Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III, the lead builders of the unique Star Control video games, have despatched their legal professionals into the fight Stardock started over the series and filed a counterclaim of their very own. Stardock are at the moment making a reboot-o-prequel to the sci-fi RPG-o-adventure, named Star Control: Origins, after shopping for Star Control property from Atari in 2013 and need to make fairly clear who’s in control of the sequence and rights. Ford and Reiche, who’re at the moment making a Star Control sequel in all however title, contest that Atari couldn’t have bought sure rights to Stardock as a result of that they had reverted to Ford and Reiche lengthy earlier than then.
Stardock are courtfighting with Ford and Reiche over three predominant issues: who holds the rights to the unique video games and might promote them; who can use characters and lore created for the unique video games; and who’s allowed to affiliate their new recreation with the originals.
Mess #1: each events promoting the unique video games at instances and claiming the opposite by no means had the correct to. Ford and Reiche had bought these first Star Controls by means of the digital retailer GOG for a number of years, after noticing Atari had been promoting them. As Ford and Reiche tell it, Atari acknowledged that Atari held the Star Control trademark however the pair held the rights to the video games, they usually struck a deal to chop them in. Stardock say the duo didn’t have the rights to do that.
Stardock, for his or her half, began promoting the unique video games by means of the Steam retailer in 2017, and Ford and Reiche say they didn’t have the correct to do this. The duo say they petitioned Steam to take away them however Steam sided with Stardock’s counter-claim. Talking of a have to “clear the deck” whereas making an attempt to resolve all this, Ford and Reiche eliminated the video games from GOG in December. However, the video games returned to the shop a number of weeks later at Stardock’s bidding.
Mess #2: the legal guidelines of lore. Ford and Reiche say they personal the copyright on the primary two video games, lore and aliens and all. Wardell has publicly acknowledged this. Ford and Reiche’s counterclaim consists of a number of snippets of e-mails from Wardell asking if they might organize offers to incorporate a few of the previous aliens or ships, which they turned down. They had been a bit riled, then, to see paintings of alien races from their video games on Stardock’s web site. They say that the spacepolice in Origins are referred to as Star Control, which is a part of lore they created. And they are saying they see a ship of theirs on this Origins advertising screenshot:
Mess #three: associating your new recreation with the previous Star Controls. Ford and Reiche are at the moment making Ghosts Of The Precursors, a recreation they’ve described as “a direct sequel to Star Control II”. It doesn’t use the Star Control title but it surely’s the identical world, the identical story, and the identical type of factor, choosing up from the final one they made earlier than one other developer stepped in. Stardock object to Ford and Reiche basically inserting Ghosts in a sequence Stardock really feel they personal, they dislike Ford and Reiche utilizing previous Star Control cowl artwork in selling it, they usually even object to the pair calling themselves the “creators” of the primary two video games.
Stardock’s submitting says that it’s Accolade–the publishers–who created Star Control I and II. They declare that “any authorship that Reiche and Ford may have contributed to the Classic Star Control Games was limited” as a result of the video games had been the product of a workforce. More than that, Stardock say they’ve purpose to imagine the pair “could not have created any of the paintings, animation or characters included within the video games, or in any other case considerably contributed to the authorship” of the primary two video games.
As a lot as I dislike our tradition’s cult of auteurship which assigns all credit score (or blame) to just one or two folks whereas downplaying others, Stardock do appear to be getting a bit carried away. In video video games vernacular, it’s understood that “creators” doesn’t imply “these two people did every single thing”. Yes, different folks labored on them–they’re listed within the credit, and Star Control I’s handbook significantly highlights the contributions of Greg Johnson and Robert Leyland–however this can be a bit a lot. I do surprise what’s making them really feel assured sufficient to make such daring claims.
Ford and Reiche have jokingly responded by questioning if they’re clones of the unique Fred and Paul, grown in vats.
