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http://www.bit-composer.com/www_en/newsarchive.aspx?newsid=409f9f95-6f57-4214-8a3e-1789777d728b

bitComposer Entertainment acquires S.T.A.L.K.E.R. license

Eschborn/Frankfurt, December 12, 2012: bitComposer Entertainment AG has acquired the exclusive worldwide rights for future video game adaptations of the acclaimed S.T.A.L.K.E.R. brand from Boris Natanovich Strygatsky. This is the second strong international license that the Eschborn-based company has acquired within the space of a few years, and this move ensures that the successful series will continue. Further details will be released shortly.

"The acquisition of the S.T.AL.K.E.R. license serves as an important cornerstone for the further international orientation of bitComposer Entertainment AG," says Stefan Weyl, member of the bitComposer Entertainment AG executive board. "For us, this brand represents a bridge to an important segment of triple-A products and a milestone in the history of the company. We would like to express our gratitude to Boris Natanovich Strygatsky."

"S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a reputable brand with a long history of success. To date, the series has sold many millions of units worldwide," says Wolfgang Duhr, member of the bitComposer Entertainment AG executive board. "Naturally, we'd like to tap into the success of this series, and we see a great deal of potential for the future."

Since the 2007 release of the first part, "Shadow of Chernobyl," the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series has received numerous national and international awards. "Shadow of Chernobyl" has sold over 300,000 copies in the German-speaking countries alone. The series has received exceptional overall reviews worldwide, with average ratings of 82% (Metacritic) for Shadow of Chernobyl and 80% (Metacritic) for Call of Pripyat. So far, the three titles in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series have been released exclusively for Windows PC.

The games in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series are adapted from the novel Roadside Picnic by the brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, which was also the basis of a film. The film Stalker, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, was produced in 1979, and is considered a classic of Soviet cinema.

bitComposer Entertainment AG has acquired the rights for future game adaptations of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. brand. All other rights remain with the Strugatsky brothers.

Boris Natanovich Strugatsky passed away unexpectedly on the 19th of November, 2012, at the age of 79.

You can find more details on bitComposer products at www.bitcomposer.com

 

[R1CHO]

Now contract 4A games to make the sequel.

That would be nice.

 

[KaiserBecks]

I was just playing "Stalker SOC" the other day and was wondering what happened to the franchise. bitComposer? At least now we can be sure Stalker is dead.

 

[Perkel]

stalker for ios
stalker for consoles
stalker dolls
stalker vodka


good bye F5

 

[JaseC]

bitComposer? At least now we can be sure Stalker is dead.

The company has a handful of games on Steam, including more recent releases, across a variety of genres; and considering this deal applies only to future STALKER releases, it'd make absolutely no sense for it to purchase the (publishing?) rights only to do nothing.

 

[Alex Connolly]

Curious to see what happens next.

In infantile dream-states, I'd sure love an isometric STALKER tactics game on the Back in Action mechanical foundation. Erections would be had.

 

[Sapphire Dreams]

It'll never be the same

 

[snoopeasystreet]

I thought Bethesda ended up with STALKER somehow.

 

[JaseC]

I thought Bethesda ended up with STALKER somehow.

That was just a rumour. A rumour that, it's safe to say, was false.

 

[Grief.exe]

Huge, unexpected news.

Hopefully they respect the license and make some great games.

That was just a rumour. A rumour that, it's safe to say, was false.

I'm really glad they didn't. Would hate to see something like stalker dumbed down, 'streamlined', to the likes of skyrim.

They already took one of my favorite series away.

 

[snoopeasystreet]

That was just a rumour. A rumour that, it's safe to say, was false.

Thank fuck.

 

[KaiserBecks]

The company has a handful of games on Steam, including more recent releases, across a variety of genres; and considering this deal applies only to future STALKER releases, it'd make absolutely no sense for it to purchase the (publishing?) rights only to do nothing.

I know, but considering what they did to the Jagged Alliance franchise, it's pretty much safe to say that Stalker is screwed.

 

[JaseC]

I know, but considering what they did to the Jagged Alliance franchise, it's pretty much safe to say that Stalker is screwed.

Is there something to suggest bitComposer was captaining the games' development? They were both developed by Coreplay.

