Chrono Ressurrection Forced to Cease & Desist 99
Kethinov writes "The Chrono Ressurrection Project (previously mentioned on /. here), an attempted 3d remake of the popular 2d game Chrono Trigger, has been shut down by Squenix in the form of a cease and desist letter. Quoth their website, "it is with our deepest regrets in that we have to announce the closure of the Chrono Resurrection project. Square Enix Co., Ltd recently issued a Cease and Desist letter which will mean the project is closed indefinitely." The site retains two trailers and a number of screenshots."
Why not just change the name, and the characters (Score:5, Insightful)
The screenshots look awesome, keep the engine and just remove trademarks.
beautiful screenshot [opcoder.com]
Good luck to 'em
Have a look at the trailer (Score:3, Insightful)
It is a shame Square (and all big corporations really) is so annoying with a non comercial project that would even give a boost to Chrono series popularity and pave the way for a third official game in the series.
I am all for closing people profiting from other's trademarks, but when hardcore fans do a game/hack/mod/expansion just for the pleasure of doing it without gaining a penny... I don't understand why companys force them to cancel these projetcs.
Really, is anyone surprised by this? (Score:4, Insightful)
Look, Square is required to defend, vigorously, its trademarks and copyrights. If they don't, they lose them, and that could cut into their profits significantly. Furthermore, this crosses way beyond any legitimate extrapolation of fair use. Just as translating a book into another language or re-scoring a song for another set of instruments requires the permission of the original copyright-holder, re-implementing a game down to the plot, character designs, and underlying system of mechanics is stepping past the boundaries of fair use. There is no way they could legally have distributed or published this project with Squeenix's permission.
It looks like the folks involved have talent and skill, maybe they should be working on making their own game, instead of copying somebody else's? They'd have to start from scratch in many areas, but the screenshots certainly look like they have a suitable graphics engine, and seems like a demonstration of general know-how in the area. Why shouldn't they leverage what they've learned to create a new, different game which isn't someone else's idea warmed over and regurgitated?
Not such a big deal (Score:1, Insightful)
To be honest, the real question here is why anybody would be so dumb as to sink so much time and effort into a project like this without checking from the very start that something like this wasn't going to happen. In terms of sheer lack of common sense, it's kind of like building your house on stilts over the San Andreas fault.
There's a long history of games projects being shut down for reasons like this. For a while, it became common to refer to this as "Foxing", because of the propensity of a certain well-known media establishment for doing just this, but it's hardly limited to them. Anybody remember Nintendo and Great Giana Sisters?
Re:Why not just change the name, and the character (Score:5, Insightful)
So much effort went into this, but why didn't he just come up with his own ideas instead of ripping off other people's? He would not have problems if he had his own story, characters and world and only used Chrono Trigger as the inspiration for the gameplay mechanic. Then we would have even more respect for what he was trying to achieve.
Re:Really, is anyone surprised by this? (Score:2, Insightful)
Likely, though, these are talented artists and craftsmen... but not game-makers and storytellers. If they were the latter, it seems they would settle for nothing else than their own world and game.
Square Enix has a right (and a duty to fans of their work) to defend not only their copyright, but their standards of quality. However you may describe SE's formula and approach, it works. I have no desire to see even well-meaning plagiarists take whacks at "Chrono Trigger", "Final Fantasy", etcetera.
Re:Why not just change the name, and the character (Score:2, Insightful)
LEAK IT! (Score:4, Insightful)
Stage a hack or something, and get that code out there!
Re:A C&D letter was enough? (Score:3, Insightful)
With this and Chrono Trigger being, well as it seems, the best RPG of all time(pun intended) then why would you want to piss off SquareEnix for doing a project devoted to the game you and so many love? You wouldn't. You'd just hope they shut you down because they saw the crowd forming and think they might put their expert hands to work on a full remake.
This tactic saves them money AND assures sales. Plus with better graphics, although CT:R's graphics where great for independants, and development they can make a better remake and hopefully fulfill the wet dreams of some of us CT fans.
But i can only hope for that and such. And if it is a possibility maybe a full remake of FF6, or even all the Final Fantasys until 7
You know (Score:4, Insightful)
Chrono Cross, while not a direct sequal to Trigger, is still based on the same game universe (sort of, lots of time travel and dimensional weirdness going on in both games stories), and is just now coming up on it's 5th anniversary. This isn't like someone trying revive dead franchises like Star Control or whatever. Square still owns the rights to the "Chrono Universe", and it would not be suprising in the least to see another Chrono-based game from them in the very near future.
Added into this is that Square already has a history themselves of reviving their older Final Fantasy games with updated graphics, new CGI movies, and other stuff. In fact Chrono Trigger itself was part of the Final Fantasy Chronicles package along with Final Fantasy IV.
In other words, there's just no way Square could allow this project to continue, seeing as how the Chrono Universe is still an active viable property. I'm sure people associated with Chrono Ressurrection were only motivated by their love for the original Chrono Trigger game, but come on: what did you expect would happen?
Why'd they start in the first place? (Score:3, Insightful)
You've got to wonder what these people were thinking from the get-go. Square (even pre-acquisition) has a history of, errrm, aggressive litigation. I remember that Final Fantasy Online had some fun exchanges with their lawyers a few years back.
Not to mention the fact that they're Japanese. In addition to the Japanese corporate culture, where non-traditional ways of doing business don't make it very far, it would also be very difficult to buy up infringing assets (that are probably completely incompatible with whatever development tools they use in-house) from a few foreigners who literally don't even speak the same language as the rest of their development staff.
The real surprise to me in all of this is that there are people talented enough to produce work of this quality (it looks excellent), and yet stupid or naive enough to think that they'd be able to distribute it legally or sell it to a major multinational corporation headquartered on the other side of the world.
I mean, I like seeing projects like this, but it seems like a little bit of forethought would have prevented thousands of hours of wasted effort. It truly is a shame.
Re:Why not just change the name, and the character (Score:3, Insightful)
Speaking for myself, while I'm impressed with the technical work done, and with their dedication to the massive job involved, their choice to work over a pre-existing game for release rather than attempt to create a new one is a mark against them on their conceptual strengths, and, I think, somewhat against their character. I'd be less bothered with them using this project as a learning framework, which would remain unreleased, as a prelude to a real project.
Perhaps they'll go that direction now.
Re:Asking permission.. but do they answer ? (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd get a lawyer to write an actual letter (on paper!) to their legal department about it and see what kind of results that gets you. Email is disposable; assuming your message wasn't blacklisted as spam, it's really really easy to hit "delete" and get rid of it for good. To get results, you need paper.
No-win situation. (Score:3, Insightful)
Or, possibly, they though they'd knock Square-Enix's socks off with their amazing rendition and either get bought out or hired. Lots of people try this kind of thing-- sending unsolicited Simpsons scripts to Fox, etc. Unfortunately it never works-- legal dept.'s never even let decision makers see home-brewed efforts for fear of a later lawsuit if they have a similar idea. If Square didn't squash this and decided to make a 3-D version of Chrono Trigger in the future (which is a possibility, didn't they update early Final Fantasies?) these guys could potentially sue if it seems that Square-Enix appropriated any of their ideas and designs. In any event if they let this get distributed it could conceivably harm potential sales of a 3-D Chrono Trigger.
Whatever the motivation, this thing didn't have a shot and it's all their fault. It was a foolish endeavor to waste their time on. They seem talented, though, so I hope this effort at least works as a portfolio piece to get them jobs... And I'm betting it will, if they choose to follow up on it.