Group announces fan remake. Group get cease and desist. Internet tells them they should have just dropped it one day out of the blue. A tale as old as time. Im sympathetic. But its idiotic to announce a fan remake of anything unless you have the written consent of the owners. (and even then its risky because they can always revoke those permissions at random)
In Valve’s case it’s just a smart move both for PR and business. Black Mesa isn’t competing with any of their products since I’m sure not many younger people are super interested in the original. In fact the remake might drum up interest by some people to play the original. And it’s sold on Valve’s platform, giving them a cut. Win win.
According to Wikipedia it started out as a mod, Valve asked them not to give it a name too similar to their own Half-Life Source, then later Valve approached them and suggested a commercial release!
The announcements of fan works are always to drum up more fans to contribute to the work. And honestly 99/100 it doesn’t result in legal threats, it makes sense to do. Fan works don’t get made in secret, in secret they get to version 0.01 and sit on one person’s hard drive for a decade
Their source is a reporter at Giant Bomb? GameSpot and Giant Bomb are owned by the same company.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have much faith in this remake, but citing the opinion of a guy who works for your sister company doesn’t seem like proper journalism.
It’s terrible journalism. If you skimmed past the first couple short paragraphs, the quotes from Jeff Grub (their “source”) read like he’s an insider at Aspyr or Embracer. In reality, the article is just linking to a 1.5 hour news podcast and quoting the host. The article doesn’t even try to summarize Jeff’s basis for his opinion, and the only quote they have from an actual insider is, essentially, “no comment.”
Look, gaming “scoops”, such as they are, boil down to somebody having a friend somewhere that will break NDAs to you on the basis of being your buddy, being somewhat intoxicated, or both. The reason you get much, much looser attribution with people like Grubb or Schreier s that those connections would probably lose their jobs, and for the most part nobody wants that, often including the studios that employ those guys.
But on the flipside, it does mean that you have to take them at their word, and like any long game of telephone that also means you have to take things with a pinch of salt. Things may be lies, the source may just be mistaken, opinions may get passed as facts, things can change later. Rumors are rumors until they aren’t rumors.
But that being said, will the vaporware huge triple-A remake that was explicitly struggling during development come out in the middle of the great 2023 game developer purge?
The reason you get much, much looser attribution with people like Grubb or Schreier s that those connections would probably lose their jobs, and for the most part nobody wants that, often including the studios that employ those guys.
Oh, I’m not criticizing Grubb. I’m criticizing the GameSpot article quoting Grubb. I have no opinion on whether Grubb is right, and I certainly don’t expect him to give up sources. I don’t even know whether he has a specific source, or if he was just giving his (no doubt well-informed) opinion on the situation, because I haven’t watched the podcast.
This felt like reading a New York Times article that links to a Washington Post article about some news event, and the NYT article is quoting the WaPo author in the same way that they would quote a witness. It’s just bizarre to me.
Yeah, it’s a bit weirder when Gamespot repackages Grubb’s take as news, in that it becomes harder to tell whether it’s them being coy about “we know a guy who knows a guy” info or if they’re just trying to manufacture a click out of something that’s unverified.
But then again, we’re rating them against Youtube “influencers” and whatnot, so I’m actively shocked that any standards would remain at all these days.
Are they? I know CBS used to own them both but GB got sold on a few years ago, around the time the Giant Bomb guys left (Vinny, Brad, Jeff Gerstmann, etc).
Either way, I’m confused as to how a simple guess from Grubb could be constituted as actual sourced news. What an odd article.
I’m both disappointed and relieved. I love KotOR and was intrigued by what they would come up with, but I’m also quite sure it would have missed the mark in the end. It would’ve been nigh-impossible to recapture the magic. Shame this killed the fan-remake, though. We ended up with the worst of both options.
I’d really like Larian to do their own thing and not be an IP slave to WOTC and Sony/Disney though. I loved BG3 but want them to continue making OC. There’s so much rehashed stuff these days, having original content is just so…uncommon in the AAA and AA spaces.
It is! They said they are focusing on smaller projects right now- stuff they are excited to work on. Hopefully, that’s more OC. Good shit either way, though. Larian’s past few games have been solid.
Another game the size and scope of BG3 would probably kill the company, and I can tell people would expect them to make a KOTOR remake of the same size.
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Was really looking forward to this one.
Everyone was. You’d think this would be a no-brainer remake.
Does anyone really still expect a clean ,better than the original, unmonitzed remake from EA? This is probably for the best
sigh of relief
We just got a pretty good Dead Space remake, so maybe
I don’t, but the original has so many bugs and issues on my PC that I’ve never been able to finish it.
You sure you’re not thinking Kotor2?
Nope, Kotor 1. Not sure why, but ended up with massive asset loading issues on some planets, and the worlds ended up bugged out as hell.
thats the obsidian experience
Nice. They DMCA’d the remake fan project so they could do this.
