People probably already know that Dino Patti, co-founder of Playdead, left the studio with the other co-founder Arnt Jensen staying back in July 2016. Yesterday in the Danish financial news paper Børsen it was revealed that there had been quite a messy divorce between the two with lawyers and having to buy out the co-founder. Here are the Cliff's Notes version (loosely translated)
http://borsen.dk/nyheder/avisen/artikel/11/160805/artikel.html
- The conflict started in 2015 when Patti felt that "the last couple of years it has been a bit silent at the office for my temper. You make a new game every fourth or sixth year, so not much is going on" (my translation)
- The resolution to the conflict broke down over who owned the rights of the games
- Since 2015 the two creators were not on speaking terms and only communicated through lawyers where each party tried to gain control of the company
- On the 10th of November 2015 Arnt Jensen wrote that "after heavy consideration, I have to find other avenues to continue my creative activities through" (my translation)
- This shocked Patti who then removed Jensen as the executive from Playdead's CVR registry, since to him it was clear that Jensen didn't want to work there any more
- Jensen's lawyers disagreed with this and meant that he only resigned as creative director, not as the co-owner of the company.
- After some time, the Danish Business Authority had to force Patti out due to continued disagreement between the two parties
- Patti was paid 50 million DKK (~7.2 million USD) for 49 percent of the company
- Arnt Jensen refuses to comment
- Patti thinks that he wasn't compensated for what the company actually is worth and he would still at any time trade his 50 million DKK for a solution that made him co-director at the company.
- When questioned, Patti feels like it is asking about a divorce from a girlfriend. It's very personal.
http://borsen.dk/nyheder/avisen/artikel/11/160805/artikel.html