No One Knows Who Owns NOLF [Apr 06, 2013, 11:40 am ET] – Share – Viewing Comments
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One Of Swords has a new episode of
One of Swords TV
where "Activision community management team of one" Dan Amrich attempts to sort
through the sticky issue of who owns the rights to No One Lives Forever,
Monolith's spy spoof series, last known to be the property of Vivendi Games
after they acquired with the Fox Interactive catalog. Since Vivendi eventually
merged with Activision, he seems like the one to ask, and Dan explains that some
of the IP they ended up with as a result of that merger has since been sold off,
using the example of Leisure Suit Larry, and that many of the games they
retained are now being sold on GOG.com, using the example of the King's Quest
series. As for NOLF, he says this is something he's asked about himself, going
on to explain:
The person that I normally talk to about this stuff does not believe that we currently the rights. They've never seen it, they've never been given the permission to put that stuff on Good Old Games. He said, basically, 'If we had it, I would love to be able to reissue those old games.' So, that leaves the question if Activision no longer has the rights to No One Lives Forever, who does? Monolith was the developer that handled those games, and they are now part of WB. So I thought, maybe at the time when Activision was saying 'we'll keep these, we'll leave these, we'll sell these, whatever,' maybe Monolith stepped up and took their IP back. So I contacted a friend at Monolith... and he doesn't know. Uh, so, unfortunately, all I can definitively say is that at this time I do not believe that Activision has the rights to No One Lives Forever.
NOLF 2 is available used on Amazon for 8 bucks and Ebay for 6 bucks right now, as I type this. So yes, it is out there. People just like the goodies GOG provides with releases and the ease of install since they fix all the problems that come with using an old game with a new OS. I bought a copy of NOLF 2 last year for 5 bucks on Amazon because one of my discs had busted.
If I was in the business and had the means I would have redone Outlaws, Shogo, Blood, Xwing vs Tie Fighter, Lords of the Realm, and a few other stellar titles of 'old' that come to mind. My vote for most under-rated game of all time is Freedom Force and I would love to see someone do something with that as well. To see them collecting dust while we get crap like "Syndicate" that isn't a reboot so much as franchise rape is frustrating.
Of course, I suppose there isn't anything to prevent someone from screwing up remakes of those classics I mentioned as well, so I guess I should be careful what I wish for. The recent X-Com and Tomb Raider reboots were done fairly well however, so I guess there is some hope.
If I was in the business and had the means I would have redone Outlaws, Shogo, Blood, Xwing vs Tie Fighter, Lords of the Realm, and a few other stellar titles of 'old' that come to mind. My vote for most under-rated game of all time is Freedom Force and I would love to see someone do something with that as well. To see them collecting dust while we get crap like "Syndicate" that isn't a reboot so much as franchise rape is frustrating.
Of course, I suppose there isn't anything to prevent someone from screwing up remakes of those classics I mentioned as well, so I guess I should be careful what I wish for. The recent X-Com and Tomb Raider reboots were done fairly well however, so I guess there is some hope.
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