Space Adventurer Sues for Losing Earth Job

Millionaire Richard Garriott says game company let him go during a "quarantine call"

By Jeremy Hsu Posted 05.07.2009 at 1:31 pm 8 Comments

Space Ship/ Pink Slip iStockPhoto

Space tourism hazards don't usually include losing your day job, but that's apparently what happened to geek millionaire Richard Garriott. The game designer is suing the company NCsoft for $24 million, based on the claim that NCsoft wrongly defined his departure as voluntary and forced him to sell off company stock options early.

The lawsuit puts a new twist on Garriott's space adventure last fall. As the son of former astronaut Owen Garriott, Richard turned to game design after his poor eyesight disqualified him from following his father's path, and then earned millions by founding his own game publishing company and creating games like "Ultima Online."

That allowed the younger Garriott to pay his way into space and blast off on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to visit the International Space Station in October 2008. He even did promotional tie-ins in space for his new massively multiplayer game, Tabula Rasa, which was published by NCsoft.

Despite this professional bond, Garriott received a call from NCsoft's head of North American operations during his post-flight Russian quarantine; NCsoft had decided to terminate him, and took the liberty of posting a farewell message, supposedly written by the game designer.

"Many of you probably wonder what my plans are, now that I have achieved the lifelong dream of going to space," the message read. "Well, that unforgettable experience has sparked some new interests that I would like to devote my time and resources to. As such, I am leaving NCsoft to pursue those interests."

If what the lawsuit alleges is true, NCsoft "created false documentation indicating that Mr. Garriott had voluntarily resigned from his employment." Garriott supposedly tried, repeatedly, to get that documentation changed to reflect his involuntary resignation, but in the end had to sell his company stock options off within 90 days, as he'd otherwise lose them. It's probably not the life-changing experience that Garriott had in mind when he first looked toward space.

You can check out the full contents of the filed lawsuit here, courtesy of GamerPolitics.

Previous Article: The Anti-Swimmer Torpedo

Next Article: Racing the Sun

Want to read more articles on the military, aviation, and space? Subscribe to Popular Science today, for less than $1 per issue!

8 Comments

Link to this comment

animemaster

05/07/09 at 3:53 pm

It makes me cry when a billionaire looses his job. It's expansive to feed a family in space. Sorry, I really don't have anything against him. If I had the cash I might go to space.

Link to this comment

bdhoro87

05/07/09 at 7:34 pm

Yeah that's whack that he's suing them. I mean, he voluntarily went up into space, I think they had every right to say that's a voluntary resignation if he needs to be quarantined after that. They could have let him keep the options though.

Link to this comment

michaelng

05/08/09 at 11:49 am

Billionaire or not, it's wrong for a company to just terminate you by misrepresentation. From the article, I don't think he cared whether he got fired for not. It's the fact that he had to sell his stock option based on "voluntary" status. Basically, he was forced to sell them when he shouldn't have to since it was involuntary.

So what, you go on vacation and come back and your company tells you that you voluntarily resigned? How F*up is that?

Link to this comment

kyleb2112

05/08/09 at 2:01 pm

They had every right to fire him, but that bit about the stock options sounds like they were trying to legally rob him, too. Sounds like they deserve each other.

Link to this comment

electric rain

05/08/09 at 2:58 pm

1. Your reading my comment
2. Now your saying/thinking thats a stupid fact.
4. You didnt notice that i skipped 3.
5. Your checking it now.
6. Your smiling.
7. Your still reading my comment.
8. You know all you have read is true.
10. You didnt notice that i skipped 9.
11. Your checking it now.
12. You didnt notice there are only 10 facts

Copy and paste to 1 article, tomorrow will be your best day ever! no matter what

Link to this comment

dontbother

05/10/09 at 12:46 pm

For "electric rain": you need to learn the difference between "your" and "you're", it makes your piece look even more stupid than it is.

Link to this comment

EvinsWardlaw

07/27/09 at 3:27 pm

Actually, it's not whack. I would suggest taking some time to educate yourself on the case by reading the legal briefing before making such declarative statements. Richard Garriot & NCSoft had a Stock Option Agreement existing 10 years from the day NCSoft purchased Garriott's software company, Destination Games. Per the Agreement, if he left NCSoft voluntarily, he would have 90 days to exercise his stock options or NCSoft could eliminate them.
If he were terminated involuntarily, he would have the entire 10 years to exercise his stock options... allowing him to wait until a healthier stock market or after the launch of Aion, NCSoft's latest MMO title.
Second, Garriott had been on the waiting list for the Russian space flight for many years. His turn came up after Tabula Rasa had already launched... and he used the space flight to promote his "space themed MMO", Tabula Rasa. He send coded messages from space to Tabula Rasa players and held a promotional campaign, Operation Immortality, where players, scientists, and celebrities could have their DNA sent through space. NCSoft also pre-approved his "Leave of Absence" for the space flight and Garriot agreed to decreased pay while on leave for the space flight.

Technology

+ More Photo Galleries

June 2013: American Energy Independence

Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more.