Indie Developer Tries to Salvage Homeworld From THQ

[Karloff]

Indie Developer Tries to Salvage Homeworld From THQ


Though Relic was bought by Sega, teamPixel believes there's still a chance it can snap up Homeworld.

Relic, which now belongs to Sega as a result of the THQ auction [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/121680-Bankruptcy-Auction-Ends-THQ], apparently didn't take all of its defunct properties with it. Independent developer teamPixel hopes that this means it will be able to purchase space opera RTS title Homeworld, not seen since 2003's Homeworld 2.


When teamPixel tried to get involved in the THQ auction, it was told that the Homeworld title - along with several other defunct THQ properties - would not be part of the first auction, but would instead be sold off separately. It promptly set up an Indiegogo campaign [http://www.indiegogo.com/save-homeworld?c=home] to fund its Homeworld acquisition, and is looking for $50,000 to help its founder, Rob Santos, make his dream come true.


Santos wishes the Relic team all the best now it's part of Sega, and says that teamPixel will make every effort to purchase Homeworld from THQ, or anyone who happens to pick it up from the defunct company. "We believe that the Homeworld franchise should be respected as one of the major landmarks in sci-fi and RTS gaming," says teamPixel in its Indiegogo pitch. "To us, this means preserving access to the game for fans, both old and new."


Whether or not Santos succeeds in his bid - and I wish him luck - his experience may answer gamers' questions about THQ's old properties, particularly if his information is correct, and some of them are due to be sold later on.

Source: VG24/7 [http://www.vg247.com/2013/01/24/indie-dev-starts-crowd-funding-campaign-to-buy-homeworld-ip-from-thq/]



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[Jzcaesar]

...is this company for serious? Like are they a legit development team? Cuz I am about to give them all my money.

 

[Sir Mate]

I adored the first Homeworld ,the second not so much, but i would love to see the series continue.Sega ,i think, couldnt do it justice.
That said , how does an indie dev expects to buy up the rights and develop it from lousy 50 000$?

 

[Ruairi iliffe]

I Done a quick bit a looking around the web about these guys and.. I've got nothing, just bits on them doing websites.

As much as I love Homeworld, I cant honestly say I could support these guys without any real Game design backgrounds, Especially with a IP as Loved as Homeworld.

If this was another Indie team, perhaps, But I just don't trust this lot.

 

[Falterfire]

Hell, I'd support them even if the only thing their plans lead to is Homeworld up on GOG. My copy vanished years ago and I would love to have a legit copy again.

 

[bificommander]

I had hoped Sega got the rights along with Relic. They still publish the Total War franchise, so they have experience with big-scale, unconventional RTS games.

This initiative sounds nice, but all I can find for teamPixel is a website more sparse than the average grandmother's Facebook page. I have no idea if they really intend to try and purchase the IP with that money, if they can (I don't know how much those rights should cost. It's an old game that Relic hasn't made a sequel to for a decade, so it can't be worth millions), and I certainly don't know if they can make a worthwhile sequel. The Homeworld-verse is interesting, but the setting is not the most important aspect of the game (hence why I prefer playing Homeworld 2 over 1. The story and presentation wasn't as good, but the game played better IMHO). I'd cheerfully buy a blatant rip-off with current-gen graphics and a few gameplay tweaks. To just give this guy we don't know 50 grand to let him buy the Homeworld-name... it seems too risky.

On a related note, does anyone here know enough about international copyright law to know what happens if no one buys the license? I would think that if the Homeworld license goes down with the THQ-ship, anyone could just make a game and call it Homworld. But I've read about other classic games that we can't expect a sequel because the rights to the franchise went to limbo during a bankruptcy. My naive guess would be that, if there is no party who holds the license and can sell it or make a game for it, then there shouldn't be anyone who can sue you if you make a game and slap on the franchise name. But I'm no legal expert, so...

 

[Webb Myers]

These days, it's extraordinarily rare for intellectual property to actually be abandoned. Even if it's for pennies on the dollar (like $50K), properties will be sold to someone. The questions are:

1- Like with the headliner auction already completed, will they get more money by breaking it up and selling the individual pieces (like Homeworld), or will someone (like Sega) choose to just buy everything that's left and sort it out later.

2- What's being sold? Is it just trademark and franchising rights to FUTURE games? If the existing games are sold, is it just the trademark and sales rights or are there art and source code assets to be transferred? All those questions will affect the price.

 

[Akisa]

Sorry, I'm not funding touch base Homeworld.

 

[Akisa]

Sorry, I'm not funding touch base Homeworld.

Well it would be funding Homeworld 3, they would just be porting Homeworld 1 over to tablets and phones it looks like

They're probably going to be just developing Touch base games, which I'm not a supporter of. If they do make a Homeworld 3, I bet it'll be another touch game and at best would be ported over to PC but keep foundation of touch base system.

 

[Lenny Magic]

I seem to recall that the issue wasn't to do with Homeworld not being profitable because it is in a niche genre, but was rather that Sierra the publisher of Homeworld was acquired by Activision. So any attempt to make a sequel would also need factor them in as well.

Either way I'm not sure I would support these guys. I have seen a few attempts by fans to make sequels/spiritual-successors to games they love. Most of them show far more than TeamPixel, then they have just fallen off the radar for reasons beyond them not having the licence to make them.

 

[Tony2077]

i won't support them till i see them make a homeworld game worthy of the series

 

[rapidoud]

I adored the first Homeworld ,the second not so much, but i would love to see the series continue.Sega ,i think, couldnt do it justice.
That said , how does an indie dev expects to buy up the rights and develop it from lousy 50 000$?

Sega own Creative Assembly and the Total War series.

Hopefully they can put out a decent CoH2, Warhammer (Total War style), Dawn of War 3, and they'd have no trouble with a Homeworld title

 

[Traun]

I don't see it, even if they do get the 50k$, do they really think they'll outbid Sega for it?

 

[blazin419]

DO NOT support TeamPixel to carry on the legacy of Homeworld. They have absolutely no experience in developing games, and do not have the skills to be developing Homeworld 3. They're going to use the money to buy the Homeworld IP, port Homeworld 1 and 2 onto tablets, and do nothing else.

If anyone wants to see a Homeworld 3, we must convice Blackbird Interactive to buy the license. Blackbird Interactive consists of mostly 10+ years game developing veterans, two of which were the leading developers in Homeworld 1 and 2. Others include senior developers from EA, Blizzard, etc.

The full profile page is here :

http://blackbirdinteractive.com/team/


Please post on their Facebook page to convince them to buy the Homeworld IP! They're currently working on an RTS MMO called HARDWARE (which looks to be just as good as Homeworld) but Homeworld 3 doesn't have to come now. As long as the IP sits in the right hands we can at least know that there is a possibility of seeing Homeworld 3 sometime in the future.

http://www.facebook.com/blackbirdinteractiveinc