In the United States as in France, the legal proceedings rendered in the name of the people are public, and it is therefore by consulting the register of the federal courts that one can have for the first time in two years news of Paranoia: Happiness is Mandatory. On October 22, 2021, Bigben Interactive (the company including the video game publisher Nacon) and its development studio Cyanide, filed a complaint with the American courts against the creators of the paper game. Paranoia, Eric Goldberg and Greg Costikyan, on the grounds that they had it removed from sale shortly after its release. If we have not read the details of the complaint, we have had access to the recent brief of the two defendants, which is particularly enlightening on the relations between the creators of the license and the French publisher.
On September 6, 2016, Eric Goldberg and Greg Costikyan, holders of the license rights, signed a contract to adapt their role-playing game into a video game with the French studio Cyanide. While it was supposed to be released during the year, Cyanide delegated development to the Irish studio Black Shamrock in the summer of 2017, before being bought out by Bigben Interactive, which took over the contract on its own. After being postponed to April 2017 for the first time, the release of the game is set for the end of 2019, December 10 at the latest. If the distribution was planned under the terms of the contract on all PC distribution platforms, Bigben requested in August 2019 the agreement of Eric Goldberg and Greg Costikyan for an exclusive distribution contract on the Epic Games Store, dated October 3, 2019. Problem: this is the first time that the two rights holders are aware of the release date of the game, while they have, according to their contract, a right of inspection on the title, which can only be published with their agreement. The two creators therefore refuse to approve the publication of a press release on the imminent release of the game, and according to them, Bigben breaches the contract for the first time by leaving this press release all the same.
They both only had access on September 10, 2019 to a first version of the game, which they had to contractually evaluate to motivate their agreement prior to the commercial release. Instead of the six weeks stipulated in the contract, they only need two weeks to officially reject this version of the game, percluded by so many bugs that, in their view, it would damage the brand image of Paranoia. Bigben nevertheless wishes at this time to continue the publication of the title as it is, postponing the release scheduled for October to November 14, 2019. After having once again refused the publication of a press release on the new release date, Eric Goldberg and Greg Costikyan refuse to market the new version of the game received, in which they report 74 bugs minors and majors combined. If they remain open to the proposal to continue working on the game without breaking their contract, they oppose a premature release of the game in this unfinished version.
However, Bigben Interactive would have proceeded with the release of the game in secret and without the agreement of the rights holders so as not to exceed the deadline of December 10, 2019 provided for in the contract. The sum of 21,704 dollars was even paid to Eric Goldberg and Greg Costikyan, who wished to return it to the publisher, considering that no payment was due. Seeing that the game was available for sale, they wrote to Bigben to demand the withdrawal of Paranoia: Happiness is Mandatory from the Epic Games Store. After several refusals, they finally contacted Epic directly with a DMCA request, explaining that publishing the game without their agreement was against the publishing agreement and therefore an infringement of their intellectual property rights of the license. Three days later, on January 24, 2020, Epic withdrew the game from sale while still having exclusivity. He has never reappeared anywhere since.
Not having access to Bigben Interactive and Cyanide’s complaint, but only to Eric Goldberg and Greg Costikyan’s version of the facts, we do not know on what grounds or for what amount in compensation for their prejudice the French companies are attacking the creators of the license. It is however easy to imagine that it is the interpretation of the contract which is in question, and that the damage for the publisher and the developers is considerable, the game having only been on sale for a month and a half then that Epic had signed an exclusive contract for the amount of “several million dollars”. Perhaps the publisher was forced to reimburse Epic for part of the amount advanced, and perhaps he invokes the obvious shortfall in view of the short duration of the sale of the Game ? For their part, the two creators of the license claim the breach of the contract and 150,000 dollars in compensation for their damage.
The situation will not stop there anyway, Eric Goldberg and Greg Costikyan being ready to go to trial in this case, which is reminiscent in many ways of the one we were telling you about a year ago between Frogwares and, already, Bigben Interactive. Again, the French publisher was accused of not respecting its contract, and the distribution rights as well as the involvement of Epic were already at the heart of the matter.
- Also Read | Nacon-Frogwares: deciphering a latent conflict that has become open war – Part One
- Also Read | Nacon-Frogwares: deciphering a latent conflict that has become open war – Part two