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Potential SR Videogame?

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AJCarrington

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« on: <09-14-17/1216:41> »
Interesting article over on EnWorld.

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Team Dragonpunk (known best for the Tribe of Gods mod for the game Ark: Survival Evolved) announced they are looking for the license to make a new Shadowrun video game exclusive to the X-Box One. The game, titled Shadowrun Anthology, will be “an Action-RPG/Multiple player title, of course! Like the RPG glory days of Mass Effect with multiplayer elements like Destiny.” When asked about whether this would be a remake of any of the previous games, designer Daniel Connery said “For example, there would be no reason why you couldn’t remake the old games as a mod, just like they’re doing with the SNES game in Shadowrun Returns. There are always challenges with next-gen modding, but as Modders ourselves for the last three years, we know exactly how to handle that!” This is not a guarantee that they will get the license, but it is the first attempt at a major AAA-style console game for the property since – and this is the only time I will ever admit its existence – the Xbox 360 first person shooter multiplayer-only game.

To clarify from the linked source above, the rights for the Shadowrun and BattleTech video game properties are complicated, even moreso than the tabletop rights. After FASA started divesting assets, the rights were purchased by WizKids. In 2003, WizKids was purchased by Topps, who later closed down WizKids in 2008. The following year, WizKids was purchased by NECA (the current owner), but Topps retained all intellectual property rights to both the Shadowrun and BattleTech properties. However, Topps did not get the video game rights to either property as those were owned by FASA Interactive, which was spun off into its own company and later purchased by Microsoft. So when you’re playing Shadowrun Returns or its Dragonfall or Hong Kong sequels or the upcoming BattleTech game from Harebrained Schemes, the Mechwarrior Online game from Piranha Games, or the Shadowrun Chronicles games Boston Lockdown, Infected, or Missions by Cliffhanger Productions; you’ll notice there are a bunch of logos on the splash screens and it’s because of this overlapping of rights: Topps for the trademarks and general intellectual property, Microsoft for the video game rights, and Catalyst Game Labs for any elements drawn from the tabletop games (as they are the current licensee of the Shadowrun and BattleTech licenses for all tabletop games and for fiction). So yes, intellectual property law is complicated.