There has been a bit of an uncomfortable silence in Star Control space since Toys for Bob founders Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford announced they'd began work on a sequel to The Ur-Quan Masters (Star Control II) called Ghosts of the Precursors, 25 years after the second game was released. On the surface everything may have seemed fine, but there also seemed to be a bit of tension as the age old franchise was all of a sudden getting two new games, one a reboot, the other a direct sequel.
Now, Stardock owns the name Star Control (it has passed hands from original publisher Accolade to Atari and then to Stardock) and they are developing Star Control Origins (check out the Steam page), a game with a parallel universe not using any of the characters or races Reiche and Ford created more than two decades ago.
In a couple of blog posts, There were many great battles... some of them involved lawyers and Star Control I, II, and III aren't for sale on GOG.com anymore, Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford assert their position in what they describe as a "our definitely-not-harmonious, until-recently-private, months-long conflict with Brad Wardell and his lawyers at Stardock".
"Stardock now seems to think that not only can they use our aliens, ships and narrative without our permission, but thinks that we cannot make a sequel to The Ur-Quan Masters without their permission -- this is where we got really, really angry."
Meanwhile, Wardell has responded in a forum post.
"Paul and Fred continue to make unsubstantiated claims regarding the DOS-based Star Control games. If they have any documentation to provide evidence to their assertions, we have yet to see them.
Stardock, by contrast, possesses a perpetual, exclusive, worldwide licensing and sales agreement that was explicitly transferred to us by Atari who in turn acquired it from Accolade that has Paul Reiche's signature along with a signed distribution agreement between Atari and GOG for the DOS Accolade Star Control games.
The tone of their blog posts is similar to the kind of correspondence they had with us since the announcement of their Ur-Quan Masters successor, vague, full of demands and without any documentation."
Clearly, this is a sticky situation. Here's what how we read the situation:
The rights for the early Star Control games are fairly messy. The name right for Star Control belongs to Stardock, whereas the actual game contents, story and lore belongs to its creators. The creators feel that old Star Control games cannot be sold without their permission, in fact, it was them that together with Atari allowed for the games to be put on GOG.com originally. As Star Control Origins launched on Steam for pre-order (you get access to the beta), with copies of the original games as pre-order bonuses both parties felt wronged. Stardock wants the Star Control games on GOG.com sold under their agreement with GOG as they feel they have the publishing rights, whereas the creators feel that the games cannot be sold without their agreement at all. Currently, the ins and outs of this is being juggled between lawyers.
Now what makes this even more interesting is the sort of muscle that Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford have behind them. Clearly, they're handling Ghosts of the Precursors as a side-project, a passion project if you will, but they are the founders of Toys for Bob (fully owned by Activision) who famously earned Activision billions of dollars with the Skylanders franchise. And so it's difficult to imagine that they're motivated by money in this. Likewise, Brad Wardell indicates that the old Star Control games aren't really generating much income (which is why Stardock didn't fully realise the situation with GOG.com and Star Control). Wardell is also keen for Reiche and Ford to sign an agreement with Stardock that frees them of any liability with regards to Ghosts of the Precursors, which may seem odd, but it's a way for Stardock to protect their copyright from challenge should such challenge arise.
Perhaps most telling of all is that both parties suggest that players turn to the free downloadable version of The Ur-Quan Masters HD (a remaster of Star Control II based on the 3D0 version).
So there you have it... we'll keep you up to date on what is likely to be a long saga where lawyers are the only winners and players are most likely going to be the true losers.