All this talk has got me thinking.....

[Atilla the Pun]

...and I know how dangerous THAT can be....

But speaking of CTP2, Shrapnel Games, publishers, distribution, and some other stuff from the SEIV board and Apolyton MOO3 board got me to wondering...

Richard, what would it take to find a developer and buy the rights and source code to CTP2 from Activision? No, I don't really expect a dollars and cents answer, nor do I expect this to happen. However, the game is close enough to the "design philosophy" of other Shrapnel games that it would be right at home here. Activision isn't going to follow up on it for legal reasons (they had the license to the Civilization name for one game and one expansion, or two games). OTOH, Empire is enough like Civ/SMAC et. al. that you could make a case for contacting the company that wrote Empire (or it's legal heir if it's defunct) and get legal rights to the name. Name the new game Empire (or Empires) Through the Ages and watch it take off.

This is all blue sky stuff, and it probably can't be done, but I've been dying to air this idea out somewhere that it might be useful, and this seems like the best place.

[Richard]

It's probably next to impossible to be honest.

Especially since it has Civilization in the name, Last time folks discussed that issue three of the largest companies in gaming found themselves in court.

[Atilla the Pun]

Yeah, I know, but that's why I suggested the name change.

Well, it was just a thought.....

I guess the other thing that got me going on this subject is that Civ3 was a BIG dissapointment, not just to me but to a lot of people. The CTP2 forums on Apolyton have picked up alot in the Last month, and I expect them to pick up more after Play the World is released (or escapes ).

I know that running your own company is probably pretty time intensive, but could it hurt to investing 30 minutes to see about expanding your line up? This is potentially a good ROI, even if it takes some effort to set it up.

Well, I won't bug you about this, you have a successful company, you must be doing something right.

[ May 21, 2002, 04:40: Message edited by: Atilla the Pun ]

[capnq]

what would it take to find a developer and buy the rights and source code to CTP2 from Activision?

More money than Shrapnel has ever seen would be my first guess.

[Baron Munchausen]

Yeah, I bet it would cost millions to get the rights to any commercially published game that's made any money. Even a flop would probably cost you several hundred thousand because that's the kind of money put into producing it.