 

[KaiserBecks]

Is there something to suggest bitComposer was captaining the games' development? They were both developed by Coreplay.

Coreplay doesn't own the license though. If bitComposer cared about their franchises, "Back in Action" and "Crossfire" would not have happened. It still amazes me how they managed to develope a remake that bad. It's almost as if they were doing it on purpose.

 

[JaseC]

Coreplay doesn't own the license though.

Yes, that much I realise.

If bitComposer cared about their franchises, "Back in Action" and "Crossfire" would not have happened. It still amazes me how they managed to develope a remake that bad. It's almost as if they were doing it on purpose.

Stranger things have happened.

 

[Night_Trekker]

Somebody other than the people who made the three S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games having the license = bad news

 

[Orayn]

Kinda figured STALKER would emerge from limbo in someone else's hands, since the remnants of GSC have gone their separate ways at this points. Oh well, here's hoping future STALKER titles are developed by someone competent.

 

[Ubersnug]

Kickstarter incoming in 3..2..

 

[Dabanton]

Hmm maybe we'll see a console version of any new S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games (Yes outrageous I know)

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

Kickstarter incoming in 3..2..

1...

 

[rosaceadude2112]

Now contract 4A games to make the sequel.

That would be nice.

No.

 

[jono51]

Wonder what they had to pay for it.

 

[Sentenza]

Is there something to suggest bitComposer was captaining the games' development? They were both developed by Coreplay.

Actually, according to what they stated in this thread, turned out they developed the game following the publisher's directives quite strictly.

 

[Technosteve]

Now contract 4A games to make the sequel.

That would be nice.

Metro was a low budget call of duty, i dont want them to make stalker.

 

[JaseC]

Actually, according to what they stated in this thread, turned out they developed the game following the publisher's directives quite strictly.

Cheers. Coreplay considering itself a "contractor" more than a developer is disconcerting.

 

[Grief.exe]

Metro was a low budget call of duty, i dont want them to make stalker.

Have you played it? That statement makes me believe you haven't.

Metro is a very solid game with some pacing and optimization problems.

The gunplay is actually very similar to stalker. High recoil, low ammo.

 

[basic_text]

From the looks of some games on their 'Products' page, I'd hazard a guess it'll be back as a Facebook game

 

[doniewhalberg]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/12/12/bitcomposer-acquire-s-t-a-l-k-e-r-from-strygatsky/

...Wtf haha, a seperate franchise? This could get messy if that's right. The rights they've acquired are from the author (or his estate, I guess), but not necessarily, the same rights as the previous game series, possibly? Confusing.

Also, wtf at that Metro comment.

 

[Grief.exe]

Seems like there is some confusion on this. Interesting to see where this is headed.

From the gamasutra article.

Update: Following confusion regarding whether BitComposer owns the video game rights to S.T.A.L.K.E.R., or whether GSC Game World's Sergiy Grygorovich owns it, a spokesperson for BitComposer has told Gamasutra that it is the sole owner of the license.

"We hold the license for PC and video games from the Strugatsky brothers," he said. He reiterated, "The owner of the license was the Strugatsky brothers. As far as we know, GSC never had the license for S.T.A.L.K.E.R."

Update 2: Sergey Galyonkin, director of marketing at Russian games company Nival, has suggested that BitComposer has in fact bought the rights to the original Roadside Picnic universe, and the Stalker license that comes from those books, rather than the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. movie and video game franchise.

It's still not 100 percent clear whether this is the case, as BitComposer is adamant that it has bought the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. license. Gamasutra has contacted GSC Game World associates for confirmation.

Source:http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/183341/STALKER_license_changes_hands_says_BitComposer.php

 

[Technosteve]

Have you played it? That statement makes me believe you haven't.

Metro is a very solid game with some pacing and optimization problems.

The gunplay is actually very similar to stalker. High recoil, low ammo.

I am starting the game i am turned off from the very first chapter, i need to keep playing but so far i have only seen on rails set piece and pretty bad story telling.

 

[doniewhalberg]

Seems like there is some confusion on this. Interesting to see where this is headed.

From the gamasutra article.



Source:http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/183341/STALKER_license_changes_hands_says_BitComposer.php

Shit, how horrible if this is true, we'll be even less likely to see anything happen with the series if it gets tied up legally. This would be even worse if it proved true that Bethesda bought the GSC rights ha.

