Richard Garriott, known as Lord British among his friends, won a court case against his former employer NCsoft over his dismissal in 2008. At the time NCsoft made it official that Lord British resigned from his position and he was subsequently forced to quickly sell options for 400,000 shares in the company in a rough financial climate. However, Richard Garriott maintained he was fired and if so he would have had ten years to sell his shares whenever he saw fit. The jury in the federal court case ruled in favour of Garriott and awarded him damages of $28 million to be paid by the South-Korean MMO publisher.
"I am extremely pleased with the jury's decision," Garriott said in a statement. "The facts were clear that my departure from NCsoft was not voluntary. I am very pleased with the final award."
NCsoft, meanwhile, were not as pleased and "will be considering all options for next steps in the legal process." How the lofty damages will affect the publisher is uncertain, but it has been a while since they had a proper hit so it's hard to see them weathering the storm without any problems.
Richard Garriott said he was in quarantine in Russia after his much publicised space flight when a NCsoft executive called him up to say his days with the company was over. Brought back to Earth fast, but now Lord British is flying high once again...