On the flipside, Ford and Reiche dislike how Stardock have linked Origins to their unique video games. They object to an interview which explains Stardock CEO Brad Wardell stated he’d talked continuously with them about Origins, after they say they solely talked as soon as and wish nothing to do with it. They additionally object to Wardell suggesting Origins and their very own new recreation are linked, in a picture from that interview. They dislike Stardock promoting and showcasing a bundle named Star Control: The Ur-Quan Masters, as a result of whereas the pair don’t personal the ‘Star Control’ trademark, they do have ‘The Ur-Quan Masters’.
In brief, each side say the opposite is leeching from their model, sowing confusion, damaging their trademark, and all that.
To attain the basis of this confusion, we have to dig down for a quick historical past lesson.
The first Star Control got here out in 1990, developed by Ford and Reiche’s studio, Toys For Bob, and revealed by Accolade. Ford and Reiche adopted up with a sequel, Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters, in 1992. When Accolade fancied a 3rd recreation however the duo didn’t need to make it, Reiche gave the writer a license to incorporate the characters and story created for the primary video games. This end in 1996’s Star Control three, made by Legend Entertainment. After Accolade’s plans for a fourth fell by means of, the sequence went dormant. French writer Infogrames purchased Accolade in 1999, and Infogrames later renamed itself Atari after shopping for that too. Then in 2013, Stardock purchased Atari’s Star Control property as a part of a bankruptcy fire sale. Soon after, Stardock introduced the sport they later named Star Control: Origins.
The query appears to be: what precisely did Stardock purchase? Less than they assume, Ford and Reiche declare. Documents Stardock present present they obtained the Star Control trademark and Star Control three copyright off Atari, however they don’t listing copyrights for the primary two video games. Wardell has appeared to acknowledge that Reiche had the copyright on them, as identified above. However, in a single e-mail to Reiche which Stardock included as proof of their go well with, Wardell does state that they purchased “all of Accolade’s publishing rights for the original trilogy”, which isn’t fairly the identical.
One factor which may appear pretty clear is that the trademark for the Star Control title has been held by publishers, passing from Accolade to Atari/Infogrames then Stardock. When Ford and Reiche launched an open-source version of Star Control II in 2002, they named it merely The Ur-Quan Masters as a result of the Star Control trademark was with Accolade. And after Ford and Reiche caught Atari promoting these first three video games on GOG, the shop signed one take care of Atari to license the Star Control title and a separate settlement with the duo for the video games themselves.
However, Ford and Reiche now say Atari’s renewals of the Star Control trademark in 2002 and 2007 had been fraudulent as a result of they hadn’t bought Star Control since 2000. On these grounds, they need the trademark, since transferred to Stardock, cancelled.
Ford and Reiche’s counterclaim appears to be pushing to take management of Star Control once more. They declare that, owing to varied expiration and termination clauses of their agreements with Accolade, “all rights to Star Control, Star Control II, and Reiche’s Preexisting Characters used in Star Control 3 reverted to Reiche on or about April 1, 2001” – they usually desire a judgement to state that decisively. They need to be the one folks capable of promote the primary three video games. They need Stardock to cease saying “The Ur-Quan Masters” and cease implying the pair are linked to Star Control: Origins. They need Stardock to return masters and supply code for the unique video games, which they obtained off Atari. And they need cash in damages and prices, obvs.
Stardock, as detailed in December’s opening salvo, principally say and wish all that however the different method spherical.
And that’s the place we’re! Both sides have claimed their floor and fired their opening authorized photographs, and we’ll get to see the place it goes from right here. Both ask for jury trials.
If you need extra element on this, Ars Technica go even deeper and have the court docket filings to dig into. They even have responses from Stardock fellas which principally say “Oh yeah? But we’re the ones who are right.”
What even is Star Control although? Mate, go learn Richard Cobbett’s Star Control II retrospective.
Oh, and to finish: providing additional proof that online game manufacturers are a hellish breed of ouroboros, the Accolade title was not too long ago revived by Billion Soft to release a new Bubsy game.
