Author Topic: What became of the Freespace IP?  (Read 5766 times)

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Offline CT27

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What became of the Freespace IP?
A few months ago or so there was talk on here about Interplay selling some of its old IPs (including Freespace) I think.

Some on here even talked about the possibility of them entering a bid for the rights to Freespace (though they admitted it was a longshot).



How did the auction turn out?  Do we know who ended up with the rights to Freespace?

 

Offline The E

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Re: What became of the Freespace IP?
The auction happened, but to the best of my knowledge, noone has announced the results. For what it's worth, the relevant info on FS2's steam page hasn't changed.
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Offline Black Wolf

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Re: What became of the Freespace IP?
Nobody made it public at the time, and, AFAIK, no announcements have been made since.

If a public company bought it, we should have seen the announcement pretty soon after it happened, so that suggests it went to a private game studio, which means we may not hear about it for awhile.

Look out for announcements of a new Earthworm Jim game, that's most likely what we'll see first from whoever bought them.
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Offline AdmiralRalwood

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Re: What became of the Freespace IP?
It's entirely possible that nobody won the bid; Interplay may have been looking for a certain minimum that they failed to get. After all, their IP library is still making them money, so unless they got an offer good enough to offset that, they'd want to hold onto it.
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schrödinbug (noun) - a bug that manifests itself in running software after a programmer notices that the code should never have worked in the first place.

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<MageKing17> "There's probably a reason the code is the way it is" is a very dangerous line of thought. :P
<MageKing17> Because the "reason" often turns out to be "nobody noticed it was wrong".
(the very next day)
<MageKing17> this ****ing code did it to me again
<MageKing17> "That doesn't really make sense to me, but I'll assume it was being done for a reason."
<MageKing17> **** ME
<MageKing17> THE REASON IS PEOPLE ARE STUPID
<MageKing17> ESPECIALLY ME

<MageKing17> God damn, I do not understand how this is breaking.
<MageKing17> Everything points to "this should work fine", and yet it's clearly not working.
<MjnMixael> 2 hours later... "God damn, how did this ever work at all?!"
(...)
<MageKing17> so
<MageKing17> more than two hours
<MageKing17> but once again we have reached the inevitable conclusion
<MageKing17> How did this code ever work in the first place!?

<@The_E> Welcome to OpenGL, where standards compliance is optional, and error reporting inconsistent

<MageKing17> It was all working perfectly until I actually tried it on an actual mission.

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* z64555 erases "Thursday" and rewrites it in red ink

<MageKing17> TIL the entire homing code is held up by shoestrings and duct tape, basically.

 
Re: What became of the Freespace IP?
You could always release Blue Planet as standalone and find out the hard way  :nervous:

 

Offline Novachen

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Re: What became of the Freespace IP?
Most likely Nordic Games have them, because they buy every IP that is on the market.  :rolleyes:

But i hope not  :)
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Offline Spoon

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Re: What became of the Freespace IP?
derek smart Derek Smart DEREK SMART hinted on his discord that the asking price for Freespace's IP was a pretty significant amount, but he refused to disclose what kind of range it was exactly.

So
It's entirely possible that nobody won the bid; Interplay may have been looking for a certain minimum that they failed to get. After all, their IP library is still making them money, so unless they got an offer good enough to offset that, they'd want to hold onto it.
may very well be true.
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[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 

Offline CT27

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Re: What became of the Freespace IP?
Some said some IPs were bundled together.  Was that true or was Freespace's IP able to be bought separately (whether or not it was actually bought)?

 

Offline AdmiralRalwood

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Re: What became of the Freespace IP?
AFAIK all the IPs were bundled together, but Interplay was playing things very close to the chest, so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Codethulhu GitHub wgah'nagl fhtagn.

schrödinbug (noun) - a bug that manifests itself in running software after a programmer notices that the code should never have worked in the first place.

When you gaze long into BMPMAN, BMPMAN also gazes into you.

