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Atari Pulls Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 From Steam After Lawsuit
Atari has cut off the ability to buy Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 after developer Frontier Developments filed suit over unpaid royalties from the game.
News of the lawsuit broke last week from TMZ, where Roller Coaster 3 Tycoon developer Frontier Developments alleged that Atari has failed to pay out $2.2 million in royalties. The lawsuit alleges that Frontier, which made the deal with Atari to develop the game in 2003, was unable to pursue the unpaid balance when Atari declared bankruptcy in 2013.
Now that Atari's fortunes have mostly been reversed and the company is operating at a profit again, Frontier is seeking to get the royalties from the sales of the 2013 game. The developer asked Atari for an audit of the royalties owed and claims Atari has been delaying supplying Frontier with the report.
As a result, Atari pulled the game from sale pending litigation without outward explanation. The listing is still available, but the ability to buy the game has been removed.
Frontier is best known these days for games like Elite: Dangerous and is currently developing Jurassic World: Evolution.
Our Take
It makes sense that Atari pulled the game, but usually games in these situations just get delisted. I am unsure what the point of keeping the page up is, unless Atari plans to return to selling the game fairly quickly.
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