Ghosts 'n Goblins Kickstarter Shuttered By Capcom

[major_chaos]

On one hand Crapcom sucks, and you can be damn sure they don't plan on ever actually using the GnG IP in a meaningful way ever again, but on the other hand this was a profoundly stupid idea and they really should have called the game something else from the start.

 

[Grabehn]

I wouldn't say that an anecdote from 30 years ago, whic has almost nothing to do with your actual project anyways, can be useful when trying to use a license without having it first...

But that artwork looks fantastic.

 

[Altorin]

I don't really see why you couldn't do what they're doing, maybe not in the way they're doing it.

There are lots of games that are technically just shameless clones, or homages to classic video games. Sure, the kickstarter and the naming was probably a bad idea just on a basic level, but if that's the game you want to make, make it. They should have just ixnay'd the direct association. Maybe that's the point, but it doesn't mean that the idea isn't viable at all.

 

[loc978]

Apparently, Phantasm's idea was to go ahead and fund the game, and ask Capcom for permission later. If that fell through, it'd just change the names, reasoning that Miyamoto did it back in the day. As Phantasm Studios explained, "In 1980 Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo created a Popeye video game but couldn't get the rights from King Features. He transformed Popeye to Mario, Bluto to Donkey Kong, and Olive Oyl to the Princess. This was the birth of Donkey Kong." However, it seems that Capcom didn't see things quite the same way, as the [a href=http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/phantasmstudios/ghosts-n-goblins-demon-world]Kickstarter page[/a] says that "Ghosts 'N Goblins - Demon World (Canceled) is the subject of an intellectual property dispute and is currently unavailable."

Phantasm's website still hosts the details about what it was planning, prior to the shut down. While the plan was to continue with the project anyways, I think that's pretty unlikely at this point. The trouble with its line of reasoning is that Phantasm basically used a popular Capcom brand to build excitement and funding for its own game, something that will still get you in trouble, even if you change the names later. There are many things in life where improvisation is a fantastic path to success, but messing around with intellectual property is not one of them.

...anymore.

This is a perfect illustrative example of how IP laws and business culture have changed. Hype is a commodity the big boys are guarding jealously from their ivory towers. If only people didn't respond so well to it...