I have two short songs he made for PST. These songs aren't on his Metavoid album. I can post them online if anyone wants to hear them.
That would be really awesome! But yeah, any hints to what your sources were?
So this guy does not care to sell the music and does not want to put any effort... then why not release it for free for, clearly, a lot of fans? If he thinks it sucks and not worth buying, why holding it hostage
Well, I think, because he doesn't know, if it COULD, potentially, get him some money in the future. Then again, it might just be that he thinks that releasing the soundtrack == "unreadable format, remastering, full-fledged release, bandcamp, hnnnnnnng, not worth my time". I am actually not sure if it occurred to him, that he could just dump the "unreadable" files (which are perfectly readable, in case they are just .acm+.mus combos, which they probably are, using fan tools) into the Web without any effort (I mean, remastering, etc.) whatsoever other than digging those files up and uploading them to whatever - and it would be perfectly fine for the said fans.
Again, if he catches the wind of the upcoming petition and the stuff, it might occur to him, if I suggest to him to release the stuff for free as is, that I/we is/are the cheap fuck/s trying to trick him into releasing-for-free something that COULD earn him some money after all.
However, I think, what makes sense is writing to him via an email right prior to launching the petition (when all the agreements with media representatives are in place), explaining outright that there are basically two options, and asking about which one he would prefer to pursue.
1) We launch the petition demanding for either an outright release of the remaster or a Kickstarter campaign for said remaster, such and such media representatives are interested and will spread the word. Then I'll outright ask him (once again) to disclose a concrete number of signatures that the petition will need to get for him to seriously consider taking his time to remaster and release the damn thing; as well as suggest that making any sort of official statement regarding the petition after its launch or, maybe, an RPS interview about the "lost" PS:T soundtrack (again, after the petition launch) will probably get much more attention (and, thus, much more signatures) to it, then it would otherwise.
2) He would prefer just to skip all the hassle and to dump all the files he has on the project into the Web for the fans to make sense of them for themselves (and at this point I'll ask for confirmation of whether those files are indeed .acm+.mus combos). If he makes this move, I'll make sure, that ALL the media representatives I will already have agreements with at that moment, will write about this thing (together with the link to his Metavoid bandcamp page or whatever), thus earning him a fair chunk of free promotion outside of his normal fanbase for basically no current effort on his part at all. Again, also suggestions of statements/interviews for even more free self-promotion.
Then we'll just see, what he replies, I guess. And yes, this time, I'll keep the message as brief and up to the point as possible.
And if there won't be any answer at all, then it's petition time.
(Also I am sure even approaching GOG to add the "lost" soundtrack as a goodie, could earn him something.)
Yeah, you have a point (I mean, about contacting GOG). At the very least they could have some advice as to how to handle the situation.
P.S. Got reeeeeally sidetracked once again. Oh, and
Matt Barton is on board for the petition. Also, managed to establish contact with Guido Henkel, who even asked me for the link to this thread (which I sent him), but didn't reply back again (which is totally understandable, since, you know, he's been busy with the Deathfire-related stuff). I'll get back to it (starting from contacting Guido once again, contacting Eurogamer, and contacting GOG representatives for some advise as suggested above) right after the holidays.