Video game designer-turned-space traveler awarded $28 million by jury

By Eriq Gardner

Famed video game designer Richard Garriot has just taken one hell of a trip.

Two years ago, the man behind blockbuster role-playing games Ultima and Tabula Rasa spent $30 million of his own money to be a space tourist on a trip to the International Space Station.

He left video game publisher NCSoft and penned an open letter to the gaming community talking about his space dreams. Or so everyone thought. Garriot later claimed the letter was forged and that NCSoft forced him out of a job he had no intention of leaving.

Whether the dismissal was voluntary, as the company claimed, or non-voluntary, as Garriot claimed, became an issue for trial at a Texas federal court. Garriot said his firing meant he was forced to sell 400,000 shares of the company stock at a moment the company's market position was terrible.

A jury has just agreed with Garriot's assessment of what occurred, ordering NCSoft to pay him $28 million, just short of what it cost him to get into outer space. 

NCSoft says it will appeal.