Square Shuts Down Fan-Made Chrono Game

[CheckD3]

So they just took all those 6 years of work and said screw you? That's just low...

They couldn't have had them work out a deal where they get some of the profit, or adopted the project and hired the people or something? They just said say good bye to it?

And why didn't the people who made it just edit the names and apperances instead of trashing the entire thing?

For all the things I love about video games, this is one of those things that just...grah! I love games, hate the companies...

 

[Kazedarkwind]

how about instead of making rom hacks and mods for already made games...be creative and make new games, seriously though they have the full right and i don't blame them for doing it

 

[Lord Beautiful]

I don't know of a company more vindictive than Square Enix. If this was really such a threat to them, why didn't they shut down the project before the designers put half a decade into it.

 

[Raesvelg]

/shrug, this should have come as no surprise to anyone, and if the people working on the game had had the slightest shred of sense, they'd have asked SE in advance if the project was OK, and would have been told flat out that it was NOT.

Copyright law exists for a good reason.

 

[sanezombie]

Honestly I haven't really liked anything square enix has produced since dragon quest VIII. After that the story's and plots just don't really interest me to keep playing, some of them kind've make me angry at what they have become.

Aw well, maybe the makers of CE will put their effort toward others games. It looks like they have the talent to make a really good one.

 

[Altorin]

Square has been ruffling their feathers lately..

LordKat from Until We Win got a cease and desist order for something he apparently didn't do (Someone with a similar handle had been working on the XI Final Fantasy 11 server)..

So he basically told them to fuck themselves.

 

[LordWalter]

Square Shuts Down Fan-Made Chrono Game

The release of Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes, a full-length RPG in development by fans since 2004, has been halted in response to a cease and desist letter sent by Square-Enix.

Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes [http://crimsonechoes.com/], a fan-made Chrono game based on the Chrono Trigger ROM, had been in development since late 2004 and was scheduled for an online release on May 31 this year. According to its creators, Crimson Echoes boasted 35 hours of gameplay, 10 endings, and 23 chapters. It was, they said, an "unprecedently exhaustive work in the ROM modification community."

Why all the "was" talk? All work on Crimson Echoes has been halted and the release canceled in response to a cease and desist [http://crimsonechoes.com/letter.pdf] letter sent by Chrono copyright holders Square-Enix. What may have seemed like a labor of love to Chrono fans was "an act of copyright infringement" that was "deliberate and willful," a "ROM hack game" that can command up to $150,000 in salutary damages.

The Crimson Echoes team immediately complied with Square-Enix's request, canceling and destroying all work on the title, something they had promised to do from the beginning. "Should Square Enix perceive the project as a threat...Kajar Laboratories will immediately cease operation on the project and comply with Square Enix's orders," the readme file to the demo of the game declared.

"We thank those fans who followed the game's development, and also those who poured countless hours into the vision of a fun, new Chrono game, made by fans for fans without copyright claim or intent to make profit," developer ZeaLitY wrote.

ZeaLitY hopes that Square-Enix's action could be a sign that the company "cares about the franchise and intends to produce future titles, and not merely a shortsighted legal exercise that will further alienate a tired, neglected fan-base." Let's hope so, too.

[Via Ripten [http://www.ripten.com/2009/05/11/chrono-trigger-fan-mod-receives-cease-and-desist-letter-from-square-enix/]]

Permalink

ANGER. SUCH. FUCKING. ANGER.

*sighs*. Tis an old wound but a deep one.

 

[Green Tentacle]

...Why?

At least these people are making a fanwank to the game, I don't see Sqaure Enix doing any better.

 

[Hexenwolf]

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?

At least Microsoft/Bungie actually support Rooster Teeth's RvB, something even Valve won't do, I'll say that much.

Those are two posts apart.

Funny.

 

[Doug]

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?

At least Microsoft/Bungie actually support Rooster Teeth's RvB, something even Valve won't do, I'll say that much.

Those are two posts apart.

Funny.

Wow, this is some thread necro. But anyways...

I wasn't clear back...whenever I said that...

Microsoft/Bungie actually talk to the Rooster Teeth guys and even added in options into Halo 2/3 to help with machinima based on their input, and added in Rooster Teeth Easter Eggs to one of the Halo's.

Further, Rooster Teeth can sell DVDs of RvB.

Valve on the other hand, who I am a fan of, don't allow commerical machinima off of there tech - a series I was watching called "Leet World" based off of Counter-Strike. They weren't allowed to convert it from a free series to a free series with DVDs because it wasn't Valves policy to allow it.

Which is fair enough, and they never said they would. Hell, with mods, if they are successful enough, Valve have been known to make them official and allow them to be sold.

But in both cases of Valve and Bungie, neither corporation waited until just after a project was finished and then shut it down. About the worse offenses I can remember was Microsoft halting conversion mod from...Age of Empires (I think) which would make it a RTS Halo game mid way through the project (a shame given Halo Wars was abit shit).