SquareEnix kills Chrono Trigger Fangame at 98% completion

[kaedesdisciple]

http://www.chronocompendium.com/

Sorry, Chrono Trigger fans. Here's to hoping that SquareEnix is actually doing something with their IP.

[Clownzilla]

http://www.chronocompendium.com/

Sorry, Chrono Trigger fans. Here's to hoping that SquareEnix is actually doing something with their IP.

It's always puzzled me on the strictness entertainment (movies, music, games, etc,)companies impose on IP property. Square has every legal right to bring up this lawsuit threat but what is the REAL long term cost to them? Just because it's not legal does not imply that it's bad for Square. I will absolutely side with Square if it's a bootleg operation using the IP to make $$$ but this is just a free fan game. If anything, it will bring more fans into the series. I would like to see the boardroom meetings that comes up with decisions like this.

Example:

CEO: What is the news for today.

Manager: Somebody is making a fan game with our IP.

CEO: Fan game or not it's OUR IP and it will stay that way......END OF DISCUSSION!

[kaedesdisciple]

There are a few thought patterns going on here.

One is that if these people actually put out a good game, will fans move toward it and possibly ignore other products that SE has on the market right now? You can't stop another competitor from putting out an original RPG and possibly drawing away fans, but if you can just send a letter and stop someone from using your own IP to do so, even if it is free, then why not? Hey, if that person gets really good feedback, tons of downloads and people offering to pay money for him to make more games, then SE just gave a blessing for a new potential competitor to rise.

The other is that some people might get confused and think that it's an actual SE product. If the product is no good, then that could reflect badly on SE as people still associate the IP with SE. If SE does decide to put out another Chrono game, then it will have the black mark of a game that they didn't even create.

Either way, I think the C&D should have come SO much sooner than this. Receiving a letter like that when you're less than a month away from completion must have been heartbreaking. The actions almost say that it's not enough for SE to stop the action, but that SE intended to utterly crush the spirits of anyone involved with the project.

[kupomogli]

I think they should leak the 98% complete game onto the internet as an unknown person who was beta testing it. That way fans will be allowed to play the title while Square-Enix won't be able to do anything.

[kaedesdisciple]

I think they should leak the 98% complete game onto the internet as an unknown person who was beta testing it. That way fans will be allowed to play the title while Square-Enix won't be able to do anything.

I think SE took care of that with the C&D letter. No matter which way the game leaks out, if it does, the owner is getting slapped with a minimum $150,000 lawsuit. Of course, IANAL, but I think SE would unfortunately win in that case.

[Rickstilwell1]

And if they have already gotten that far, they could just replace the Chrono characters' sprites with their own characters and names. They don't have to cancel the whole thing.

If it was designed to be good then it should be ok without Chrono and the other popular characters in it.

[Berserker]

And if they have already gotten that far, they could just replace the Chrono characters' sprites with their own characters and names. They don't have to cancel the whole thing.

If it was designed to be good then it should be ok without Chrono and the other popular characters in it.

That's actually a really good idea.

Square-Enix could still hit them with a lawsuit if they were feeling particularly over-zealous, as these big companies sometimes do, saying that it was originally based off of their intellectual property, or that it bears too much of a resemblance to their intellectual property etc. But at least then they (the fan-team) would have an actual case to argue, and probably win, provided that they weren't too careless, i.e. not doing much more than turning Chrono's hair from red to orange and changing his name to "Krono" or something like that.

[Kitsune Sniper]

And if they have already gotten that far, they could just replace the Chrono characters' sprites with their own characters and names. They don't have to cancel the whole thing.

If it was designed to be good then it should be ok without Chrono and the other popular characters in it.

It would still require a Chrono Trigger ROM to work, so it's still IP infringement.

I don't like it, in fact I think it's fucking bullshit by Squeenix, but it's their property and it's their right to defend it. Even if they're fucking twats about it.

[TonyTheTiger]

As somebody who works on his own intellectual property (and has studied copyright) I fully understand Square's position. There's a quality control issue as well as a market saturation issue.

There are a few thought patterns going on here.

One is that if these people actually put out a good game, will fans move toward it and possibly ignore other products that SE has on the market right now? You can't stop another competitor from putting out an original RPG and possibly drawing away fans, but if you can just send a letter and stop someone from using your own IP to do so, even if it is free, then why not? Hey, if that person gets really good feedback, tons of downloads and people offering to pay money for him to make more games, then SE just gave a blessing for a new potential competitor to rise.

The other is that some people might get confused and think that it's an actual SE product. If the product is no good, then that could reflect badly on SE as people still associate the IP with SE. If SE does decide to put out another Chrono game, then it will have the black mark of a game that they didn't even create.

