While 2019 still has that fresh, new year smell, but it would seem that the law takes no such breaks for festivities. Stardock Entertainment has been served a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown for their love letter to the DOS-based Star Control series, Star Control: Origins.
In a statement made on Steam forums by Stardock CEO Brad Wardell, Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III issued a DMCA takedown notice notice to Valve. Reiche and Ford, who both worked for Accolade as designers on Star Control 1 and Star Control 2, are basing the take down on claims to ownership of Star Control as an intellectual property.
“Star Control: Origins is our own creation without relying on the work of Reiche or Ford. We spent 5 years working on it making it our own game. It very much plays like you would expect a Star Control game. But that has nothing to do with copyright. It has its own story, setting, plot, and all new characters. It exists in an entirely new universe.” – Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock Entertainment
While the development of Star Control: Origins was no secret to the original developers, it has also been no secret that Reiche and Ford were developing their own direct sequel. In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Star Control series, the duo announced the development of Star Control: Ghosts of the Precursors.
If you want to read a breakdown of the communication between Stardock Entertainment and Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III, Stardock Vice President of Marketing and Strategic Partnerships Kevin Unangst has posted bullet points as well as screen grabs for your perusal. You can find them along with some frequently asked questions here. At present, Star Control: Origins has been pulled from Steam, but if can still be purchased from GoG.com.
Take some time to sift through the correspondence and let us know what you think in the comments below.
If these legal issues do not get sorted and you do miss out on getting to try it out, you can read our review here. For more gaming news and reviews, keep it locked in here at GameSpace.
