Square Shuts Down Fan-Made Chrono Game

[Lord_Jaroh]

Copyright needs to be changed for silly crap like this. There is no reason, none, that Squenix, nor any company, can give to legally halt work on a fan project that is making no money, nor will make no money. They can "threaten" to legally do something, but it is all bluster. There is nothing that prevents people from doing fan work like this. Copyright laws and protection need to step into the 21st century.

Besides, Tsunami, Blizzard has already done this. See B.netD

 

[timmytom1]

That is rather disappointing. I would be thrilled if I made a game a decade or so ago and someone spent five years making a game off of that. Look at a company like Valve. Someone's remaking Half Life 1 under the name "Black Mesa," with redone graphics and gameplay, and Valve is looking forward to it. Why can't Square hold that same philosophy?

Because their japenese and as Shingo "Seabass"Tatsuka (of pro-evo fame) pointed out they are terrible at shareing

 

[dmase]

Everybody is hating on square but what if they decided hey lets give this a chance and so they went to test it and give it their full blessing and then they started playing it and they realized this is complete crap, we can't let them release this we'll be ruined, and then the guys got bribed not to put it on the market or something. You never know for sure.

 

[Yukichin]

what baffles me is why spend time on doing something illegal, why not spend the time making a totally new project instead of one that isn't legal at least

Because, from what I can tell, these people wanted to make a tribute/sequel to Chrono Trigger; a new game would not be as close to peoples' hearts as Crimson Echoes.


anyway. I noticed the C&D letter said that the modders claim a copyright to Crimson Echoes... I highly doubt that. If anything, the only copyright they probably "claimed" was simply to the ideas of it, not Chrono itself. The way the letter reads, it sounds like Crimson Echoes was something extremely bad, but from what I could tell, all it was was a fan tribute sort of game that could possibly garner curiosity about the original game more than anything else.

I've seen other modders work on things and not get in trouble; hell, there's some fan-made "The World" project going on that got a C&D letter but they managed to work it out, and then there are fan-translations of games like Persona 2 and such that didn't get a letter. I just don't quite understand why they percieve it as a threat.

 

[Johnny Danger]

Everybody is hating on square but what if they decided hey lets give this a chance and so they went to test it and give it their full blessing and then they started playing it and they realized this is complete crap, we can't let them release this we'll be ruined, and then the guys got bribed not to put it on the market or something. You never know for sure.

I fail to see, no matter how bad it was, how it could "ruin" them. As others have pointed out this wouldn't have any financial impact on Squarenix and now they are just looking at bad PR.

I don't see why they couldn't just ask them to have a huge disclaimer at the start of the ROM: "This game is a fan made project. Squarenix, the original developers of Chrono Trigger, had no part in the development, creation, or release of this title."

 

[AbsoluteVirtue18]

Well they do have the right.

Edit - But its annoying

Unfortunatly.

 

[Meado]

How can you not feel bad for them? This was a labor of love that was given the digital finger just before it was finished. It's like kicking over a kid's sand-castle at the beach (not that anyone does that anymore).

This really isn't Square's fault at all. The onus was on the creators to ask Square from the outset if they could use the property.

I don't have a problem with Squeenix shutting it down. They have the right to do that and it's perfectly within the law.
What is the problem though is that they waited five years to stop it. Five years. It hasn't become any more legal/illegal in all that time, so why did they wait so long to stop them? It can't have been that hard to find out about it (I knew about it, and I've never played the Chrono games) so it ultimately boils down to them just being dicks.

 

[dmase]

Everybody is hating on square but what if they decided hey lets give this a chance and so they went to test it and give it their full blessing and then they started playing it and they realized this is complete crap, we can't let them release this we'll be ruined, and then the guys got bribed not to put it on the market or something. You never know for sure.

I fail to see, no matter how bad it was, how it could "ruin" them. As others have pointed out this wouldn't have any financial impact on Squarenix and now they are just looking at bad PR.

I don't see why they couldn't just ask them to have a huge disclaimer at the start of the ROM: "This game is a fan made project. Squarenix, the original developers of Chrono Trigger, had no part in the development, creation, or release of this title."

I was joking i'm sure the game they made was at least on level with most generic RPGs probably better.

 

[LadyZephyr]

As a huge fan of ROM hacks and fangames.... Fuck you, Squarenix, you cockbites.

This just saddens the hell out of me. I remember the Lets Play of Super Metroid Redesign, which was lucky enough to get the hack maker to provide commentary. He said how helpful the game had been in getting him a job in the game industry, just by being able to say, "hey, I once made this ROM hack". An RPG with multiple paths and ending that was worked on for five years...

Christ.

