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[Announcement] Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition has been temporarily removed from sale.

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  • MessiMessi Member Posts: 738
    So since you can't even work on the game anymore what going to happen to everyone at Overhaul?
  • egalor_originalegalor_original Member Posts: 92
    edited June 2013
    Sad news indeed. I just hope it does not end like this.

    As for the Kickstarter, guys, I remind you that it's entirely a matter of IP, not money for the development at this stage. Kickstarter can help crowdfund something, but can't help resolve the entitlement to an IP. Which makes the matter even sadder.

  • artificial_sunlightartificial_sunlight Member Posts: 601
    I hope beamdog will kick some but (for goodness) and walks away with BG, IWD, ToEE, PST licences.
  • SamuelVargSamuelVarg Member Posts: 598
    This is Bhaal's way to tell everyone that Abdel wasn't a true heir to his Throne of Blood.
  • Son_of_ImoenSon_of_Imoen Member Posts: 1,806
    The publishing partner who did this doesn't act like a partner at all. From the start the creation of the game was crippled by the prohibition to alter existing content, thus keeping the original npc's as mute as they were. Now they crippled the game by forcing a stop on sales and release of the much-expected patch. Let's hope they don't deliver a death-blow.

    If it were a marriage-partner instead of a publishing partner, you wouldn't wanna get engaged at all. Very unpartner-like behaviour, more like a forced marriage with your worst foe.

    I hate them, I hate them so much. Though that's a DA:O quote. But 'evil around every corner' has already been said.
  • kulyokkulyok Member Posts: 33
    Quartz said:

    This series' modding community has always been awful at understanding the atmosphere and spirit of Baldur's Gate 1

    Yep, that's us. And what's worse, our mods are still available for download!


    Speaking of good news, though, Captain Obvious points out that you can still go to store.steampowered.com and buy BG:EE right now, so the only downside is the lack of the new patch. (Which may or may not really be a downside, given the number of "The latest patch crashed my game!" reports. Kidding. A choice "to install a patch or not", naturally, is still better than the alternative).

    A cynic in me also adds that with so many people holding advance copies of BG2:EE for testing, it will leak eventually if the release is stopped for a year or more, but let's not go there yet.



  • Son_of_ImoenSon_of_Imoen Member Posts: 1,806
    edited June 2013
    There was talk, on page 3 of this thread, of companies like EA Games, Hasbro, Atari. I don't get why they should have to do anything to do with what happens to Baldur's Gate.

    As far as I know, AD&D 2nd Edition was created by TSR, the Infinity Engine was created by Black Isle and the story of Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 was written by Bioware. Now the Overhaul team recreated the game. Why should anyone else but those 4 parties have any say in it?

    How is it that just throwing money on the table for something, like Atari did for the D&D 'license' and EA Games for Bioware, does buy you influence or even such a final say that you can stop sales and patch of BGEE altogether?

    There's talk about IP - that's intellectual property, as far as I know. Why should intellectual property be the property of anyone but the one's whose brains created the rules, the engine, the story and the remake? It's just not right. Morally, it's not right. It's f*@%cking bleeding capitalism, that's what it is. Morally completly utterly wrong. Oh how I hate it!
  • soulburnersoulburner Member Posts: 12
    Very frustrating, infuriating information.
    I hope it all gets resolved quickly and in favor of the current developers.

    I wonder if there is risk of the game being pulled from Steam. I'm afraid if that happens, the game might be disabled and unplayable even for people who bought it before the current legal dispute.
  • SniiiimonSniiiimon Member Posts: 153
    Dang it all. I hope everything works out... and quickly. Don't give up you guys!
  • trinittrinit Member Posts: 705
    @decado comment some more and i'll give you insightful and agree also! i appreciate directness :D

    anyway, i feel really disappointed by this news and i imagine it must be much, much worse for the devs. beside hoping for this to resolve as soon as possible i hope work continues at the same pace...
  • Jazzyboy1Jazzyboy1 Member Posts: 6
    It's just so very unfortunate that Atari happens to own the D&D franchise.

    Yeah, I'm going to go ahead and blame them for this since they did the same thing with NWN. My fit of rage is overdue :/
  • HootHoot Member Posts: 40
    Not sure I understand why the PATCH would be affected. I mean surely it's only new sales that are affected by a publishing issue?
  • davendaven Member Posts: 112
    Anything new?!
  • Son_of_ImoenSon_of_Imoen Member Posts: 1,806
    decado said:

    << Makes clever dialogue quote from game which is vaguely relevant >>

    << Gets Likes/Insightfuls >>

    << Profit >>

    I don't care about likes or dislikes, it's 'profitable' for me psychologically to share my emotions with the communities. Counter's don't have anything to do with it, it's about my emotional wellbeing, thank you very much.

