Promising Star Wars: KOTOR Fan-Made Reboot Gets Shuttered by Lucasfilm

Megalith

Megalith

24-bit/48kHz
Joined
Aug 20, 2006
Messages
13,000
Lucasfilm has shut down Knights of the Old Republic: Apeiron, a fan-made reboot of BioWare’s classic Star Wars RPG. Naturally, the complaint stems from the unlicensed use of intellectual property: being the “exclusive owner of all intellectual property rights in and to the Star Wars major motion pictures, games and any other Star Wars content," Lucasfilm fears that Apeiron would be confused as an official, affiliated product.

The Apeiron website describes it as “a remake and remastering of the original game with added content, new worlds, missions, HUD, inventory, items, and companions,” created by “a group of dedicated programmers, artists, voice actors, world builders, and writers that have all come together to breathe life back into a wonderful game.”
 
I really wish they would change the standard for I.P. protection to something along the lines of having to be still available for sale from the creator in volume (as in they can't keep 1 copy for 50 years to protect themselves). The whole point was to protect/allow the originator to make profit off of the creation. If they are no longer selling it/making available for sale... The protection should no longer be valid. When was KOTOR last for sale from the distributor (not including GOG)?
 
NeoNemesis said:
It's not entirely without precedence though. Valve allowed Black Mesa to remake HL1.
Click to expand...

That's because Valve no longer has any intention of putting the resources for another HL game. They make magnitudes more money with Steam to care about monetizing HL IP again. Disney on the other hand intend to make bank with their SW investment.
 
Paul_Johnson said:
I wonder why people keep doing things like this. Yeah it sounds great, but did they really think that Lucasfilm was NOT going to go after them?
Click to expand...
What I don't understand is why won't companies acquire these projects instead of shutting them down, if they fear they'll be too good. Or do they fear it will be crap and damage their reputation? their reputation is already bellow 0.
 
Quick fix...
1. Change the project name
2. Change character graphics so they are different from the original
3. Rename a lite saber to plasma sword.
4. Tell Lucas to pound sand

Problem solved!

For the name do what 2001 A Space Odyssey did. IBM -> HAL, KOTOR -> LPUPS
 
PhotoBobBarker said:
I really wish they would change the standard for I.P. protection to something along the lines of having to be still available for sale from the creator in volume (as in they can't keep 1 copy for 50 years to protect themselves). The whole point was to protect/allow the originator to make profit off of the creation. If they are no longer selling it/making available for sale... The protection should no longer be valid. When was KOTOR last for sale from the distributor (not including GOG)?
Click to expand...
I think you answered your own question.
 
They were basically recreating the entire game in Unreal Engine 4, but using the original game rules (D20), original story, and original sound files. They tried the "it's technically a mod" angle, but it was definitely more of a "remaster" than a mod at this point. I watched a few of the developer streams, and the environments that they were building weren't remotely similar to the original KOTOR environments. For instance, lower city Taris looked straight-up like Nar Shadaa, and Tatooine looked like it was straight out of the original trilogy (the movies). They're a very talented team, and I hope they work out a licensing deal or something to bring this to market.. but I'd wager the chances of that actually happening are less than 1%.
 
Let's not blame Lucasfilm these projects proceeded with only reasonable speed bumps under George Lucas
 
Maybe someone, somewhere is looking at this from the BG remaster angle, and the first step will be to kill it publicly before it gets out.... Then bring the team and their assests in and re-monetize the IP.
 
Megalith said:
Lucasfilm fears that Apeiron would be confused as an official, affiliated product
Click to expand...
It could be worth the court appearance to establish whether that has any merit.
I wouldnt confuse them and steps could be taken to make it clear.
 
Paul_Johnson said:
I wonder why people keep doing things like this. Yeah it sounds great, but did they really think that Lucasfilm was NOT going to go after them?
Click to expand...

You know head hunters still look at things like this type of content...

Next a lot of Eastern European/Asian region really do not give one damn about copyright infringements. And head hunters over there will look at this type of content too.
 
M76 said:
What I don't understand is why won't companies acquire these projects instead of shutting them down, if they fear they'll be too good. Or do they fear it will be crap and damage their reputation? their reputation is already bellow 0.
Click to expand...

Because they have EA... Who always makes wonderful Star Wars games... :vomit:
 
They're shutting it down because it's not woke enough. They could get chuck in, I hear he's got not much on right now.
 
Hakaba said:
Because they have EA... Who always makes wonderful Star Wars games... :vomit:
Click to expand...
Oh, yeah Battlefront. I completely forgot that existed. 'Perhaps' because I give zero fucks about mp games.
 
As much as this sucks, I saw it coming.

This isn't the 1990s anymore, where video game developers allowed mods aplenty.

Nowadays you have singular corporations running everything and instead of a bunch of different video game studios, you have production houses like Activision, Ubisoft, and Electronic Arts, who technically own the Star Wars license and would have been the ones responsible for shutting this down, not necessarily Disney.

with major Production Studios involved, they more aggressively pursue any perceived breach of IP, and the days where mod making was a big deal and a feature of PC games has long since passed by. not to say there aren't one-offs here and there for minor games that hit big from minor Studios where there isn't this major publisher oversight, but those tend to be the exception instead of the norm.

I say this as someone who used to create MP levels for Jedi Outcast, fan made. For the most part those days are dead now.

It's really sad but nothing can be done about it.
 
Gotta protect your IP, even if it doesn’t threaten you at all. If you do not it probably weakens your case when you go after someone who does.

My 2c
 
If I paid - what was it, $4b? - for IP, I also would not be keen to let others use it.