I am starting the game i am turned off from the very first chapter, i need to keep playing but so far i have only seen on rails set piece and pretty bad story telling.

Sure, you don't like it. That's a fair point of view to have, not liking the game, but what's this rubbish about it being a low budget COD? What has COD got to do with anything?

 

[Gravijah]

I'm really glad they didn't. Would hate to see something like stalker dumbed down, 'streamlined', to the likes of skyrim.

They already took one of my favorite series away.

it's not as if Oblivion and Morrowind weren't both stripped down themselves compared to earlier titles.

 

[Technosteve]

Shit, how horrible if this is true, we'll be even less likely to see anything happen with the series if it gets tied up legally. This would be even worse if it proved true that Bethesda bought the GSC rights ha.




Sure, you don't like it. That's a fair point of view to have, not liking the game, but what's this rubbish about it being a low budget COD? What has COD got to do with anything?

on rails set pieces is what makes COD work, i guess i can rephrase it to be this is a poor doom clone? I'll keep playing pass this part but it hasn't really grabbed my attention like Stalker did. Starting out in a town where everything outside of the town will kill you was fucking awesome.

 

[doniewhalberg]

on rails set pieces is what makes COD work, i guess i can rephrase it to be this is a poor doom clone? I'll keep playing pass this part but it hasn't really grabbed my attention like Stalker did. Starting out in a town where everything outside of the town will kill you was fucking awesome.

I guess you could say you think it's a poor shooter/game? Which is fine, it certainly is not a perfect game, nor for everyone. I don't like everything about it (the stealth lacked for sure) You're trying really hard though to draw comparisons that aren't really there bar being the same genre. You're potentially giving readers who haven't played the game the wrong impression, because they're going to think of games that this game really doesn't invoke. I shudder to think someone would look in here, see you call it a low budget COD clone, think to themselves " I hate COD" and skip this.

 

[Anton Sugar]

I was wondering about this. It sounds like they may have purchased the rights to Boris Strugatsky's (who recently passed away) Roadside Picnic "title", which they'd use to make more Stalker games, but not necessarily S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games.

Official S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Facebook page issued this:

Official note of GSC Game World

In view of the rumors appearing in press, we find it necessary to inform that GSC Game World and Sergey Grigorovich remain to be the sole owners of all the intellectual property rights to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game series and the brand overall, including all the trademarks, the game universe, the technology etc. This can be easily verified with the trademark services online.

From time to time news on the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. brand purchase by this or that company appear over the Internet. We relate such a keen interest in the brand to its exceptional popularity. Even the purchase of rights to create a “Roadside picnic” book-based game by a small publisher is presented as the continuation of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise. We have doubts regarding the mentioned product by bitComposer (the publisher of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat on some territories), since the latter has significant debts in terms of fulfilling the obligations under the existing contract between our companies.

Interesting.

 

[doniewhalberg]

I was wondering about this. We have doubts regarding the mentioned product by bitComposer (the publisher of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat on some territories), since the latter has significant debts in terms of fulfilling the obligations under the existing contract between our companies.

Aw fucking buuuurrrn haha.

Yea this is going to get messy. People are speculating about the book universe thing but bitcomposer are saying the direct opposite: ""The owner of the license was the Strugatsky brothers. As far as we know, GSC never had the license for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.". They clearly think they've purchased the previous series' rights/license (although they stated they do not own the previous series' logo). Gonna get interesting. Hopefully this jsut ends with another game being made.

 

[Anton Sugar]

Yeah, I don't mind if multiple games based on the universe come out, I just don't want them to be shitty, hahaha.

 

[arts&crafts]

Currently reading Roadside Picnic at this very second. Makes me want more STALKER. This is good news.

Also, wouldn't Roadside Picnic rights == S.T.A.L.K.E.R rights?

I am confused as to how their could be a videogame based on Roadside Picnic that wouldn't infringe on STALKER trademarks.

 

[Oersted]

bitComposer has a history on Nintendo and MS consoles as far as I remember. Could turn out to be interesting.

 

[Anton Sugar]

Currently reading Roadside Picnic at this very second. Makes me want more STALKER. This is good news.

Also, wouldn't Roadside Picnic rights == S.T.A.L.K.E.R rights?

