It was almost exactly 25 years ago that we released Star Control II® -- The Ur-Quan Masters for DOS PCs. We poured our hearts into the game, blending our love for classic science fiction, Spacewar!-style action gameplay and our own quirky sense of humor. We had tons of help from many talented friends and collaborators, but even so getting the game across the finish line was a herculean effort -- both the exciting, hydra-fighting kind, as well as the exhausting stable-cleaning kind. Pretty much ever since then, fans have been politely asking us to create a sequel, sometimes begging for a sequel, even threatening us if we don’t make a sequel. Our answer was always, “We really want to do this, we just need to wait until the time is right” -- kind of like Cthulhu awakening, but less end-of-the-worldy. Well, the stars have finally aligned -- we are now working on a direct sequel to Star Control II® -- The Ur-Quan Masters, called Ghosts of the Precursors™.
Unfortunately there appears to be a growing legal conflict between us and Stardock. We started out confused at what Stardock said and did. We tried to be reasonable and settle the problem quietly, but now after months of debate we are flat out mad! First, a little background information on just our side of the story:
In 2013, Stardock bought a limited set of Atari’s assets at a bankruptcy auction -- primarily the name and trademark Star Control® and certain original aspects of Star Control III, like the space cows. It’s our opinion that Atari’s rights to publish our earlier games terminated over a decade before the auction and we contend that Stardock has zero rights to our games, including any code and other IP we created.
As far as we can currently tell, we have no relationship with Stardock that lets them sell the three earlier Star Control games without our permission, either bundled with their other products or separately. That permission has not been given.
Despite what Stardock's Brad Wardell has recently said, including in this Ars Technica article, our games’ universe has absolutely no connection, hyper-dimensional or otherwise, with Star Control®: Origins. (Note: We really don’t like other people putting our names in their diagrams without asking us first.)
Stardock now seems to think that not only can they use our aliens, ships and narrative without our permission, but thinks that we cannot make a sequel to The Ur-Quan Masters without their permission -- this is where we got really, really angry.
When we started Ghosts of the Precursors™ we were looking forward to spending our time on fun, creative work, not fighting a legal battle to protect ourselves and our work. We have nothing but respect for the talented, passionate developers working on Star Control: Origins, but we apparently have a BIG problem right now with Stardock’s management. We’ve been waiting 25 years to make Ghosts of the Precursors for our fans and we certainly won’t let this stop us. Go! Go! Go!
No response from Stardock/Wardell yet but it had better be good tbh.
EDIT: Ah fuck it this looks good enough. Quote-Quote-Quote.
Dispute between Stardock and original creators of Star Control I & II has become quite public and turned nasty.
Quote:
Nope and Nope
MARCH 24, 2018
After declining Stardock’s recent settlement, we offered our own settlement agreement last week. Paraphrasing from legalese our settlement states…
Both sides agree not to interfere with each other’s new game development moving forward.
Both sides agree to contribute SCI, SCII and SC3 to the Ur-Quan Masters open source project for non-commercial use and to stop selling the games through any channels.
Both side agree not to “pass off” or “free ride” on the other’s good will or reputation.
Fred and Paul won’t infringe on the Star Dock’s trademark and Stardock won’t infringe on Fred and Paul’s copyrights.
Fred and Paul won’t challenge Stardock’s trademark registrations for “Star Control” and Stardock will withdraw their recent trademark applications for the “Ur-Quan Masters”, “Super Melee” and other various alien races from the classic games.
Both sides do their best to avoid confusion as to the origins of their respective new games.
Both sides will publish an agreeable statement explaining the settlement.
Neither side will disparage the other.
Each side will pay their own expenses and attorney’s fees.
Either side may disclose the final settlement agreement to anyone.
…and it was rejected. [Is there an emoji for a cute alien that, being rational knew what was going to happen, but being optimistic is still a wee bit disappointed? If not, there should be.]
On the happier side of life, we sure do appreciate your kind, thoughtful support on Twitter and in an astonishing variety of forums across the internet. It is fun and informative to read your comments… even the ones that don’t see things exactly the same way we do.
We know some folks question our paraphrasing, so here are the actual proposed settlement agreements in all their gruesome legality.
Damn what a mess haha. From what I gathered, the gist of it is that Stardock bought Star Control's brand (minus the actual rights to the classic games) in order to develop the new Star Control Origins. At the same time the original devs are trying to make a spiritual sequel (which is fine as long as it doesn't have the Star Control name on it), but the problem is the actual contents/aliens whose ownership is unclear. I hope we get to see both the games, even though a lot of popcorns will be required
So I've been following this dispute as its fairly active on the reddit star-control, there's some pretty comprehensive info (a copyright lawyers summarized everything in a vlog). I can see why this has become so messy, there are valid points on both sides (i.e stardock having now invested millions of dollars developing a new game in the past 4 years). Still goddamn really want a sequel from Paul and Fred (original creators) as they have continually supported the community, released sc2 opensource, tried with activision with petitions to fund a new game etc. despite 25 years they seem to have always kept this game alive.
Finally played through UQM (game always kicked my ass back in the day), What a great fucking game for 1992:
- Well balanced top down combat, interesting ship designs (There are a few failures in there, umgah ship? zot-fot-pik bleh?).
- Compelling campaign in what could be considered a first attempt at open-world gameplay.
- Multiple ways to fail / end the game, decent writing and humour that holds up.
- Design of all the races etc (the campaign plays out like an episode of star-trek).
- Kickass music and themes for all the races etc.
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