I'm not saying it doesn't stink from a consumer perspective - that goes without debate. However, it is what it is.
 
It sucks, a lot, but I can't blame Lucasarts too much here. The project definitely boarders on what would be acceptable under fair use and mods are already a legal grey area. Even with it requiring the original game they are skirting things quite closely.
 
I'm happy they only made the three star wars movies; prequels and sequels would only suck.

Much like they only made the one Matrix movie; sequels would have just gotten lame.

:)
 
LucasArts and LucasFilm are two separate studios, please stop using their names interchangeably.
 
  • Like
Reactions: N4CR
like this
Poem Studios could seek a license from Disney, or could even seek a publishing agreement from Disney and turn it into a commercial project. PS could also remove all Star Wars / LucasFilm / Disney trademarks and IP content from the project and continue making it under a different name, like Galaxy at War is doing with their formerly Star Wars project.

Poem Studios may have done something like that, judging by their announcement that they've got another project in the works and that transitioning to that other projects has been pretty easy for them.

The C&D letter arrogantly 'demands' that Poem Studios delete the code and assets they made for Apeiron - something which Disney and its subsidiaries have no authority or power to demand and enforce. Poem Studios could continue making the project using all the Star Wars stuff it has in it, and keep showing screenshots and video, and simply say it's not for public release but is only a personal project, and Disney couldn't do anything against the project. It's only if the project is for distribution and could therefore potentially threaten Disney profits, ownership, or reputation that Disney could take action against it.


Hakaba said:
Gotta protect your IP, even if it doesn’t threaten you at all. If you do not it probably weakens your case when you go after someone who does.

My 2c
Click to expand...

Alternatively, an IP-holder can grant a license for a fan project so that there's no risk to IP authority. Though, I'm not aware of any case where not intervening and stopping an earlier use of an IP undermined a future effort to stop another use of an IP. I've heard companies like Bethesda make the argument you did, but I've never seen proof that the argument is valid. I think that if someone owns an IP, they can pick and choose what they want to stop and what they don't. I think that the 'if we don't stop this project then it weakens our future position' argument is only an excuse meant to mitigate negative PR over shutting down a project that had a lot of fans.
 
Last edited:
PhotoBobBarker said:
I really wish they would change the standard for I.P. protection to something along the lines of having to be still available for sale from the creator in volume (as in they can't keep 1 copy for 50 years to protect themselves). The whole point was to protect/allow the originator to make profit off of the creation. If they are no longer selling it/making available for sale... The protection should no longer be valid. When was KOTOR last for sale from the distributor (not including GOG)?
Click to expand...
It still is available for sale, they have it on Steam, they even patched it for wide screen and fixed the video playback in Windows 8 & 10.
 
This is dumb. What is also sad is I hadn't played a good Star Wars so far this decade. The last good Star Wars game I played was Force Unleashed and that was released in 2008!
 
Paul_Johnson said:
I wonder why people keep doing things like this. Yeah it sounds great, but did they really think that Lucasfilm was NOT going to go after them?
Click to expand...
It's good practice, it was complete to a stage that it could go as an item on a resume.
 
Lakados said:
It still is available for sale, they have it on Steam, they even patched it for wide screen and fixed the video playback in Windows 8 & 10.
Click to expand...

KotOR 2 was patched for widescreen. I tried but couldn't get widescreen to work properly in KitOR in Windows 10, like, last night. I tried a bunch of different guides for it.
 
let's see, Lucas arts, once upon a time a developer people held their breath in anticipation for acquired by Disney and inducted into EA is now a developer that one holds their breath while walking past has started going out of it's way , and by that I mean actively reaching out , to piss off and shit on LOYAL, dedicated fans.

the Purge of the fan base must continue no matter the cost eh Disney?

It worked for Star Wars right?
It worked for Star Trek right ?
It worked for mass effect right ?
It worked for battlefront right ?
It worked for ghost busters right ?
It worked for Marvel comics right?
It worked for :
Bullfrog
Westwood studios
Origin systems
NuFx
Pandemic studious
Playfish
Blackbox games
Dreamworks interactive
Phenomic game development
Victory games
Mythic entertainment
Maxis software
Headgate studious
Viceral Software
right?

HOpe the Aperion boys take out the trade mark stuff , release it ( I would pay for that ) and then someone ( cough ) releases a Star wars themed mod for it

The Bitch of this whole deal is every time I go to my local diner for steak and eggs ( excellent BTW ) the bill comes out to exactly $13.13, it's like a kick in the teeth everytime
 
Delicieuxz said:
Alternatively, an IP-holder can grant a license for a fan project so that there's no risk to IP authority.
Click to expand...

Except in situations where pre-existing contracts prevent this. Lucasfilm and Disney sold EA exclusive rights to make console and PC Star Wars games. Even if they wanted to, they could not authorize Poem without breaching their contract with EA.
 
joobjoob said:
Let's not blame Lucasfilm these projects proceeded with only reasonable speed bumps under George Lucas
Click to expand...

dude Lucasfilm is the one that sent the cease and desist: https://pp.userapi.com/c847217/v847217429/100dde/kxrZdv5wKfU.jpg
SO this is totally kraykray KK lashing out at fans ,

a smart business person wold have realized a) that a huge and rather expensive chunk of development was done for free and b) there is clearly demand for the product ; so working up a license and distribution deal , you know , might, be pretty lucrative.

I think the telling bit is LF telling them to delete files...it's not legal , so why add it to the C&D? because someone at LF is being extremely vindictive ( and stupid , but no surprise there)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top