and relying upon a gentleman's agreement with Atari sounds implausibly stupid to me.
 
I'm in the construction industry and I see these "gentleman's agreements" all the time. Happens alot when things go overbudget or to many change orders. Generally they turn out fine for us.
 
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