Game News Mystery solved? "Anonymous industry source" reveals unpaid royalties as reason for BG:EE takedown

[Misconnected]

Sea you might want to suggest mentioning whether a source is verified, if it's anonymous. As it is, readers could reasonably assume the alleged source is actually a prank, or that it has never existed. [EDIT: if there's one thing readers can usually rely on, it's that in the rare instances where gaming media actually do know what they're spewing, it's because it's shit they've made up themselves.]

It also seems like a golden opportunity to start writing some serious journo shite about IP & Copyrights in video gaming. Despite being massively popular, the franchise has been dead for a decade. In any sane legal framework, everyone and their fucking uncle's camel's parrot would be free to reverse & re-enginner the shit out of every last bit of it, and release it in whatever manner they please - with no regards or obligations to the original creators or subsequent rights holders. The current situation is a massive disservice to both audience and market place - as the history of this particular franchise so very aptly demonstrates.

What does he have to hide by being anonymous?

Because he'd like to preserve his career and not destroy any future opportunities. [EDIT: another opportunity for some meaningful journalism there - how about examining the implications of the lack of job security and legal protection for employees?]

 

[evdk]

What does he have to hide by being anonymous?

Because he'd like to preserve his career and not destroy any future opportunities.

In case the hurrdurr and american guy haven't given it away: I was not serious.

 

[Misconnected]

In case the hurrdurr and american guy haven't given it away: I was not serious.

Sorry..

 

[tindrli]

And they're licensing an entire fucking game. I'd be shocked if there weren't massive, punitive royalties involved. Selling mods is a pretty effortless business to be in, really.

True, I wouldn't be surprised if they have to pay something like 60% as royalties... they may fool retards into thinking it's a massive overhauls with shitloads of new stuff, but I doubt that Atari is that dumb.

crap. 60 % is just too much.. accept that kind of a deal is just retarded thing to do, doomed before you even started, unless they did it for love and WE ALL KNOW how that turned out.. the game sucks HARD!!!.. i just dont get it .. 60 % for owing the shit and not dooing anything...

in every case i find this very interesting thing since its first time im hearing about royalties and among other things i see it as a pure Jewish crap, anyway lets hope that we will get an info about that percentage.. a leaked one at least... hell and i was thinking something like 2 - 5 % max and 5 % is a robbery

 

[Grunker]

^ I think Trent's heart was in the right place initially. The reason he is such a cunt is that he pushed on and on and on way after any sane man realized what a fucking disaster this was.

 

[tindrli]

^ I think Trent's heart was in the right place initially. The reason he is such a cunt is that he pushed on and on and on way after any sane man realized what a fucking disaster this was.

i wonder.. did they had any deadline to make since it seems that Atari owns their asses ??

why did they released unfinished product in a first place?? -50 bugs are acceptable IMHO.. but this thing that they made.. i just dont get it..

and it smells like GREEEEEEEEEDDD

 

[evdk]

crap. 60 % is just too much.. accept that kind of a deal is just retarded thing to do, doomed before you even started, unless they did it for love and WE ALL KNOW how that turned out.. the game sucks HARD!!!.. i just dont get it .. 60 % for owing the shit and not dooing anything...

in every case i find this very interesting thing since its first time im hearing about royalties and among other things i see it as a pure Jewish crap, anyway lets hope that we will get an info about that percentage.. a leaked one at least... hell and i was thinking something like 2 - 5 % max and 5 % is a robbery

60% is not that crazy when you consider that without the IP they wouldn't have sold one copy.

 

[tindrli]

com on bro,, ,60 %??? a 60 MOTHERFUCKIN %... ????

what is IP anyway???

well maybe your right, but only if they thought to sell over 2 million copies which i dubt

 

[felipepepe]

60% is not that crazy when you consider that without the IP they wouldn't have sold one copy.

Exactly. He's not developing a game from scratch, he's taking a quite famous game, doing some (half-assed) work on it and them re-releasing it.

