Who owns us?

[Legacy_TSMDude]

               This might seem a strange question but it is one I cannot figure out...who owns this game now? Is it EA? BioWare? Atari? Some other company? Bob's Big Boy? That guy who sells oranges on the highway?

Who owns this game title now?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Bannor Bloodfist]

               Atari owns the rights to sell the game although I still believe they are forced to pay Bioware royalties on any said sale., Bioware owns the game engine rights.  EA owns Bioware so I would suspect that the engine rights actually pass to them, and any royalties as well.  EA and Bioware can NOT sell the game, expansions, etc, without getting permission from Atari.  Which is highly unlikely to ever occur due to the bad blood between the companies.  After all, Atari canceled all the Premium mods since Bioware was conducting the sales, and collecting the cash for same, then deducting that cash from what Atari still owed to them.  Atari was afraid of losing possible sales of NWN 2, and saw no benefit in losing the cash owed to Bioware since they had no intention of ever paying Bioware what was owed to them anyway.  Atari was and did file bankruptcy protecting them from having to pay those types of bills.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Gregor Wyrmbane]

               And because this game is based on D&D, I believe Wizards of the Coast also have their hand in the pie to some degree. If not from a financial standpoint, at least from a copyright standpoint.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Pstemarie]

               

Gregor Wyrmbane wrote...

And because this game is based on D&D, I believe Wizards of the Coast also have their hand in the pie to some degree. If not from a financial standpoint, at least from a copyright standpoint.

I remember seeing a note somewhere that WotC was also heavily involved in the wrangling that went on between Atari and Bioware, although to what degree I am uncertain. However, if NWN is like a lot of other D&D related content - nothing happens without WotC having the ultimate say (or at least considerable input and weight)..
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Drewskie]

               You can't blaim Bioware for moving on making their own properties...  it's the way to go.  Too bad Atari/Interplay couldn't have been liquidated.  Both of them filing for bankruptcy yet year after year they continue to wrangle in the courts...  they've enough cash for legal fees I guess.  And what happens in these courts?  Once or twice a year I might check and see if resolution has occurred in the Bethesda vs Interplay battle over the Fallout MMO, yet there never is any.  

And the cancellation of the premium mod program was the worst thing to ever happen.  It's not like anyone was getting rich over it...  The talented content folks (DLA and others) produced and the community consumed with the labors eventually patched directly into the game.  It was a great system.  Personally, I bought every one of those mods.  Obviously, it wasn't going to last forever, but for Atari to kill it prematurely over what had to have been peanuts in terms of dollars really bothers me.  Also, I remember Wyvern Crown being cancelled for a short time as a premium, though it did eventually get released.  Why?  Atari wanted horses in NWN2 first... a game which never did get horses.

Anyone who knows nwn history knows all of this but I like to rant about it occasionally as it still erks me.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Bannor Bloodfist]

               

Drewskie wrote...
<snip>
Anyone who knows nwn history knows all of this but I like to rant about it occasionally as it still erks me.

Heh... you, and me, and many, MANY others.  Unfortunately, it defined the end of a wonderful game for the long term as we no longer have Bioware support for adjustments/fixes/additions etc to the game.

We ARE lucky that Bioware continues to honor their commitment to keep the game authorization servers running.  And keeping the old forums with our CD keys alive, although i expect those to diappear at some point, at least we were warned that they likely would, and without warning.

Biggest loss is ANY new game with a development engine that the player can truly control.  Nothing comes close to the power we have over NWN.  Too bad we can't get an engine update to increase the FPS by using the newer graphics cards out there now, and to give us just a tad more power over other aspects of the game.

Ahhh well, I will go back to my hole and keep working on new tilesets.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Drewskie]

               

We ARE lucky that Bioware continues to honor their commitment to keep the game authorization servers running.  And keeping the old forums with our CD keys alive, although i expect those to diappear at some point, at least we were warned that they likely would, and without warning.

With the digital distribution now via GOG and Impulse hopefully there is enough sustained interest to keep those running a while longer.  And NWN remains a unique game in all you can do with it and the content that continues to be generated.  Good work, Bannor, always enjoyed fooling around with ctp stuff and look forwad to whatever else you might come up with.  '>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_UrkOfGreyhawk]

               

Gregor Wyrmbane wrote...

And because this game is based on D&D, I believe Wizards of the Coast also have their hand in the pie to some degree. If not from a financial standpoint, at least from a copyright standpoint.

WotC was the ultimate owner of the D&D IP. When WotC was purchased by Hasbro that IP passed to them.