[Marcus Vesper]

Yeah, but it's the part where it says "Exclusively licensed and distributed by Interplay Productions" that would probably prompt a response, if it was going to.  Volition might own the trademark, but as I recall Interplay owns the rights to actually make/sell games using that setting.  And of the two entities only [V] has made any overtures of goodwill towards the mod community, Interplay just ignores it.

I've always been curious why a company in Interplay's financial straits didn't sell off the rights to the Freespace IP, (considering it was a failure at retail in a large part due to their failure to adequately market it (for fear it would undermine a Star Trek game or something?  I've forgotten the details)) back when space shooters were actually still somewhat popular.  At least they didn't sell it to Derek Smart, probably the only positive thing I can say about how Interplay has handled the IP.

[karajorma]

I fully agree that Interplay are the more likely to start something. I'm just saying that I think both of them could.

[Gamma_Draconis]

Maybe the head honchos at Interplay are fans of FS too? Anyways, I doubt there's any chance that Interplay and Volition (If there are even any of the original developers left) are going to make a new FS game.

[WMCoolmon]

Leaving the the FS2 community to its own devices and letting it keep itself alive is a good business decision for both parties. I'd imagine that the value for the Freespace rights would shoot up if anybody bothered to look, because they'd know they'd have a guaranteed audience and publicity (provided it wasn't utter ****, in which case that could work against them...)

[fsphiladelphia]

Seriously, the pointlessness of this thread is just astonishing.

I'm halfway through law school, and seriously -- obtaining the 'IP' (by which I'm sure everyone just means obtaining the development/distribution rights) is a lot more complicated and costly than you guys think.  I wouldn't even bother myself with the idea at all.

Here you have a game engine which has been turned over as open source, free to be used so long as no profit is made from it.  This community has already taken it one step further by using not just the engine, but the story elements, the VPs, etc. which were probably never intended to be released for free.  The simple answer to the 'worst case scenario' situation (ie: someone like Derek Smart buys the IP rights to develop a proper FS3) is really just that in that case, the SCP continues its work doing things as they please and someone writes an entirely new story, someone else designs all new ships, and the community releases a game devoid of Vasudans, Shivans, et. al.

If the worst case scenario is that the SCP team would have to create a new universe where Farks at war with Bluedogs or some other crazy storyline, that's not so bad -- the real prize here is the (at this point) heavily modified engine.  Everything else is just window dressing, no reason to panic.

[Snail]

This is funny.

[fsphiladelphia]

This is funny.

agree 

[Snail]

AFAIK Interplay doesn't like FS2 that much since they couldn't even get off their asses enough to get the right system requirements on their website.