Atari sells TA's intellectual property

[Floris]

Atari will sell among "Rollercoaster Tycoon" and "Test Drive" also TA!

TA bidding starts with $250,000

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013- ... or-USD250k

[SinbadEV]

Let's Kickstart it into the public domain!

[Beherith]

I bet that chris taylor/uber entertainment will buy it. Damn I wish I was a rich kid...

[SinbadEV]

I bet that chris taylor/uber entertainment will buy it. Damn I wish I was a rich kid...

Man... I wonder if PA is too far along to have the TA IP retrofitted into it...

[Beherith]

They even sell PA as 'the true spiritual successor to TA'. It doesnt need the IP retrofit, but it would fit quite seamlessly.

[smoth]

PA is not TA.

UGH they are totally different systems.

[SinbadEV]

PA is not TA.

UGH they are totally different systems.

Yes, but it's not the gameplay that's for sale... it's the IP, the story and characters and settings and names of planets, ARM vs CORE... more importantly it's buying brand recognition (and, even though it's unfair, respect).

[smoth]

PA is not TA.

UGH they are totally different systems.

Yes, but it's not the gameplay that's for sale... it's the IP, the story and characters and settings and names of planets, ARM vs CORE... more importantly it's buying brand recognition (and, even though it's unfair, respect).

totally different universe and tech.

pa is too large scale to have all the variety that we loved in TA. PA will be MORE generic than supcom as far as unit designs. Might as well not be TA

[Neddie]

I'm not sure who would buy the Total Annihilation IP. The passionate are spoiled for spiritual successors and derivations, the IP itself is dated and difficult to apply, and the genre is not precisely thriving.

[Johannes]

No matter of the (huge) gameplay differences, they're too far along with PA to make it fit into the TA setting.

[PicassoCT]

Ueber bought it and they are lawsuiting us. The honor.

[smoth]

this just in, Uwe Boll buys IP for live action movie

[PicassoCT]

EA is bidding along, they want to make TA - the ultimate Action Horror Strategy Adventure..

[Google_Frog]

For someone trying to make a game I don't see the value in the TA IP.

I know I am not one for fluff but there is little else that has not been reused by some spiritual successor. As far as fluff goes the story and theme are generic to the point of not being useful. The unit names and shapes would only play on the nostalgia of fans from a decade ago.

Maybe I am overestimating people but I do not think TA2 would sell well on name alone. I think by now SupComm has captured the TA playerbase which was willing to leave TA.

I'm not even sure if owing the TA IP would be useful for Spring. The *A games are now too ugly for advertisement and I think (perhaps naively) that the engine is sufficiently far from *A to be fine.

[gajop]

i agree with google; even warwind IP would be more useful than TA at this point

[SinbadEV]

Incidentally this is a good Object lesson for why rights holders tend to be heavily invested in protection of their intellectual property... if Atari had been more vigilant and litigious (or at least willing to sub-licence) it could have been a much stronger brand (and more valuable to a potential buyer) today.

[Senna]

Does this means a problem with copyrights? if someone buys the TA stuff, talking about spring and BA and most mods thats use TA models

[SinbadEV]

Does this means a problem with copyrights? if someone buys the TA stuff, talking about spring and BA and most mods thats use TA models

I'm not a lawyer but probably not... it might be possible for a more more vigilant and litigious company (EA comes to mind) to buy the rights and go after the pretenders like SupCom or Planetary Annihilation for some kind of compensation for claiming any association with Total Annihilation... but it's going to count against them that the prior rights holders have made no attempt to do so.

Worst case I can imagine would be a new rights holder might toss a toothless C&D at SpringRTS in an attempt to validate a case they are making against Gas Powered or Uber.

The tragedy is that Atari squandered the IP... they could have made a decent bundle of money if they had developed or licensed the property instead of sitting on it.

[KDR_11k]

Incidentally this is a good Object lesson for why rights holders tend to be heavily invested in protection of their intellectual property... if Atari had been more vigilant and litigious (or at least willing to sub-licence) it could have been a much stronger brand (and more valuable to a potential buyer) today.

I think disuse is the big problem, stomping on nostalgia-driven projects would just make people forget even faster. The issue is less that TA is diluted and more that few gamers remember the original game.

I do not see any potential for going after SupCom or PA with this IP, it's just a bunch of trademarks and copyrights, nothing that can harm a spiritual successor. Only patents would work there and even then what exactly could they have patented in TA that would be able to hurt SupCom or PA? The similarities between modern AAA games are greater than the ones between TA and SupCom/PA.

Yeah, theoretically fan projects could get C&Ded by the new rightsholder but keep in mind that the material these fans are using is about 15 years old by now, it's not much competition to a new game using the IP. I don't even see potential for an HD remake.

That's if anyone even wants to buy it. Sure, maybe it ends up in the hands of some facebook game factory and gets completely butchered but I don't think the IP appeals to those people either.

Maybe one of the bigger indies or small developers (Mojang, Double Fine, ...) will grab it for nostalgia's sake. Then again Gearbox bought Homeworld, maybe they're interested?

[AF]

Technically we as a community have undermined the value of TA somewhat by providing an outlet for those wanting a remake to play, making TA2 no longer a requirement