Playdead
It’s always heartbreaking to see former colleagues resorting to petty vengeance, but such is the industry, and Playdead, the creator of Limbo and Inside, is part of it.
The company was founded by Arnt Jensen and Dino Patti, but the latter left after a long time of not being on speaking terms. One might think this was the end of communication between the developers, however, it is not true in this case.
Patti revealed that he had been receiving “legal love letters” from Jensen for 9 years, and I think this sentimental term is very fitting for this complicated relationship between the co-founders.
In the most recent such letter, Jensen demanded around $73,000 in “suitable compensation and reimbursement” for a publicly available picture of Limbo Patti posted on LinkedIn.
“Arnt, last time you tried to bully me, I told you I’d make it public. So here we go. I hope everyone else can take something from this,” Patti said in his post uncovering what he had been through.
In the letter, Playdead reminded that Patti’s “use of Playdead’s assets and any disclosure and exploitation of inside knowledge about Playdead for commercial purposes is infringing and constitutes breach of confidentiality clauses and of loyalty obligations.”
But it’s the next part that makes it sound more as a spiteful message than a true legal warning:
“By providing recipients with core insights to the process of developing Limbo, you are falsely giving the impression that you played a significant role, including a creative role, in the development of the game. This gives a false and misleading impression to business partners and to the game industry as you were not actually an essential part of the creative development of Limbo.”
Playdead
Playdead
Ouch. Patti disagreed with the statement, naturally, saying they both know he was “a significant part of building Playdead from the ground up,” and without him, the studio wouldn’t have existed.
He even claims he put himself in “massive legal danger” at one point, “risking everything to win our full independence back. That later became your independence when I left. The independence you enjoy today.”
“You have a gift. You are a genius. I know you refuse to recognize my role—or anyone else’s. That isn’t just a flaw in leadership. It’s a flaw in character.
“And lawyers don’t see history. They only see the version you pay them to write.”
He concluded his poetic text with a refusal to erase his own history: “You can’t rewrite the past just because of a bad breakup.” And a breakup it does sound like, with hard feelings all around.
“Arnt, please stop the bullying. I will not stop being who I am.”
Playdead
In an email to Game Developer, Playdead confirmed it “submitted demands” about Patti’s “infringement and unauthorized use” of Playdead’s assets: “We have found it necessary to take this action to protect our trademarks and copyrights, which are essential to Playdead’s business and reputation.”
To me, it sounds way more than that, but what do I know? Patti has founded a new studio and is developing his own platform for multiplayer development called coherence, while Playdead is making a science fiction adventure set in a remote corner of the universe.
Playdead
This drama reminds me of the prolonged conflict between Disco Elysium’s studio ZA/UM and its original creators, who were ousted in a pretty sly scheme. Only recently were the details of the behind-the-scenes machinations revealed in a lengthy interview with ZA/UM’s former employees. Perhaps we will understand what happened between Playdead’s co-founders one day as well.
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