No Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes for you!

[Mrbloodworth]

The dicks shut it down.

[Hayduke]

In a perfect world we'd have cool game developers.  We don't, so surely they had to know the hammer was going to come down eventually.  Hard to feel much sympathy for them.

[Ragnoros]

So they sent them a cease & desist two weeks before they planned to release the thing? Umm... Release it anyway?

If they have actually been working on the thing since 04 it ought to be about as done as it's going to be, two weeks or no.

Surely someone on the team will "leak" the project if it is as near completion as they claim.

[Rasix]

The dicks shut it down.

You have to be a gigantic idiot to even start this type of project and not expect a cease and desist letter at some time.  If you're going to play around with someone's IP, try and make sure it's a dead company first.

That being said, I agree with the monkey.  There are plenty of channels for this to get "leaked". 

[schild]

I'm fascinated by that letter. It said they had put in their readme that they would stop what they were doing if Square perceived it as a threat.

I'd like to see Square argue how this was a threat. The only threat from Square to their old properties is the complete shit they've been churning out over the last 3 generations. Dicks, indeed. I can't wait for a new Chrono game from them. Radical Dreamers and Chrono Cross were awesome.

Dicks indeed.

[Fabricated]

Looks like shit to me. The effort is impressive but I can bet money it's not that great.

SquareEnix likely C&D'd it since Chrono Trigger DS wasn't released THAT long ago. Nintendo/Itoi didn't C&D the very publicized Mother 3 translation patch however, so it's just a matter of company policy I guess.

[schild]

SquareEnix likely C&D'd it since Chrono Trigger DS wasn't released THAT long ago. Nintendo/Itoi didn't C&D the very publicized Mother 3 translation patch however, so it's just a matter of company policy I guess.

Nintendo didn't see it as a threat, and it wasn't.

Square sees it as a threat, and it isn't. Hence, dicks.

[Mrbloodworth]

The dicks shut it down.

You have to be a gigantic idiot to even start this type of project and not expect a cease and desist letter at some time.  If you're going to play around with someone's IP, try and make sure it's a dead company first.

That being said, I agree with the monkey.  There are plenty of channels for this to get "leaked". 

O'really?

[Rasix]

Examples of success doesn't make the practice less of a risk, moron.  It takes one letter to make all of that work go *poof*.

[Yegolev]

As far as I know, the live-action Thudercats movie did not get a C&D... although it certainly should have.

Anyway, the point that it might be a good idea to get some buy-in from the IP owners before embarking on a "huge" project (who knows since we can't see the end product) is well-made.

[Murgos]

Bah, delete the parts that impinge on the copyright and replace them with generic stuff and release it, if it's that close to finish.

The fan-bois already know what it is and won't care about editing some file to revert names and whatever back to original.

[Rasix]

I'm no expert in IP law (especially as it applies to video games), but wouldn't the art assets be under the copyright? 

[Murgos]

I'm no expert in IP law (especially as it applies to video games), but wouldn't the art assets be under the copyright? 

Palette swap?  I don't know what it takes to make something sufficiently different but if you are that close to done you should probably do it.

[Mrbloodworth]

My point, was not that they were not legally right to do this, but more so, WHY do this, and WHY do this NOW. The game was in open development for 4 years. It was not for profit, not for sale. It was essentially what Hunt for Golem was. Fan made for the Fans.

This was, a dick move.

They had every right to shut it down.

[Tairnyn]

Bah, delete the parts that impinge on the copyright and replace them with generic stuff and release it, if it's that close to finish.

The main issue is that it's a mod for the Chrono Trigger ROM that utilizes the original engine with new content. The amount of work necessary to decouple them would be monumental. Considering the recent release of Chrono Trigger for DS I'd guess SE isn't too keen on there being any additional motivation for distribution of the ROM.

[Mosesandstick]

Someone released an alpha

[NiX]

Not that I'm defending Squeenix's douchebag move, but I love how that website equates a leak of video/screenshots to that of a complete game.

[fuser]

I'm more amazed the site put a direct link to the game.

[NiX]

Didn't see that. I just thought they were being fancy and linking to MegaUpload. We'll see how long this lasts.

[schild]

UPDATE: After some playtime and testing, it is NOT the 98% beta version that is out but more of an alpha version and confirmed by the experts at http://www.chronocompendium.com.[/quote

[NiX]

Someone released an alpha

[schild]

Yes, I know what he wrote, but if you click the link, the dumbass on the other end didn't update the title of his article.