People do way better mods and translations for free... just think about it, if the guy that did WEiDU was allowed to sell BG and keep 40% of the profit! Not to mention even larger free mods, like Black Mesa... 60% is quite gentle considering how simply releasing BG on Steam would already result in massive sales numbers... the "Enhanced" part is the least important here.

 

[80Maxwell08]

^ I think Trent's heart was in the right place initially. The reason he is such a cunt is that he pushed on and on and on way after any sane man realized what a fucking disaster this was.

My thoughts exactly. He wanted to bring back his favorite type of game and didn't stop when every sign was pointing towards disaster. Personally I think he should have stopped the moment they couldn't get the original art assets.

 

[Kz3r0]

The Muslim Brotherhood supports BG:EE

If you support BG:EE you support terrorism.

Makes sense.

 

[himmy]

Waiting for Beamdog to be put on the Terrorist Organization list.

 

[Dreaad]

^ I think Trent's heart was in the right place initially. The reason he is such a cunt is that he pushed on and on and on way after any sane man realized what a fucking disaster this was.

My thoughts exactly. He wanted to bring back his favorite type of game and didn't stop when every sign was pointing towards disaster. Personally I think he should have stopped the moment they couldn't get the original art assets.

Complete and utter BS, the premise itself makes no sense. If you like something and want to do it credit you do not release it if you know it's worse than the original. If you like cake you're not going to make a cake out of shit and then try and sell it. There is only three viable explanations for BG:EE the first one being that Beamdog are retarded AND talentless. The second one being that they are greedy and don't care. The last one being that they got in over their heads, made some sort of monetary investment and were forced to continue to work on what was clearly a broken design..... but even if the third one is true.... why not just cut out your retarded "enhancements" that are causing 1000+ bugs and just release the thing with higher resolutions and the black pits. Sure the fans would rage at you but probably far less than for ruining the entire IP for the new generation, especially if you claim that BG1/2 means a lot you. The entire thing just reeks of jew gold.

 

[Delterius]

Yes, I'm sure their initial plan was to milk fans of a franchise to the unmeasurable levels of Interplay success. Unmeasured greed? Yes, but not in a saturday morning cartoon way (not that greed isn't already exalted as a virtue these days) - I doubt they actually set out to release a shoddy EE.

But, and adding to other's point here, they should have stopped back when a BG:EE revealed itself for the legal hell it is - re-releasing a decade old game with such a strong modding community and, yet, with such a tight grip on the original content, is insane.

 

[Grunker]

snip

It seems it's getting quoted a lot here recently:

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

re-releasing a decade old game with such a strong modding community and, yet, with such a tight grip on the original content, is insane.

Correction: re-releasing a decade old game which already had a re-release for modern platforms (gog's).

 

[Delterius]

Is it?

I posted on the BG:EE forums. I 'held the line' [of sanity] in the wastelands of BSN. The RPG Codex is my haven of stability and reasonable conversation on the nature of RPGs.

THOSE PEOPLE WOULD HAVE BEEN HAPPY TO PAYING FOR REPACKAGED FREEWARE

And that's the saddest part, really. Oster couldn't even deliever that. The only thing sadder is Black Isle's raising and their joking about how they couldn't say Fall***.

 

[80Maxwell08]

I'm going to go ahead and just let Grunker continue since he basically saying what I would have said.

Beamdog are retarded AND talentless.

I will say this is a strong possibility though. Wish we had some official confirmation by a source that could be named on what's happening. A source whose name isn't Trent Oster.

 

[Grunker]

Is it?

I posted on the BG:EE forums. I 'held the line' [of sanity] in the wastelands of BSN. The RPG Codex is my haven of stability and reasonable conversation on the nature of RPGs.

THOSE PEOPLE WOULD HAVE BEEN HAPPY TO PAYING FOR REPACKAGED FREEWARE

And that's the saddest part, really. Oster couldn't even deliever that. The only thing sadder is Black Isle's raising and their joking about how they couldn't say Fall***.

everything is shit

 

[Delterius]

Well, not everything. GoG gave me Ultima IV and Arkania for free