So how did Stardock get involved in this? In 2013 the corporation purportedly bought a few Star Control assets at a bankruptcy auction, but importantly not our games or creative work. Shortly after the auction, Brad Wardell contacted us to see if we would help him make a new Star Control game, or at least license our creative work to Stardock. We gave a clear ‘no’ to both offers, because we wanted to preserve our creative work for our own projects. For the next 4 years Brad Wardell repeatedly asked to license the original material, and each time we rejected him, Brad assured us Stardock would never ever use any of our material without permission. These assurances turned out to be false.
Shortly after we announced Ghosts of the Precursors, Stardock claimed they had always had rights to our original, creative material and began to bundle and sell our game without permission. When we tried to stop these illegal sales, Stardock filed their lawsuit.
We (Fred and Paul) have worked together for 30 years and have seen almost everything the game industry has to offer, but have never seen or experienced a predatory legal attack like this -- an established, corporate publisher attempting to bully two lone developers into surrendering their most treasured game, characters and unique universe.
Kxmode wrote on Jun 24, 2018, 03:59:Initially that's how it was going to be. Stardock even said it wasn't a problem for them.
Why doesn't Stardock just let these guys develop the game and they can publish it?
nomoreshite wrote on Jun 24, 2018, 06:14:No, they probably didnt make millions off Skylanders. Activision did. Billions. And Activision is well known for using every trick in the book to skim off agreed royalties or not pay royalties at all.
They must have made millions from that shit and now come begging...they deserve to lose..
Choobeastia wrote on Jun 23, 2018, 15:15:
There was a legal issue, whereby they couldn't make a new Star Control game because they were working for Activision on Skylanders, and Activision would have gained rights to any game they made. At least, this is the claim, so as a result, they were not able to work on any personal projects and retain the rights to them.
Numinar wrote on Jun 24, 2018, 02:28:All of that is fine, but it doesn't give them license to be assholes.Cutter wrote on Jun 23, 2018, 23:05:Creston wrote on Jun 23, 2018, 22:56:
It sounds to me like you guys are just trying to scam people out of two million dollars.
That's probably it. Can't imagine the property is worth anything remotely close to that. Or ever would be even if they won it all and got a game made. And even if they raised the money and won how the hell could they afford to make a game anyway? Yeah, sounds pretty scammy all around.
It's personal though. This IP meant something to them, something they poured years of work into. Something others have attempted to emulate (Star Control 3) and failed at miserably.
It seems petty but SC2 is one of the earlier games where there is a real sense of authorship, with writing and humor that mostly nails the landings.
The Stardock project has a lot to prove, after their MOO came out and was competent yet missing that spark that makes those early 90's PC games still amazing experiences today. Not that Paul and Fred seemed likely to live up to the previous title either but I can appreciate how they may feel protective over their legacy. Their Activision projects made millions but I imagine Star Control was professionally more fulfilling and important to them than kids/toys to life games.
Cutter wrote on Jun 23, 2018, 23:05:Creston wrote on Jun 23, 2018, 22:56:
It sounds to me like you guys are just trying to scam people out of two million dollars.
That's probably it. Can't imagine the property is worth anything remotely close to that. Or ever would be even if they won it all and got a game made. And even if they raised the money and won how the hell could they afford to make a game anyway? Yeah, sounds pretty scammy all around.
Creston wrote on Jun 23, 2018, 22:56:
It sounds to me like you guys are just trying to scam people out of two million dollars.
In 2013 the corporation purportedly bought a few Star Control assets at a bankruptcy auction
they seek to establish "The Frungy Defense Fund" to pay the legal fees in this battle, which they say will total around two million dollars
Choobeastia wrote on Jun 23, 2018, 20:25:There are a ton of details that your analogy does not consider. That said, I agree that we should just let the courts figure it out. From my perspective, it seems like Stardock is operating in good faith and the original creators are not. Stardock bought the IP with the obvious intention to make a game. There has been absolutely no movement on the IP for over 30 years so it's a stretch for me to see any damages this might cause Fred and Paul. It's not certain that Star Control is even a profitable IP at this point, Star Dock took a risk spending any money on this.
That's like saying that George R.R. Martin is taking too long on the next Game of Thrones book, so an HBO writer should write it instead, and then try to claim that he wasn't the original author because he has a publishing company. Just let the court decide, rather than looking at the world all, "I like Guy A more than Guy B, so Guy A is totes right ya'll!"
Cutter wrote on Jun 23, 2018, 13:19:
2 million bucks? Hahaha! Yeah good luck with that. Case is an obvious loser otherwise they'd have had no problem finding a lawyer to take it pro bono. I imagine they've been told that by plenty of lawyers too. I doubt they'll even raise 1% of that. And rightfully so. These clowns need to learn to let go, shut the fuck up, and just move on already. Jesus, the IP isn't even worth.
Vach wrote on Jun 23, 2018, 13:31:
Taking them like f**king 30 years to want to make a new Star Control?
But now they want to make one when someone made one, yeah sure.
I hope they end up bankrupt and losing their own IP forever.