Garriott 'Forced Out' Of NCsoft, Sues For $27 Million

Richard Garriott may be the only civilian to lose his job while in space, according to a $27 million suit filed by the former NCsoft developer and longtime celebrity game designer, which alleges "multi-million dollar fraud" on the part of the South Korean publisher.

The fraud: Garriott maintains that he did not depart NCsoft voluntarily in November 2008, as the company had said, internally and externally, but was told by NCsoft North American president Chris Chung that NCsoft had decided to "part company" with Garriott.

That's not mere semantics, either: by "re-characterizing" Garriott's departure as a voluntary decision, Chung may have negatively impacted Garriott's stock options, which are also a central focus of the suit - stock option agreements that were established during the 2001 purchase of Garriott's Destination Games. From Gamasutra:

Garriott's complaint said NCsoft gave him the "Hobson's choice" of "exercising his options prematurely or risking that NCsoft would refuse to honor the options later."

As a result, according to the filing, Garriott exercised the options within the 90 day window, "[forcing] him to sell into one of the worst equity markets in modern history." The complaint said the move caused Garriott to take on "hundreds of thousands of dollars" in costs and taxes, as well as lose "millions of dollars in value" having lost two-and-a-half years of his options period.

Yikes - I'd be pissed too, if I had to exercise stock options in today's craptastic market, rather than two and a half years hence. The future is uncertain, but the present is certainly the worst time to cash in on just about any stock investment.

But it gets worse: Garriott is claiming that he was fired while he was in post-spaceflight quarantine in Russia, when Chung rang him up and summarily dismissed Garriott. And while Garriott did approve an "open letter" that claimed the designer was leaving in order to pursue "new interests," Garriott now believes that NCsoft orchestrated the letter, ostensibly just a communique to his fans on the internet, as proof of Garriott's voluntary departure. NCsoft approved his leave of absence to visit the International Space Station.

Richard Garriott Says He Was 'Forced Out' Of NCsoft, Sues For $27m [Gamasutra]