Planet Coaster dev suing Atari over $2.2M in unpaid royalties

Frontier Developments, known recently for Planet Coaster, is suing Atari to resolve the issue of unpaid royalties owed from the sales of the 2003 game RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 and its expansions.

The legal action comes as a result of reports from an unnamed website that indicated the game sold more copies than originally reported by Atari.

According to that site, Frontier should’ve pulled $3.37 million in royalties from RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 and its two expansions, rather than the $1.17 million indicated by Atari’s numbers

A statement given to Eurogamer from Frontier confirmed the original TMZ report, stating that Frontier first tried to solve things directly with Atari, but that the publisher hasn’t been cooperative. 

"We can confirm Frontier is currently pursuing a complaint against Atari. We have attempted to resolve this issue without legal action since April 2016,” said Frontier chief operating officer David Walsh.

“We have so far been denied our contractual right to audit by Atari, and we are unfortunately left with no other way to resolve our concerns. We are unable to offer any further comment while the matter is subject to due legal process."