[NiX]

You're so judgmental. It hurts, y'know?

[Ratman_tf]

This was, a dick move.

They had every right to shut it down.

Yep. I think IP and copyright laws in America suck donkey dick and get way the fuck out of hand. Then again, if I were going to dump years of my life into a game project like this, I'd want to cover a few simple basics, like "Can this get shut down by some mega-corp who holds the rights to the setting/assets/whatever?"

[Triforcer]

Oh noes, a company stopped someone from blatantly using its IP!!  VILLAINY, SAYS I!!

ratman, please explain why the company wasn't justified in doing this.  As Lum has observed far more cogently than I on this site several times, while the level of discourse here is high and the intelligence level is FAR higher than your average Internet board, ya'll seem to have a blind, irrational spot when it comes to your "right" to download anything or use any IP you want at any time. 

[NiX]

Oh noes, a company stopped someone from blatantly using its IP!!  VILLAINY, SAYS I!!

ratman, please explain why the company wasn't justified in doing this.  As Lum has observed far more cogently than I on this site several times, while the level of discourse here is high and the intelligence level is FAR higher than your average Internet board, ya'll seem to have a blind, irrational spot when it comes to your "right" to download anything or use any IP you want at any time. 

I don't think he said they weren't justified in doing so, I think he's just pointing out that Square could probably be better off wasting their time on someone actually trying to profit from their work.

[Triforcer]

Crimson Echoes could've been shitty, hurting the brand (both consciously and unconsciously) in the eyes of future consumers.  Also, although IANAPL, I believe that letting one party run roughshod over your IP can have consequences the next time somebody wants to do it and you actually want to stop them.  There are plenty of reasons why a company would enforce its IP even if the creators weren't profiting. 

[Slyfeind]

I would be seriously interested in any data that correlates bad fan stuff and a company's bottom line. I tried searching online but all I found was bad fanfic.

[schild]

I would be seriously interested in any data that correlates bad fan stuff and a company's bottom line. I tried searching online but all I found was bad fanfic.

There's no way to figure out whether this would've hurt or helped the Chrono IP because Chrono Cross was so dreadful that it may as well have been a fan project and Square is seriously lacking the talent necessary to relive the SNES days. I'd LOVE for them to make a huge comeback, but as the years go by I'm finding it increasingly unlikely.

[Margalis]

There's no way to figure out whether this would've hurt or helped the Chrono IP because Chrono Cross was so dreadful that it may as well have been a fan project and Square is seriously lacking the talent necessary to relive the SNES days.

Counterpoint: I can play a mean Tuba.

[schild]

There's no way to figure out whether this would've hurt or helped the Chrono IP because Chrono Cross was so dreadful that it may as well have been a fan project and Square is seriously lacking the talent necessary to relive the SNES days.

Counterpoint: I can play a mean Tuba.

Oh, I'm sorry, should I have made fun of Radical Dreamers?

I'm confused, at what point did the Chrono license have any value besides re-releasing the original? Please enlighten me, old wise one, so I can understand the method behind Squaresoft's madness.

[Slyfeind]

That's the thing, companies claim that they don't want their IPs ruined by fan works, but has that ever actually happened? "Oh I'm sorry Ms Rowling, you let one Harry Potter fan fic on the Internet, and now all your money must be BURNED!"

[Triforcer]

That's the thing, companies claim that they don't want their IPs ruined by fan works, but has that ever actually happened? "Oh I'm sorry Ms Rowling, you let one Harry Potter fan fic on the Internet, and now all your money must be BURNED!"

...and we've reached the "piracy is ok because I think it makes the owning company even MORE money, thus its ok for me to do" portion of the discussion.

Even as a young and inexperienced attorney, I feel pretty comfortable saying that stealing doesn't become legally ok because the person doing it has a personal theory that it won't affect the owner.   

[schild]

What the hell does any of this have to do with piracy?

[Slyfeind]

...and we've reached the "piracy is ok because I think it makes the owning company even MORE money, thus its ok for me to do" portion of the discussion.

No.

That's not what I'm saying at all.

I didn't even say anything close to that.

I'm HONESTLY ASKING if anybody knows of any cases of this happening (companies losing business because of fan works), because I HONESTLY CANNOT FIND ANY.

All I find is links to fanfic.