  • RyknRykn Member Posts: 30
    edited June 2013
    I'm voting on Atari. They have gotten in deep these past few years and have even tried to have a smack down with WotC. I hope this issue will be resolved with the license moving into Overhauls hand's. (I can dream can't I?)
  • ChowChow Member Posts: 1,192
    If all else fails, I say "leak" everything you have managed to get done so far, and let fans deal with the rest and publish it all free. Sure, you won't get any profit or prestige out of it, but seeing them come out as a fan project is better than just seeing them die, and I'd wager profit and prestige were not the reasons you picked up this project anyway.
  • SenseiSensei Member Posts: 2
    I downloaded through beamdog. But, I can say that I only happened on beamdog because I was looking for a port of BG that would work with Windows 7, because my old discs of BG would not load.

    I want to see you guys get paid for all the hard work you put into giving me back one of the joys of computing. So, whoever needs to stop standing in the way, stop, so everyone can get back to enjoying a great game, and new material in development.

    I suspect these kinds of issues are why many software companies go out of business...legal wrangling.
  • karnor00karnor00 Member Posts: 680
    My guess would be that it's something to do with Atari. Or more specifically Atari's administrator.

    Particularly as the game is still for sale through Steam (Atari control these sales) and not elsewhere. I wonder if it's something to do with different revenue proportions that the various stakeholders get from Steam vs non-Steam sales. And Atari's administrator looking to maximise their income.
  • FlashheartFlashheart Member Posts: 125
    edited June 2013
    Yeah, it'll be Atari's Bank Adminstrators. They'll be, no doubt, trying to sell Atari's rights to the games. They'll have put a block on any development work until those 'rights' have been sold...

    If the Administrators don't find a buyer (at no fault of Atari's), we can forget about BG. BG will then belong to the bank, who won't give a shit about it.

    I should add though, the Adminstrators usually sell whatever they can, usually as cheap as possible to try and get back the Atari debts owed to the bank.

    Some reading: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-05/23/atari-bankruptcy
  • rdarkenrdarken Member Posts: 660
    Chow said:

    If the rights are for sale, I say we all chip in a little and buy them away, then give them back for Beamdog. Or something like that.

    Yeah, this. Kickstarter to buy the rights. Then maybe we can get Yoshimo in BG2 and all the other changes they couldn't make.
  • SenseiSensei Member Posts: 2

    @Dee - Which leaves Atari then.. -sigh-

    Or Hasbro. I read they sued Atari to get the D&D license back. Somehow Atari kept the rights to BG so maybe this is Hasbro trying to get everything back? A theory but whatever the cause I hope it is solvable and we eventually get BG2 EE!
    If Hasbro does screw everything up, then I will make all Hasbro games verbotten in my house. Monopoly will go bankrupt. Playdough will be made from scratch at home. The Transformers, and the movies will form trash in my house.

    Hasbro, you will lose more from non-purchases in my house than you could ever hope to make by wrangling D&D back.
  • FlashheartFlashheart Member Posts: 125
    edited June 2013
    I'm not sure Hasbro will be involved - unless they want to bid for the rights to BG in the auction.

    I'd say this problem will not be resolved (one way or another) until after the 'rights' auction has finished, which is 19th July. *

    I'm guessing that Beamdog are annoyed/concerned that if they fail to secure the rights to BG before the auction (or fail to win them in the auction) that their work could potentially be for nothing. If someone else gains the rights to BG, they could pay Beamdog to continue working and the buyer would reap the rewards. Not sure that Beamdog would be very happy with that though.

    * Just read that the auction might not include all Atari game assets. Atari (or rather its administrators) are looking to sell some assets privately. BG might be one of those private sales.
  • Aron740Aron740 Member Posts: 153

    I'm not sure Hasbro will be involved - unless they want to bid for the rights to BG in the auction.

    I'd say this problem will not be resolved (one way or another) until after the 'rights' auction has finished, which is 19th July.

    I'm guessing that Beamdog are annoyed/concerned that if they fail to secure the rights to BG before the auction (or fail to win them in the auction) that their work could potentially be for nothing. If someone else gains the rights to BG, they could pay Beamdog to continue working and the buyer would reap the rewards. Not sure that Beamdog would be very happy with that though.

    never heard of this auction but if someone would buy the right to BG and let overhaul continue their work AND give them more freedom I would dance around in the streets with happiness!

    And a question: Why can't you tell us what is really going on? Why would it be a secret?
  • FlashheartFlashheart Member Posts: 125
    Cerevant said:

    From Trent in another thread:
    "Our issue is not related in any way with the Wizards fellows. We went down to visit them a few short weeks ago and we all get along smashingly well."

    This is good news. WotC is a subsidiary of Hasbro. Hasbro own the digital rights to Dungeons and Dragons and could have effectively caused problems for Atari's sale of BG (to anyone).

    If the issue is not related 'in any way' to the Wizards, then it would seem Hasbro won't be blocking the sale of BG.
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