I am confused as to how their could be a videogame based on Roadside Picnic that wouldn't infringe on STALKER trademarks.

I'd be really interested in how this works, really. Frankly, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. doesn't really have much in common with Roadside Picnic, just a few ideas and the profession of being a "stalker". In S.T.A.L.K.E.R.,

Spoiler

the Zone is basically manmade, "Stalker" is some weird, pointless acronym, there are dangerous mutants, and there are factions that actually inhabit the Zone.

Only added spoiler tags because it describes what Roadside isn't, for those who haven't read it.

 

[leatherhat]

STALKER was too good to last forever

 

[doniewhalberg]

I think how it works is the videogame series is purely a license of the movie, from what I've been reading today. Somehow, the movie managed to get away with only being "inspired" by the book, but was not officially licensed or anything from the author or anything like that. I think that's how the game series managed to have been its own thing seperate from the book. Then you get bitcomposer say they've licensed from the author/author's estate, and claim what they've licensed is specifically the game series.

Something like this anyway. How is the book btw? I remember getting reeaaaally into the witcher and then was super disappointed that I couldn't stand the writing style of the books (I may yet struggle through anyway). I think often it comes down to the translation though, as much as the writer's own skills, which I sadly just can't get around. Kept away form Metro 2033 for the same reason.

 

[arts&crafts]

I think how it works is the videogame series is purely based off of the movie, from what I've been reading today. Somehow, the movie managed to get away with only being "inspired" by the book, but was not officially licensed or anything from the author or anything like that. I think that's how the game series managed to have been its own thing seperate from the book. Then you get bitcomposer say they've licensed from the author/author's estate, and claim what they've licensed is specifically the game series.

Something like this anyway. How is the book btw? I remember getting reeaaaally into the witcher and then was super disappointed that I couldn't stand the writing style of the books (I may yet struggle through anyway). I think often it comes down to the translation though, as much as the writer's own skills, which I sadly just can't get around. Kept away form Metro 2033 for the same reason.

As Anton posted above the book has a few similarities with the game but is actually quite different, both in terms of plot and the actual "science"/ facts relating to it. I am really enjoying the book on its own though.

 

[doniewhalberg]

As Anton posted above the book has a few similarities with the game but is actually quite different, both in terms of plot and the actual "science"/ facts relating to it. I am really enjoying the book on its own though.

Haha, I meant just in terms of enjoyment, rather than content enjoyable writing and so on, I love kind of fiction. Maybe I'll give it a shot over christmas/january time then, if you'd recommend it. I won't be reading anything from February-May anyway, that's for sure :/

 

[Dennis]

Who?

 

[Anton Sugar]

The book is great--one of my favs and it does a great job of treating the Zone as a real phenomena in a real world. It's a short, easy read but I discover something new in it with each readthrough--it's strangely "dense". It has an economic writing style but nothing is extraneous.

You won't find stories of fighting mutants or anything like that; really, not a whole lot of time is spent in the Zone. On my first readthrough, I mostly picked up on the examination of how Earth would (stupidly) react to this amazing phenomena, but there are strong themes dealing with blind faith and its effects, as well as humanity's ill treatment of itself. Good stuff.

 

[wrowa]

I'd have preferred Betheshda over this, honestly. At least we would have got a decent game or two that way... Now we will probably get some browser game.

 

[zkylon]

This is weird... I like european dudes talking the STALKER franchise but I just don't understand what the hell they bought lol...

 

[params7]

Stalker should rather die than end up in the hands of Bethesda who'll just dumb it down and make it another far cry 3.

Hopefully THQ/4A games somehow get it..or bitcomposer is able to respect the design of older games and fund then next one.

 

[Grief.exe]

I am starting the game i am turned off from the very first chapter, i need to keep playing but so far i have only seen on rails set piece and pretty bad story telling.

Steam says you've literally played about 30 minutes.

Seems kind of a common thread with this Eastern European development. Witcher 1, Metro, Stalker, you have to play for a bit before it grabs you in unfortunately.

I'd have preferred Betheshda over this, honestly. At least we would have got a decent game or two that way... Now we will probably get some browser game.

Worst case scenario discussion!

BitComposer, Activision, or Bethesda gets the Stalker franchise?