Posts: 1370 from 2003/2/15
From: Central Europe
Quote:takemehomegrandma wrote:
Quote:
Andreas_Wolf wrote:
The publisher claims it owns Gorky 17 lock, stock and barrel. This would mean the developer's legal successor owns nought of it.
TopWare is not the "legal successor" (whatever you mean by that) you say? Is that something you just invented yourself, som kind of "teh reeel!!1!" ownership as opposed to "normal" ownership?
Metropolis is the name of the original developer. They were later bought by CD Projekt before they were shut down. This is whom Andreas_Wolf referred to when he mentioned the "developer".
TopWare is the name of the former publishing partner, who claims to own all rights to the game. Interestingly enough, the original TopWare company went bankrupt. The previous owners then founded the legally distinct company Zuxxez, which bought some IP from the former company and was eventually renamed to TopWare.
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Well, at least *they* feel certain enough about being the legal owners, and since they seem to be one of the companies in the busines of vaccuuming the market for old a-dime-a-bucket crap games like Gorky 17 and port them to modern platforms, I would actually presume they have their paper work in order, since this is a core part of their business.
Considering they were not even aware that "proper" Linux and Mac ports had existed, I highly doubt that they have their paper work in order regarding Gorky 17. TopWare has shown a staggering level of ignorance regarding the development history of Gorky 17 on the Steam forums.
At this stage, it is anybody's guess who is at fault here. Either way, there is simply not enough information to throw stones at anybody.