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Sierra On-Line President acknowledges lawsuit in interview with The Vault - Lord of the Rings news - J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings

August 25, 2000 at 14:02:54

David Grenewetzki, President of Sierra On-Line, has now confirmed that a lawsuit has been filed by his company against the Saul Zaentz Company.

Citing confidentiality obligations, Grenewetzki remained vague on details of both the lawsuit and development of Tolkien-based games deriving from the disputed license in an interview conducted by David Frank and Richard Aihoshi, representatives of The Vault. The Vault created several message boards for the use of the original Sierra On-Line Middle-earth development team and its potential user community. The message boards have been maintained despite the sudden halt on development of the massively multiplayer online game in September 1999.

Sierra On-Line issued a statement then saying the game would be redesigned and restaffed, but there have been no further public comments from Sierra employers confirming that progress has been made on the new game. Grenewetzki says that the current legal dispute has had a negative impact on the game's development.

He also confirmed that several former Sierra employers, all members of the discontinued original development team, were subpoenaed by the Saul Zaentz Company to give depositions. Xenite.Org has independently confirmed that one or more of the employees did give depositions.

The Saul Zaentz Company is said to be trying to revoke Sierra's license on the basis of the dissolution of the original development project.