Star Wars Galaxy in Turmoil coming Free to Steam (Battlefront 3 fan mod)

[piscian18]

So take everything with a grain of Salt but apparently some devs got together and made a Battlefront game based on the originals, in Unreal 4. It's going to be Free and so far seems to have passed through the IP protection stages and looks pretty beta but impressive.

Frontwire Studios - Coming Soon

Hello Frontwire Community!

For the past few months we have been telling everyone that we would not be able to release Galaxy in Turmoil on Steam due to restrictions with our use of the Star Wars IP. Obviously we’re not a major studio like Bethesda or any of the other big ones, so we obviously lack the negotiating power of a studio that has put out various triple A titles. The second avenue we discussed was Steam Greenlight, however their terms of service state your game can only consist of assets you own, such as Star Wars characters, names, etc. As we all know, Frontwire Studios does not own Star Wars (As much as I wish we did).

It is with great pleasure that as of today I am able to officially announce that Frontwire Studios has officially signed a distribution deal with Steam/Valve for the game Galaxy in Turmoil. After ongoing discussion between Valve Representatives and myself, Valve/Steam has agreed to ship Galaxy in Turmoil to it’s millions of users for FREE.

The new Battlefront game by EA was pretty to look at but I wouldn't really even call it a game. It looked to me like they built some maps and demo work, got rushed to complete to make force awakens and just put it out as is. It's more like a trailer for an actual game.

As an older FPS player graphics mean a bit less to me than gameplay so this appeals to me. They've announced it will be limited to 32v32 and will have a competitive mode.

 

[Derangel]

Their claims are rather dubious. They have admitted that they do not have permission from Disney or EA to do this. EA owns EXCLUSIVE rights to make games based on Star Wars. With Disney making it abundantly clear that they no longer want anything to do with the video game business that means EA is the ONLY company that can give permission to make and release Star Wars games. Those game also must be published by EA.

Even assuming being free is some loophole around the EA thing, there is another major issue. They are using the Star Wars theme on their website and in the bloody trailer. Without permission from Disney. Without paying to license it or ANY assets. Poking at one of the most litigious companies on the planet.

Valve has shown they don't give a fuck about what goes up on their store, but I'm still doubtful of their claims. Either someone on Valve's legal team is monumentally stupid or there was never any real communication with Valve's reps.

 

[piscian18]

Their claims are rather dubious. They have admitted that they do not have permission from Disney or EA to do this. EA owns EXCLUSIVE rights to make games based on Star Wars. With Disney making it abundantly clear that they no longer want anything to do with the video game business that means EA is the ONLY company that can give permission to make and release Star Wars games. Those game also must be published by EA.

Even assuming being free is some loophole around the EA thing, there is another major issue. They are using the Star Wars theme on their website and in the bloody trailer. Without permission from Disney. Without paying to license it or ANY assets. Poking at one of the most litigious companies on the planet.

Valve has shown they don't give a fuck about what goes up on their store, but I'm still doubtful of their claims. Either someone on Valve's legal team is monumentally stupid or there was never any real communication with Valve's reps.

I agree trusting Valves legal team is a bad idea. They're morons, but Likely EA's won't answer the phone until after they're suing you.

 

[Krixon]

The key here will be to nab it on day one so that when it is removed from Steam, you can still play (assuming you can use private/local servers). Disney has sent Cease and Desists out for a lot less (I work in film and regularly see fan films shut down over this).

Lets just hope that this game makes it to Steam in the first place. I, for one, would have held my announcement off until the game was ready to go up.