Group announces fan remake. Group get cease and desist. Internet tells them they should have just dropped it one day out of the blue. A tale as old as time. Im sympathetic. But its idiotic to announce a fan remake of anything unless you have the written consent of the owners. (and even then its risky because they can always revoke those permissions at random)
Unless you’re remaking a Valve title apparently. Black Mesa is fantastic.
In Valve’s case it’s just a smart move both for PR and business. Black Mesa isn’t competing with any of their products since I’m sure not many younger people are super interested in the original. In fact the remake might drum up interest by some people to play the original. And it’s sold on Valve’s platform, giving them a cut. Win win.
According to Wikipedia it started out as a mod, Valve asked them not to give it a name too similar to their own Half-Life Source, then later Valve approached them and suggested a commercial release!
The announcements of fan works are always to drum up more fans to contribute to the work. And honestly 99/100 it doesn’t result in legal threats, it makes sense to do. Fan works don’t get made in secret, in secret they get to version 0.01 and sit on one person’s hard drive for a decade
Sometimes it’s for personal advertising/resume padding.
We were this close to greatness
Boooooooo
I was literally just thinking today how much fun this would be to play once it’s out and now I’m sad.
I thought this was too ambitious to come out.
Their source is a reporter at Giant Bomb? GameSpot and Giant Bomb are owned by the same company.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have much faith in this remake, but citing the opinion of a guy who works for your sister company doesn’t seem like proper journalism.
It’s terrible journalism. If you skimmed past the first couple short paragraphs, the quotes from Jeff Grub (their “source”) read like he’s an insider at Aspyr or Embracer. In reality, the article is just linking to a 1.5 hour news podcast and quoting the host. The article doesn’t even try to summarize Jeff’s basis for his opinion, and the only quote they have from an actual insider is, essentially, “no comment.”
Look, gaming “scoops”, such as they are, boil down to somebody having a friend somewhere that will break NDAs to you on the basis of being your buddy, being somewhat intoxicated, or both. The reason you get much, much looser attribution with people like Grubb or Schreier s that those connections would probably lose their jobs, and for the most part nobody wants that, often including the studios that employ those guys.
But on the flipside, it does mean that you have to take them at their word, and like any long game of telephone that also means you have to take things with a pinch of salt. Things may be lies, the source may just be mistaken, opinions may get passed as facts, things can change later. Rumors are rumors until they aren’t rumors.
But that being said, will the vaporware huge triple-A remake that was explicitly struggling during development come out in the middle of the great 2023 game developer purge?
Meeeh… I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t.
Oh, I’m not criticizing Grubb. I’m criticizing the GameSpot article quoting Grubb. I have no opinion on whether Grubb is right, and I certainly don’t expect him to give up sources. I don’t even know whether he has a specific source, or if he was just giving his (no doubt well-informed) opinion on the situation, because I haven’t watched the podcast.
This felt like reading a New York Times article that links to a Washington Post article about some news event, and the NYT article is quoting the WaPo author in the same way that they would quote a witness. It’s just bizarre to me.
Yeah, it’s a bit weirder when Gamespot repackages Grubb’s take as news, in that it becomes harder to tell whether it’s them being coy about “we know a guy who knows a guy” info or if they’re just trying to manufacture a click out of something that’s unverified.
But then again, we’re rating them against Youtube “influencers” and whatnot, so I’m actively shocked that any standards would remain at all these days.
Yeah I was real confused, I’ve not listened to the podcast but how would Jeff even know?
Gaming journalism being an incestuous pit of incompetent buffoons? No way.
Are they? I know CBS used to own them both but GB got sold on a few years ago, around the time the Giant Bomb guys left (Vinny, Brad, Jeff Gerstmann, etc).
Either way, I’m confused as to how a simple guess from Grubb could be constituted as actual sourced news. What an odd article.
Yeah, they’re both subsidiaries of Fandom
Why not just do the work in secret and then release the finished game as a torrent?
"Savior, conqueror, hero, villain. You are all things, KOTOR Remake… and yet you are nothing.“
Day ruined :(
Well, I’m sad now. We really can’t have nice things.
I’m both disappointed and relieved. I love KotOR and was intrigued by what they would come up with, but I’m also quite sure it would have missed the mark in the end. It would’ve been nigh-impossible to recapture the magic. Shame this killed the fan-remake, though. We ended up with the worst of both options.
Meh, this probably would have been a terrible remake anyway.
Give it to Larian and let them do their thing.
I’d really like Larian to do their own thing and not be an IP slave to WOTC and Sony/Disney though. I loved BG3 but want them to continue making OC. There’s so much rehashed stuff these days, having original content is just so…uncommon in the AAA and AA spaces.
Divinity? Isn’t that their IP
It is! They said they are focusing on smaller projects right now- stuff they are excited to work on. Hopefully, that’s more OC. Good shit either way, though. Larian’s past few games have been solid.
That’s what they’re saying, they don’t want Larian to become the studio that only reboots old popular RPGs
Another game the size and scope of BG3 would probably kill the company, and I can tell people would expect them to make a KOTOR remake of the same size.