EXCLUSIVE: Playdead Co-Founder Dino Patti on Playdead's Lawsuit Against Him

Could you please share a few words about the establishment of Playdead, your role in the development of Limbo and Inside, and your relationship with Arnt before 2016 and your departure?

Dino: Because of the lawsuit, I'll try to be as factual as possible. Sorry if it feels a bit dry. LIMBO is Arnt [Jensen]'s idea, and according to him, he worked on the concept for around two years before I met him. When we met, he had just released a small 1-minute concept trailer made in After Effects. That was the basis of my writing to him. I emailed him on September 27, 2006.

At that point, while he had a lot of thoughts about the vision for the game, there really wasn't much. It was essentially that video, some concept art, a couple of pages of text, and loads of ideas. My impression was that he quickly realized I would be instrumental in executing on this vision, so after our first meeting, we started spending more and more time together to plan the execution of making the game. Arnt was quick to forward everything to me as he could feel I was good at "executing," and I quickly took a lot of ownership and responsibility for the project.

Around November 2006, I asked him if he wanted me to go full-time on the project, and he thought that was a good idea. In December 2006, I arranged our first week-long trip to the UK, where we met some of the major publishers that had been writing to him. And on January 1st, I got us our first office. From that point on, we met almost every day to make LIMBO happen.

Arnt had already created the legal entity in December 2006, but early in 2007, I realized how much I would have to sacrifice to make this happen, and I told him I wanted to be an equal partner if he wanted to work with me. It was very obvious to him that he would not make this without me at that point. After some negotiation on the details – and a natural delay because we were busy – I bought 49% of the company for 120,000 DKK (around $19,000 today), registered in November 2007. That money also went into funding the early production.

All throughout the production of LIMBO and most of INSIDE, I thought we had an amazing partnership. Arnt and I would meet a couple of times a week to discuss the direction of LIMBO/INSIDE and the vision for the whole company. I would usually go out and execute on the decisions we made together. We complemented each other a lot in these meetings, and our personalities worked well outwardly too. If you look at most interviews from that time, we did them together as equal partners.

Arnt was definitely in the directing role on the game. But building the company from scratch, there is just a lot, and I was doing the actual work on almost everything else as a kind of Swiss Army knife, until we slowly found people who could take on specific roles full-time.

Back in 2017, you mentioned "some kind of fallout" as one of the main reasons behind your exit – were you specifically referring to your falling out with Arnt?

Dino: I think this court case will give you the full picture of the fallout, and before that becomes public, I'll refrain from talking too much about it.

My main fallout with Arnt was at the end of 2015, and the reason for it became clear to me during that year. In my opinion, it's all something he constructed, and it took me too long to realize that the best solution was for me to leave and get compensated for my work, up until then.

Before this, I really felt that Playdead was my baby, and that I would "die" there. The thought of leaving Playdead was extremely weird for a long time, because we had fought so hard together to make it all happen.

Of course, today I'm super happy. Everything happens for a reason, and I've done bigger and better things since, with much better partners by my side.

I actually rarely think about Arnt, even though he does everything he can to get my attention.

In your personal opinion, are Playdead's actions against you (the removal from game credits, the lawsuit) warranted?

Dino: I really don't understand Arnt's actions. I think he should just focus on making the best game possible and releasing it.

After, and maybe because of, the fallout in 2015, he's been convincing himself and people around him that he did the whole 9.5-year journey of building Playdead from the ground up, alone. Why? I don't know. Maybe it makes him feel better? But I just know it's factually wrong. Luckily, the people around us and the (online) paper trails are still there to tell the true story.

His trying to delete me has actually made me more vocal on the subject.

When you were leaving the studio, you probably had to sign a multitude of contracts with Playdead covering a variety of topics and issues – does removing your name constitute a breach of contract on Playdead's part, or is it something that's not technically illegal?

Dino: They are clearly in breach of the contract we made when splitting up, as there was a specific clause on how they were supposed to credit me in INSIDE. They also did it correctly at release. It was many years after the release of both games that they changed the credits and breached our contract.

As I answered back to the courts a few weeks ago, this is part of my counterclaim.

Could you please walk us through the lawsuit? What exactly was in that LinkedIn post that triggered it? How did you find out that Playdead was planning to sue you before they actually did? And when the lawsuit was filed, did you learn about it directly from them, or only when they shared the information with 80 Level?

Dino: The lawsuit is about two things: me posting the LIMBO picture on a LinkedIn post (that I deleted after they contacted me, as this is apparently considered a copyright infringement in Denmark) and me writing PLAYDEAD, LIMBO, and INSIDE in a graphical (random) font on my online CV on LinkedIn.

If you think it sounds small and stupid, I can't hold it against you.

He's been threatening me with lawsuits several times over the last nine years, and I've basically ignored them as there's never been any grounds. I don't think he has grounds in this case either, but I think he felt he had to take it all the way, at one point.

Since I left, he has only communicated through Mads Wibroe (his right-hand man during the fallout, then producer, now COO) and mostly lawyers. He's never engaged in direct dialogue.

In this case, they threatened me first, and that was the letter I put online. I read about the actual court filing from the 80 Level confirmation, before I got the official letter.

Are you still on speaking terms with 98% of Playdead staff? Were you warned about the lawsuit by some of your former colleagues? As far as you know, what do they think about this entire debacle?

Dino: When I left, I believe there were around 27 employees at Playdead. Several left at that time or just after. Whether that was because of the fallout or just fatigue after 1-2 productions, I don't know. Combined with his scaling the company to nearly 100 people today, there isn't much overlap in people I know there.

I still talk to a few people there, but we don't really talk about the conflict at all. I also don't think it's something discussed internally now, just behind closed doors.

At the time of the fallout, I know he was badmouthing me to some of the core employees, saying my behavior was greedy, and that the amount I got when I sold my shares (DKK 50m for almost half the company) was too much compared to what those employees should receive. The ironic truth is that he has since made dividends of approximately the same amount: DKK 49m (pulled from Playdead's public accounts) to his own privately owned company, so I wonder if he ever compensated those core employees now that he's the sole owner.

Now that your confrontation with Playdead has reached the courtroom, what are your thoughts about the impending proceedings? How strong do you think the studio's case against you is?

Dino: Me, my lawyer, and other third-party lawyers with expertise in this field – all believe that I will win the case. Of course, you can never feel too sure since it's up to a judge, but I'm not stressing too much about it.

The court hearing is in November next year, and I've agreed to enter into dialogue with them later this month to see if there's a compromise to be made before then.

From what I've heard, Arnt is not even planning to join those conversations. In my experience, he will again send someone without any power or agency to just deliver his unreasonable requirements. I'm very open to a solution, but the chances of meeting in court are still high.

You mentioned that you view the court battle as an opportunity to bring everything into the open, does that mean that once under oath, you'd be able to reveal the details about your falling out with Arnt, the reason behind your departure, and everything else you're legally not allowed to share right now?

Dino: There are loads of details I've shared with the court now, especially around the fallout, that I've refrained from talking about publicly.

To be honest, I haven't really dug into which parts I can talk about and which I can't, so I've held back publicly just to be absolutely sure I don't give him any more ammunition. But I do think it's important for the court to know the full background and history, since he's presented them with a twisted version of the truth.

Dino Patti, CEO at coherence, Ex-CEO & Co-Founder of Playdead

Interview conducted by Theodore McKenzie