Everybody is hating on square but what if they decided hey lets give this a chance and so they went to test it and give it their full blessing and then they started playing it and they realized this is complete crap, we can't let them release this we'll be ruined, and then the guys got bribed not to put it on the market or something. You never know for sure.

The ROM hack community is so small, man, it wouldn't have fukken mattered.

 

[IrrelevantTangent]

Square Enix is being a bunch of cockbites latly
they removed my cloud vs sephiroth vid form youtube! D=
i didnt say it was mine at all i said it was fan made i dont know why they are suddenly going through the "MINE!! YOU CAN HAVE ANY OF IT" phase

Yeah, AND they removed that totally-fucking-sweet fan video from Youtube made of all sorts of different scenes in Advent Children, to the song 'Navras' from the Matrix. It was frakking awesome and they had to remove it, and now I'll never find it again.

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

I smell R3volucion!

Unite, brothers! Cast off the oppressors! We have the right to....yeah I'll stop.

Corporations look at their stuff like its precious gold and when someone says "Can I touch it" they screw NO! and grab it like a five year old. Squennix is pulling a Disney.

 

[Quaidis]

This is very old news, as I believe a member brought up earlier on page 1. I heard about this years ago, where Squeenix gave the seize and desist only a year or two after they started. I then spent hours looked at completely revised versions of scenes, like the monster on the bridge, in a more 3d aspect instead of the classic look-down feel of the original.

I believe the recent article was only made because it brings up drama and hype. Perhaps the CT fans stated that that was their end date, or started up again after being asked to stop the first time.

 

[Avatar Roku]

Well they do have the right.

Edit - But its annoying

Same, I won't deny them excercising their copyrights...

But yeah, it doesn't change the fact that they're being giant sacks of dicks about the whole thing. It'd be like Obsidian suing Team Gizka, something I'm damn sure they won't do.

Oh christ, if they sue Team Gizka, I'm boycotting, even though they're making the game I'm looking forward to the most this year (Alpha Protocol).

That is rather disappointing. I would be thrilled if I made a game a decade or so ago and someone spent five years making a game off of that. Look at a company like Valve. Someone's remaking Half Life 1 under the name "Black Mesa," with redone graphics and gameplay, and Valve is looking forward to it. Why can't Square hold that same philosophy?

Valve has always been good with this. I mean, look at TF2 and CS:Source; two developer-made sequels to mods which made more money than god for them and made them universally loved. That's doing it right.

 

[-Seraph-]

This is very old news, as I believe a member brought up earlier on page 1. I heard about this years ago, where Squeenix gave the seize and desist only a year or two after they started. I then spent hours looked at completely revised versions of scenes, like the monster on the bridge, in a more 3d aspect instead of the classic look-down feel of the original.

I believe the recent article was only made because it brings up drama and hype. Perhaps the CT fans stated that that was their end date, or started up again after being asked to stop the first time.

No those 3d renders where from a different project. That was from Chrono Trigger Resurrection which was a full 3d fan remake of the original chorno trigger game. That got shut down a while ago, THIS ROM hack is completely different project. Disappointing none the less.

 

[Internet Kraken]

Am I the only one who is not surprised by Square Enix being a bunch of assholes?

Compare them to Valve. Black Mesa source would pretty much eliminate all possible funds Valve could get from the original Half Life. Do they care? Nope.

It's never a good idea to alienate your fan base.

 

[Quaidis]

This is very old news, as I believe a member brought up earlier on page 1. I heard about this years ago, where Squeenix gave the seize and desist only a year or two after they started. I then spent hours looked at completely revised versions of scenes, like the monster on the bridge, in a more 3d aspect instead of the classic look-down feel of the original.

I believe the recent article was only made because it brings up drama and hype. Perhaps the CT fans stated that that was their end date, or started up again after being asked to stop the first time.

No those 3d renders where from a different project. That was from Chrono Trigger Resurrection which was a full 3d fan remake of the original chorno trigger game. That got shut down a while ago, THIS ROM hack is completely different project. Disappointing none the less.

Ah. Well, it looks like Squeenix demanded a discontinuation for the same reason.

Maybe they'll take a hint that fans want to make their own CT sequel =P

 

[Syntax Error]

Next guy on Square's "To Sue" list: Guy who proposed using an altered version of Chrono Trigger.

Seriously though, it always saddens me when fan-made games of "abandoned" franchises get the axe because the original owners suddenly ups and says they're interested in it again. It's almost a decade since Chrono Cross. Chances are high that Square had no intention of reinvigorating that franchise. I wonder if this would happen to Mother 3 (note that this was a fan-translation, a little different, but the thought counts)?

This could probably a great big dick move by square if they don't release a new Chrono game sometime in the future.