When a Developer goes Bankrupt, Does the Series End Completely?

[Quaidis]

I have just finished Lux Pain on the DS. After initial grief at the terrible handling of the localization (which I made a thread over, btw), I am now caught at an impasse. This game was incredible. Screw the poor reviews and nit-picking assholes out there that told me this game was trash. I really enjoyed the plot, the characters, and I'm now crushed at the ending (the best one of the lot).

I went to look if a Lux Pain 2 was coming out any time in the future, only to find that the developer Killaware went bankrupt in 2011. Killaware was a small developer founded by two ex-Altus employees. Killaware only had 10 employees working on Lux Pain over a 14-month period

So now I'm rather upset. I looked at other games created and seem to be running in circles over what to do next.


However this has me thinking. If the company files bankruptcy and goes out with a flash, do the games under it die out as well? Or is there a possibility that the titles could continue in the future? What I'm asking is if games projects and series are ended perminantly upon the developer hitting the graveyard.

Maybe I'm just grasping at straws...



Edit - fixed typo in title. Fixed bankruptcy date. ... And fixed the details on Killaware as a whole. Man, maybe I should fix my own localization issues before complaining about someone else.

 

[Veylon]

Series can get picked up by a new developer. 3DO is long dead, but Heroes of Might and Magic keeps going.

 

[Jitters Caffeine]

I imagine the series kind of goes into limbo until another developer or producer goes picks it up, then you have you have to wait until they actually want to do something with it. Just because a studio has the rights to a show or a game doesn't mean they have any intentions of making a new game in the series or new episodes of the show. Could just mean they're collecting from selling it into syndication or something similar. You just kind of have to hope that someone will pick up the series also wants to use it.

 

[Lucem712]

Well, usually Devs don't hold their IPs (Especially if they are small).

That's why you see devs leave companies and unable to continue the series; or see an IP handed off to another dev team.

So, in those cases, they might get handed off to another dev if it was profitable. If not, the publisher will just hold on to it until a re-release or re-branding (as seen recently with 'Syndicate')

A similar thing is happening with 'LA Noire'. Team Bondi is bankrupt and Rockstar (the publisher) holds the right/IP and will more than likely release a spiritual successor to the original.

 

[Bvenged]

More often or not it's the publisher who owns the Intellectual Property of a game series (franchise). Should the IP owner collapse, the IP is sold in liquidation/bankruptcy. Any smart member of the industry would quickly pick up the IP to continue it under their name.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

Well if you go bankrupt you are forced to sell off your assets to pay any outstanding debt. I would assume, therefore, that the rights to the IP were sold off. If it was a generally worthless IP then it may have just been sold for a nominal sum, and the people who bought it may not do anything else with it.

 

[Noswad]

Everyone else has said that the IP survives, but i'm going to say do not get your hopes up, a lot of series die with the developer, yes someone can make another but its unlikely that they will, especially games like your lux pain, a relatively obscure game that was poorly reviewed. Look at games such as evil genius, actually quite popular, developer dead, virtually no word on a sequel.

 

[Sis]

Duke Nukem. That's all I really need to say.

 

[Quaidis]

I learned a great many things from the eight or so posts in this thread. Some people saying I'm doomed, other saying that IPs are free spirits bound to meet many hands in their lives. It has been insightful so far.

If the company files bankruptcy and goes out with a flash, do the games under it die out as well? Or is there a possibility that the titles could continue in the future? What I'm asking is if games projects and series are ended perminantly upon the developer hitting the graveyard.

yes and no.

the ip survives often the developer (see might and magic; fallout)
but you most likely get a completely different game with just the names in it (see: xcom fps, syndicate; the latter is utter crap)
and it might make you rage a lot.

you will never get a 'true' sequel.

especially when it received a poorly feedback like Lux Pain and if its on a handheld console.

sorry man.

S'all good.

But to be fair, Lux Pain did pretty well in Japan - especially after a marketing ploy to patch it with an art book and CD. People compared it favorably to Persona. The latter games made by the company? Not so much. But the head of the team did talk in an interview about planning a sequel two years before the company went down, so I'm on this vague hope that someone picks up the IP or the people who own it bring it over to another company post bankruptcy; that there's this partially made sequel out there waiting for life.

The only reason it did so absolutely poor in the UK and America is the flunked translation.

I see where you're going about the unlikely sequel being a bane on the existence of the first, though.

 

[Atmos Duality]

It depends on if the IP can get passed to another developer (or worse, a publisher) still in business.

I say that because Publishers lean towards the business-control side; once a game IP ends up in their ownership, it will rarely, if ever see the light of day unless they see some value in it. If they can't wield it, they won't have anyone else potentially use it against them.

Just look what happened to King's Quest if you want to see that in action.
Or look at Bethesda and Interplay and how they are fighting over the Fallout IP now that it has real value in the mainstream again.