Either way, I think the C&D should have come SO much sooner than this. Receiving a letter like that when you're less than a month away from completion must have been heartbreaking. The actions almost say that it's not enough for SE to stop the action, but that SE intended to utterly crush the spirits of anyone involved with the project.

This.

I do think that waiting this long sounds fishy but that's assuming Square knew about the project. And even if they did wait on purpose, I think what they're doing (and it makes sense from a resource management and PR angle) is letting people have their fun but once it appears that a real release of something legit looking is imminent they bring the axe down. If they went after every single thing the second it got started they'd seriously waste lots of resources fighting against bullshit little things and also pushing away a hell of a lot of people.

[Wolfrider31]

What exactly is the difference between this and a 12 year old sitting on his computer making an RPG with ripped Chrono Trigger sprites? Is Square claiming that their IP rights allows them to stop hobbyists from making derivative content for their own use?

If they are, I've got some news for them - they don't have any legal rights when it comes to that. They might (MIGHT) be able to argue that the scope of the project counted as distribution but that's highly unlikely.

The developers should have stood up for themselves. They had every legal right to take this project on and release it for non-commercial purposes. This isn't piracy... it's not a violation of Square's IP... it presents no threat to their business. This is the video game equivalent of Harry Potter fanfiction.

[Kitsune Sniper]

The developers should have stood up for themselves. They had every legal right to take this project on and release it for non-commercial purposes. This isn't piracy... it's not a violation of Square's IP... it presents no threat to their business. This is the video game equivalent of Harry Potter fanfiction.

Didn't Rowling (or rather, her publishers) try to go against fanfic writers at one point?

[Daria]

http://www.chronocompendium.com/

Sorry, Chrono Trigger fans. Here's to hoping that SquareEnix is actually doing something with their IP.

This website's just sad now. They're reporting community drama as "news". The game's canned, does anyone really care if some faceless strangers on the internets think it was all a hoax?

[TonyTheTiger]

This is going to be interesting. Square Enix threatened legal action if the game ever got out, right? Well, if the company takes action it'll be a waste because it won't really do them much good and also they might not even win. But if they don't follow through then that could send the message that a Square Enix Cease & Desist letter is just an idle threat.

[Cryomancer]

So, has anyone actually played it? You will probably have to grind the literal first regular battle in the game for awhile, until Magus can handle two beasts at a time on his own. His shield spell helps and all, but at level 1...yeah. Once you can get past the first two areas, you will get a full party and the balance becomes better. It still seems like it is skirting the "hard because romhacks have to be hard for hard's sake" sort of mentality, but perhaps that's one of the things unfinished with the game. Doesn't even bother to explain why everyone is level 1 and have lost all their prism helms and whatnot but hey. I've played a few hours into it so far and it actually isn't too bad, not super fanfictiony yet. There lots of weird graphical errors and people with placeholder text and whatnot, but the version that is out is supposedly from february and isn't neccesarily the "98%" complete version, let alone a final. I did encounter a bug that made me lose a bunch of progress and I've not gotten back to it since, so make sure you save pretty much before going into any new area just in case of stuff like that.

[kupomogli]

I'm replaying Chrono Trigger, then I'll play Prophet's Guile, then Crimson Echoes. I'm going to get all the secrets and sidequests to each game or atleast all of them that I can find(which will be every one of them on Chrono Trigger, probably not all of them on the others.)

[Cryomancer]

Yeah, I'm sure I'm missing lots of stuff playing this. I've encountered a couple of "make a choice" segments too that I wonder how much they actually effect things. But hey, I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they probably let newgame+ be an option, so i'll try different stuff next time maybe.

Also, I have went ahead and started cheating lightly. I've given several characters 999 HP, but not infinate HP. I'm still dying pretty well, since the enemies seem to all have like 750+ HP and come in groups. I also gave Marle ** stamina stat so she could have high defense because no I am not going to play a solo low-level Marle segment legitimately.

[DenDenDos]

The reviews look bad.

[Baloo]

Square Enix is being it's usual assholish self for ordering a cease and desist, because they can't come up with anything better to counter a simple fangame. Make a 3D Chrono Trigger for the fans? Out of the question. Someone else is doing it? Fuck them, Cease and Desist.

[skaar]

The game's all over and I think most of the reviews have been poor to horrible. The C&D was probably the best thing that could have happened to the team to even get any attention.

Still, I respect the effort put in on it.

[Jorpho]

The game's all over and I think most of the reviews have been poor to horrible. The C&D was probably the best thing that could have happened to the team to even get any attention.

Come now, had they had the time to finish it properly, it may well have gotten better reviews.