Stupid question, but... why can't Atari's IP (TA) be used?

I recall that GPG was unable to get it for Supreme Commander... but on that note, does anyone know if Atari was approached for PA? And why didn't Atari release/license the Total Annihilation IP for GPG back in the day?

It's not like they're making a sequel...?

Re: Stupid question, but... why can't Atari's IP (TA) be use

I have no idea, but I guess it is like this:
Because ... people are retarded about rights on almost anything and even if they just let the name rot away in their cellar, they will still want money from anybody who wants to use it. And since Uber doesnt have any money to spare on just a name, they wont buy it.

Re: Stupid question, but... why can't Atari's IP (TA) be use

Kinda came up here already;

viewtopic.php?f=61&t=34142

But only Atari would know the answer to that. Short version would be they don't want uber to have it, and if then wanted Uber to license it I'd bet it would have come with a bucket load of conditions at best.

Mike

Re: Stupid question, but... why can't Atari's IP (TA) be use

They could just pump in a million bucks (or 500,000) for some share of the profits (10% or 20%)...

And... license the IP to Uber for free as part of the deal...

I mean, I don't see why Kickstarter has to be the only option available.. if this kickstarter is as wildly successful as it looks likely to be, Atari might be smart to come in and offer a million bucks (or more) to push the game further and do something with an IP that otherwise is just going to just grow moldy on a shelf.

And I'd argue that even if PA is going to have a thriving mod community, there probably will still be plenty of room for post-release content and DLC, like new campaigns, or factions, or gameplay expansions. So it's not like the IP is dead once TA is released... not to mention, a long-lived game with a strong modding community means that the retail value of PA will not decay as fast as other games, since buying it will still net you a great game five years down the road. Heck, look at Age of Empires 3 which was still $40 just last year.

Re: Stupid question, but... why can't Atari's IP (TA) be use

That's not how publishing works. 9 times out of 10 Publishers invest in a project because they see the potential for PROFIT, but because of a novel idea or 2, and that leads the publisher to have more or less final say about many things about the game because it's their money and they will force Devs to do things that help the bottom line.

Mike

Re: Stupid question, but... why can't Atari's IP (TA) be use

Yeah, I understand that's the norm and this would be a long shot, though at the same time, if 50% or 75% of 80% of their costs were covered already, that kinda reduces the risk. At that point the question becomes whether or not investing X will net them 2X or 3X in profits. That, and there's also some minor PR benefit to doing this as well.

I'm not in the gaming industry, but, I would assume that given a budget of 1 million bucks, a well-done PA has a good chance of selling and bringing in a few times more than that.

I guess, all in all, it's going to be about how willing/adventurous Atari would be regarding a venture like this. If they'd be willing to completely* relinquish control in exchange for giving Uber the IP license, and investing some large amount of money for a reasonable profit sharing agreement... maybe there's a chance.

*I'm assuming that Atari would stipulate things like, "This money is to be used towards Planetary Annihilation, which is by any reasonable standard, a real-time strategy game, and not a My Little Pony game, etc."

Re: Stupid question, but... why can't Atari's IP (TA) be use

That's the best case scenario, what actually goes down in many such agreements are far, far worse, often including the surrendering on the Studio's IP or locking developers into multi-game contracts where teh publisher can back out at any time if the game ends up a flop, or if the game is a hit the Dev tends to be stuck with the same crappy deal as the had for the first one with no chance for leverage.

Some of the stories you hear are pretty crazy...

Mike

Re: Stupid question, but... why can't Atari's IP (TA) be use

why would they? They are not going to give it away for free to an indie developer who doesn't have the money to buy it. They'd much rather keep it and maybe sell it to another publisher later for a ton of money if they want to make a sequel...

Same thing happend with XCOM. A ton of remakes have been made but only now 2K finally had enough money to buy the rights. I bet Atari is witing for that opportunity too.

BTW: I wouldn't even want them to get the name even if they could buy it for like 500 dollars. All money that doesn't go into actual game development is wasted IMHO because the budget still seems suprisingly low to me..

Re: Stupid question, but... why can't Atari's IP (TA) be use

Bingo. You'd think they would have done this already with Supreme Commander though. But hey, who knows what's going on over there. Still, this is the most logical explanation.

Re: Stupid question, but... why can't Atari's IP (TA) be use

Yeah, I'm not sure there's that much value in the TA IP... I mean, its not like it had a AAA story or something like that.

What was memorable was the gameplay, and they already missed out on SupCom, and if they miss out here they might as well bury the IP since no one is going to pay them money for a title to a dead game whose community has already moved on.

Basically, I see the TA IP as having a shelf life... one that is fast expiring -- so they could take a small gamble here and possibly make something versus nothing.

@OrangeKnight

Yeah, I realize that's a best case scenario... ah well, one can hope.