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Thompson & Knight Lawyer Fashions 'Project Runway' Video Game Deal
Texas Lawyer
November 06, 2009
J. Holt Foster of Thompson & Knight
Image: Mel Lively
Thompson & Knight partner J. Holt Foster has handled video game transactions for many years, but the high-profile deal he just negotiated for Tornado Studios stands out from the pack because it features a photo shoot instead of a shoot-'em-up.
Foster helped Tulsa, Okla.-based Tornado Studios ink a video game development and publishing license agreement for a game based on "Project Runway," a reality television show, starring Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn, that now airs on the Lifetime network.
Tornado Studios' agreement, which was announced in October, is with game publisher Atari Inc., which licensed the rights to use "Project Runway" from The Weinstein Co., a multimedia company that also owns Dimension Films.
"We get to utilize the 'Project Runway' assets and incorporate them into video," Foster says.
Tom Kudirka, owner of Tornado Studios, says he and Foster are good friends, and he has used Foster for a dozen years to handle contract work for 2015 Inc., a video game development company Kudirka founded in 1997, and later for Tornado Studios work. Known for the PC game "Medal of Honor: Allied Assault," 2015 spun off Tornado Studios in 2008; Tornado Studios focuses on family games.
Kudirka says Tornado Studios has been working on a fashion game for months, which the company named "World of Fashion." He says executives at Atari were interested in the fashion game, and the Atari execs negotiated the deal to license "Project Runway" from The Weinstein Co. for the game.
"It was called 'World of Fashion' until about three months ago, then we just simply threw in pictures of Heidi and Tim and then the Weinsteins provided us with all of their voiceovers," Kudirka says. Given the integration of elements from the show, "it really, really is very much a 'Project Runway' video game."
Foster says he and partner Stephen Stein didn't deal with lawyers for The Weinstein Co., but negotiations with Atari stretched out over much of this past summer. Atari and The Weinstein Co. announced the exclusive licensing agreement on Oct. 9. Foster says terms of the deal are confidential.
Senta Wong, a principal in the Boston office of intellectual property firm Fish & Richardson, represented Atari in the negotiations. Wong, formerly director of legal and business affairs at Atari, did not return a telephone call seeking comment before presstime on Oct. 29.
Strike a Pose
The "Project Runway" video game will be released in the spring of 2010 in the Nintendo Wii format. Foster says the licensing agreement allows Atari to later release a "Project Runway"game for other video formats or issue a series.
Kudirka says they expected the game to appeal to girls ages 10 to 13, but it has become clear through product testing that it's fascinating to a larger age range.
"What we found out was there were so many moms who want to play this with their 17-year-old daughters, and they want to play head-to-head and compete," he says.
"You do every aspect of the show. You get to totally design, totally put on the makeup, totally pick your model, totally do the catwalk and do poses on the [Wii Balance] Board," Kudirka says. He notes that the Wii Balance Board is not required to play the game.
Foster says the "Project Runway" licensing agreement is particularly attractive because the market for games for young girls between the ages of 5 and 12 is a major untapped market, and "Project Runway" games should appeal to girls and women of many ages.
Foster says he knows the video game market well because he has represented game developers and publishers for the past 14 years and is one of a group of people who founded a PC and video game publishing company in Dallas in 1998 called Gathering of Developers Inc. In 2000, Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. of New York acquired the company .