"I am one of the best FREDders on Earth" -General Battuta

<Aesaar> literary criticism is vladimir putin

<MageKing17> "There's probably a reason the code is the way it is" is a very dangerous line of thought. :P
<MageKing17> Because the "reason" often turns out to be "nobody noticed it was wrong".
(the very next day)
<MageKing17> this ****ing code did it to me again
<MageKing17> "That doesn't really make sense to me, but I'll assume it was being done for a reason."
<MageKing17> **** ME
<MageKing17> THE REASON IS PEOPLE ARE STUPID
<MageKing17> ESPECIALLY ME

<MageKing17> God damn, I do not understand how this is breaking.
<MageKing17> Everything points to "this should work fine", and yet it's clearly not working.
<MjnMixael> 2 hours later... "God damn, how did this ever work at all?!"
(...)
<MageKing17> so
<MageKing17> more than two hours
<MageKing17> but once again we have reached the inevitable conclusion
<MageKing17> How did this code ever work in the first place!?

<@The_E> Welcome to OpenGL, where standards compliance is optional, and error reporting inconsistent

<MageKing17> It was all working perfectly until I actually tried it on an actual mission.

<IronWorks> I am useful for FSO stuff again. This is a red-letter day!
* z64555 erases "Thursday" and rewrites it in red ink

<MageKing17> TIL the entire homing code is held up by shoestrings and duct tape, basically.

 

Offline General Battuta

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Re: What became of the Freespace IP?
You could always release Blue Planet as standalone and find out the hard way  :nervous:

That's the hope!

  

Offline Luis Dias

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Re: What became of the Freespace IP?
Wait what? Are you willing to do that?

 

Offline General Battuta

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Re: What became of the Freespace IP?
Always wanted to, with the modpack crippled so you couldn't play the FS2 campaign if someone gave you the mission files.

 

Offline Luis Dias

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Re: What became of the Freespace IP?
I don't see how would that help in the slightest regarding the IP, tbh, although I do agree we would definitely become aware of who is in charge of it.

 

Offline Spoon

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Re: What became of the Freespace IP?
I asked our favorite potential future FS3 developer, who is always right about things, about how much was asked for Freespace's IP. Since I don't remember anyone on hlp ever getting an actual number on this.
According to him:


Urutorahappī!!

[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 

Offline Goober5000

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Re: What became of the Freespace IP?
That is ridiculous.  Unless they're going with "the big ask".  I would counter with $10,000 and no profit sharing, then see what they say.

Props to Derek Smart for finding out, though.

 

Offline JGZinv

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Re: What became of the Freespace IP?
Not that it makes a hill of difference for FS2, but Tachyon and all Novalogic's IPs were bought up by THQnordic.
Been trying to reach out to them for a while now.

It'd be funny to see both franchises under the same company.
True power comes not from strength, but from the soul and imagination.
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Offline Kon

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Re: What became of the Freespace IP?
If all of the IPs were bundled together, that would explain the $1 million + profit sharing quote.

If you managed to get out of profit sharing, it would be a steal for any publisher. There's no shortage of people who would be willing to Kickstart at least that much for MDK, Giants, Earthworm Jim, etc.

Descent alone has seen two competing spiritual sequels in the past few years.
« Last Edit: December 28, 2017, 12:17:22 pm by Kon »

 

Offline Singh

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Re: What became of the Freespace IP?
No idea. The bid I had put in was on the other of $10-15k just for Freespace. Was definitely turned down. When I inquired whom got the winning bit, they mentioned they could not tell whom was the winner due to it still being ongoing at the time. I will send a follow up email and see if they are willing to disclose it now.
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Offline Nyctaeus

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Re: What became of the Freespace IP?
Not that it makes a hill of difference for FS2, but Tachyon and all Novalogic's IPs were bought up by THQnordic.
Been trying to reach out to them for a while now.

It'd be funny to see both franchises under the same company.
So far THQ Nordic is known from bringing old franchices back to life, with new Darksiders, new Titan Quest expansion with updated visuals, and of course SpellForce III. And their games are seriously good! Their marketing model is based on nostalgia.

I'm not saying anything but... Well, why not :P ?
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Offline Goober5000

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Re: What became of the Freespace IP?
No idea. The bid I had put in was on the other of $10-15k just for Freespace. Was definitely turned down. When I inquired whom got the winning bit, they mentioned they could not tell whom was the winner due to it still being ongoing at the time. I will send a follow up email and see if they are willing to disclose it now.

Any response to this?  Whoops, missed the new thread.