Would any of the developers care to comment? This is very troubling news and I imagine the Star Control fanbase will not be encouraged to hear Stardock is suing and blocking Fred and Paul from making the next game as you originally stated you were going to allow. Would really like to hear more about this from your side.
https://forums.starcontrol.com/487690/page/1/
Perfect. Thank you. I missed that.
And as a Founder, if you were on Discord, it's chatted about now and again. Brad's hands are tied in what he can bring up due to the court orders on it all, mind.
I imagine the Star Control fanbase will not be encouraged to hear Stardock is suing and blocking Fred and Paul from making the next game
I believe the wider gaming community sees Paul and Fred as miserable sorry old has beens without a legal leg to stand on. Reading the email exchanges between the two parties is eye opening. Stardock gives too much undue credit and respect to Paul & Fred. F-em.
I wouldn't go so far as to call Paul and Fred "has beens". And keep in mind there is no Star Control: Origins without their work 25 years ago. I probably jumped the gun posting, after a brief search, assuming it wouldn't have been commented on here as Paul and Fred's GoFundMe page seems pretty damning against Stardock and I was referred to it by a veteran insider. So I was looking for Stardock's side of the story. I guess we won't know for certain how this all plays out until the courts decide, but it's sad that it came to this in the first place. From a neutral perspective, it would seem Paul and Fred overplayed a hand that was generously dealt to them by Stardock, and should have made an effort to revive this title long before Stardock invested in it, if that truly is their motive here. Particularly with the amount of pressure they've gotten from fans for the last two decades that have been told again and again "it can't be done". It appears that Brad went above and beyond his legal obligations to settle this in a way best for everyone but they just didn't want to share. Oh well...
If you talk to Brad, you can just feel the disappointment over all of this. For much of his life, they were his idols. They were part of the reason he went into game development! This entire scenario really disillusioned him.Remember, he offered to sell them everything from Atari at cost just in the hopes they'd make a new Star Control game. They declined.He asked them to work with Stardock to make SCO. They declined (but only after being told no by Activison, interestingly enough. They implied there was a legitimate interest in working on the project if you read the emails).He kept them in the loop the entire time and declined using the original races because they asked him not to and he respected that.He wanted to make a studio built around them to work on a proper SC3 and beyond.Then they started claiming to have rights to terms like Super Melee. That Stardock couldn't sell the classic games, not even SC3. YEARS after this all started. They undercut Stardock in the announcements of Ghosts, declaring it the sequel to STAR CONTROL 2, violating the trademark that Stardock paid for and worked on for years now. They hired an expensive crisis PR firm to go around calling Brad, personally, a thief and scumbag. I grew up on the Star Control games. I loved The Horde. This has all left a bad taste in my mouth as far as Fred and Paul are concerned. It sucks. Yet I can't blame Brad. He has to defend his trademark and the work his people have put into SCO. And, frankly, he's the likely only source for new Star Control for the next decade. Not because he intends to stop F&P from making their game, but because they've found every and any excuse not to for two decades.
I can imagine this has been a huge bummer, particularly with this franchise. Maybe Fred and Paul will come around before it gets too out of control (though I imagine that has already happened) and contribute. But if not, there is no better landing spot than Stardock, in my opinion. In fact, when word got out that Brad had bought the rights I was ecstatic. I'm going to go back to being excited about Origins now and maybe even get Beta access soon? (hint hint)Thanks for the prompt responses. Really looking forward to locking myself in my office and exploring the universe again soon.
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https://forums.starcontrol.com/487690/
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