Ghosts of the Precursors, the actual Star Control 3 by Toys for Bob.

Link

With the Skylanders franchise and the Toys-to-Life market itself rapidly declining, it seems that Activision has allowed Paul and Fred to do something else for the change.

They barely started development, though, so currently there is nothing besides the fact that the true SC 3 exists.

edited 18th Oct '17 1:54:02 PM by Shinr

THERE IS A GOD.

looks at Tf Bs then and now photo

Christ they were KIDS when they made SC 2.

Timely announcement, what with the new Star Control game being made by Stardock (Which looks like a Spore, NMS, SPAZ copy.)

I hope this one gets the spirit. The new one looks to have some powerful editing tools but I wonder if that just means the core elements will be undercooked with an expectation that the community will make something.

Keeping an eye on this!

So it turns out Stardock are being massive dicks about this, filing a lawsuit against Fred & Paul and demanding that they stop referring to themselves as the creators of Star Control, amongst other things.

That is very disappointing. The original 2 not sharing their IP could be seen as "dickish" by some but, to be honest, how many creators have been swindled out of their creations, only to see them smashed to pieces.

I was hoping there'd be a sensible compromise, but it seems Stardock think they can squash this by legal steamroller and constant delaying (Hoping to just grind them down). I would like to see BOTH projects - this posturing just seems petty.

I am unsure about IP law, especially considering the confusion around IP ownership (At least unti that admission by Atari AND Stardock)

I can just see some IP judge siding with Stardock for some really stupid reason as well. But that's my cynicism coming through. That agreement they offered seems reasonable but I think the people driving this have actually moved beyond reason. This is beyond even Zenimax levels of lawsuit.

Fred and Paul are asking for help, $2 Million for estimated legal fees.

I sympathise, but if you look at how the whole thing has played out - they hired a PR firm to target Stardock.

Brad from there is a bit of a problem, yes, but he does make one point - why didn't they challenge sales before now? Is this setting Stardock up as a reason for them not releasing their game?

Either way this is a messy messy legal case. Spacebattles has quite a back and forth going on about which side has more stable grounding.

Hate to say it, but it looks like the guys behind this revival of Star Control might be screwed. And honestly, I was kinda rooting more for them over Brad.

Star Control 3 will be released on September 20th.

No word yet on how the legal case is proceeding with Ghosts of the Precursors, but sadly it isn't looking good - development still seems to be halted, and the hearing for the trial is in March 2019.

They haven't updated since June which is concerning.

SC 3 does look good. I understand their protectionism to a point but this whole thing sounds like a strange escalation.

Star Control Origins is apparently being pulled from stores because of laws regarding selling thing that is currently under copyright dispute.

Ye are getting a feeling that Stardock should have just agreed to "We don't actually own Star Control series" because they are definitely losing much more money when they decided to contest the ownership with original creators

Yah, Stardock loss their demand for an injunction against them being DMCA'd by Fred and Paul. Massively. The Judge was not kind.

Note that it's just the request for injunction.

Could've just played nice and let Toys For Bob make their game, put those childhood lessons in sharing to good use and earned a little public goodwill, but noooo.

I probably would've ended up playing both if not for the lawsuit. As it is I never did get Origins. Just didn't feel right about it.

Edited by Unsung on Jan 3rd 2019 at 2:19:25 AM

Yeah I held off - it felt unfinished or a weird diluted version. I am sad for the dev team it's been removed but NOT sad for the impact on Stardock. Talking about "What a shame, gotta let the devs go."

They pushed their luck though, which the judge saw right through. Selling, then trying to block Toys for Bob making DCMA claims... judge just went "you knew they'd be within their rights, tried it on."

So, Origins feels like a bit of a cash grab... which in turn feels like they aren't as confident in the rights as they claimed. But that's not been ruled on YET. A shame, as apparently the game is actually not TERRIBLE. But haven't seen anything from TFB yet...

Because legally, they haven't been able to work on it on account of this lawsuit, as I understand.

Uh wait what

Lawsuits being amicable settled in this day and age? O_o The hell?

Great! What they should have done in the first place. Maybe now I'll actually try the new Star Control.

You're missing out on the detail that this is resolved by the three mens' mutual love of bees and mead.

Which frankly is the insane resolution this entire equally insane saga deserves.

"You love bees? I love bees!"

"And Reiche makes mead!"

"Well fuck this lawsuit. Take your bees' honey, my bees' honey, and lets all go to Reiche and make mead and get drunk!"

Edited by Ghilz on Jun 12th 2019 at 4:09:39 AM

I know RIGHT o_o This is just absurd on so many levels

Excuse me, what? They just settled all of a sudden and everything's peachy?

How did THAT happen?

Because of Bees

Glad that's over with. Technically this is a win for Fred and Paul considering it was stardock demanding all the nastiness in the first place and considering this happened after an incident in which the judges absolutely slapped stardock for Origins.

Just goes to show MEAD makes all ones problems go away.

I now feel less guilty own SC: Origins and will happily purchase TF Bs new game.

Origins is very much a thinner beast though. BUT at least the originals will be going back on sale.