Licensing – MMO Fallout

Back in May 2017, we reported that Alan Wake would be permanently leaving Steam following a license dispute with Remedy Entertainment. As it turns out, the game had a few pieces of music that were expiring and Remedy was either unable or unwilling to pay up to have said license renewed. The game was put on sale at 90% off and has remained off the store ever since.

Until today, when the title unexpectedly returned. There hasn’t been an official news statement posted, however Remedy Entertainment commented on Twitter to thank Microsoft for renegotiating the rights to the licensed music, allowing the game to return to store shelves.

Big thanks to our partner and Alan Wake’s publishers @Microsoft who were able to renegotiate the rights to the licensed music in Alan Wake, so that the game can be sold again.

If you for some reason did not pick up Alan Wake during its initial 90% off farewell sale, you can get it now for 80% off, or $3 USD (Your local prices may vary). You can also find it on Good Old Games at an 80% discount. Spinoff Alan Wake’s American Nightmare is also 80% off if you’re into that sort of thing. Peter Calloway is directing an Alan Wake TV show.

Fallout developer Interplay has gotten itself into more legal trouble. Those of you who have been keeping score will remember that our saga began in 2009 when Bethesda sued Interplay over the company’s not-so-honest claims that Fallout Online was in full production, meaning 30 million in funding minimum. Interplay, in its multiple attempts to fight off bankruptcy, sold most of the rights to Bethesda in 2009 with the rest following for an additional $2 million in 2012. Prior to this, Interplay had already been sued for using the Dark Alliance Engine in their games without paying for the license.

Just a few days ago, Good Old Games pulled down the Descent titles without notice from their online store, however they are still available and running a sale on Steam (although they shouldn’t be). In a post on the GOG forums, Matt Toschlog & Mike Kulas revealed that Parallax Software is behind the takedown, and that Interplay hasn’t been paying royalties since 2007. Even after being served with legal notice, Interplay did not pay royalties, resulting in further action.

Parallax Software still exists and still owns the copyrights to the Descent games. Under our 21-year-old agreement, Interplay has the exclusive rights to sell Descent and Descent II, and they have been doing so on Good Old Games and Steam. The problem is that Interplay has not paid to Parallax any royalties since 2007. We’ve talked to them about this numerous times over the years, and finally took action this fall. We served Interplay official notice that they were in breach of the contract, and when they still failed to pay we terminated the agreement.

While Parallax owns the rights to the first two games, Interplay currently owns the trademark and rights to both develop and license new games in the franchise including the early access title Descent: Underground.

(Source: GOG.com)