-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
bitComposer Entertainment acquires S.T.A.L.K.E.R. license
- Thread starter angular graphics
- Start date
this is pretty confusing. :/
Well Bethesda might not be a saint be as a publisher for this (not developer) it will not bad "scenario" at all, they brought Obsidian back to Fallout series (then Obsidian in a really weird move burned all the bridges between them and Obsidian).they also usually give their developers nice amount of freedom to do whatever they want to do (for an example Arkane with Dishonored)
Well Bethesda might not be a saint be as a publisher for this (not developer) it will not bad "scenario" at all, they brought Obsidian back to Fallout series (then Obsidian in a really weird move burned all the bridges between them and Obsidian).they also usually give their developers nice amount of freedom to do whatever they want to do (for an example Arkane with Dishonored)
Lasthope106
Member
I'm afraid this franchise is dead. The developers who made S.T.A.L.K.E.R. have moved on. There is no possible way to recreate what made the series special.
;_;
;_;
Anton Sugar
Member
I still have hope for Survarium.
Because Stalker is a built-up franchise that has a fanbase, you're buying the name not the setting. The developers of Survarium (the real Stalker 2) are doing exactly what you described.
Vulcano's assistant
Banned
It does look great.
doniewhalberg
Member
Did you read further back up the thread? We've been discussing it/what could be going on.
"were also considering selling out the brand to a decent developer or publisher."
Ouch.
doniewhalberg
Member
Haha, that's two burns they've dropped. I'd love to see CD Prokjet take a swing at this. Granted they have Cyber Punk and Witcher 3 to work on, but it'd be a nice change up, for both the franchise and CPR, one could stretch the other in different directions. Vostok is obvious, but I'm not sure they'd want to work with GSC after whatever happened with S2, and 4A have Metro well covered.
Konami, they'll buy it to put it on the same place were they put Hudson and good ol' Team Silent. Cannot wait!
Messofanego
Banned
Stalker, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and Stalker (1979)
Someone explain me the semantics! I haven't seen the Tarkovsky film, so how is that related to all this?! Are they all based on the books?
Someone explain me the semantics! I haven't seen the Tarkovsky film, so how is that related to all this?! Are they all based on the books?
doniewhalberg
Member
There;s a novel with stalkers, and a film inspired by the novel that is its own entity with s.t.a.l.k.e.r. s. GSC rights originate from the movie, bitcomposer's new rights originate from the book. Bitcomposer seem to think they have rights over the series though and that all they don't have is the previous logo. Unless they just assumed they'd trick plenty of people easily with their wording and that everyone would just think that way, maybe they do know full well their rights are different. Not what they've said though.
Anton Sugar
Member
omg don't even put that beautiful thought in my head
Some slight spoilers:
The original book written by the Strugatsky brothers, Roadside Picnic, dealt with an alien visitation to Earth that creates pockets (or "zones"; there are six or seven zones across the planet) of strange anomalies/environmental behavior. Stalkers are criminals who venture into the Zone (with an alarming death rate) and find artifacts/"loot", then sell it to interested parties. The Golden Ball was a big plot point, as it was rumored to grant wishes to those who could find it.
The Tarkovsky film, Stalker, originally had a screenplay that the Strugatsky brothes and Tarkovsky collaborated on, although I believe much of this was ditched and rewritten. The basic framework is similar, but very pared down--the plot is basically: a man called Stalker leads two others (Professor and Writer) into the Zone to reach the Room, which is said to grant wishes. It dealt much more with the concept of faith and man's corruption via knowledge. Although this was filmed before the actual Chernobyl disaster, it is eerily reminiscent and one of the filming locations was downstream from a chemical plant. One of the crew members believe that the chemical exposure was responsible for the deaths of three cast and crew, including one of the leads and Tarkovsky himself.
The game series, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., takes elements from all of these but really does its own thing. The Zone is manmade and originates from the Chernobyl disaster, the Golden Ball/Room has been replaced by the monolithic Wish-Granter, mutants are prevalent, people live fairly freely in the Zone (in the book and film, you had to have a guide to even walk through the Zone safely), etc.
I know you were asking for a difference between the licenses, but I love this shit. Not sure how the licenses between the three properties work, really.
Suprised, I did not know that the Stalker games actually had the rigths for the Roadside Picnic novel. They are obviously lightly based on the material and the Tarkovsy film, but the fact that they are "officially" adaptations is new to me.
EDIT: ok, now I actually read the thread and understand, this is a bit messy ... I wonder if someone with the rights to Roadside Picnic VG adaptations may claim for some infringements by the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games.
EDIT: ok, now I actually read the thread and understand, this is a bit messy ... I wonder if someone with the rights to Roadside Picnic VG adaptations may claim for some infringements by the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games.
This is all so confusing. bitComposer specifically references the previous S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games in their press release. So who owns what?!
doniewhalberg
Member
Haha I like how people just keep jumping into the thread and posting this stuff, we were talknig about it on page 1 man. Go back and read, might make more sense. Might
. They also refuted GSC ever owning the stalker rights. I'm not sure why you'd say those two things unless you specifically thought you had the previous video game license. Unless, as I said, they didn't think this would get nearly as much attention as it has, and they'd just fool some consumers. They admit to not having the rights to the logo.omg don't even put that beautiful thought in my head
Ohhhh, but you know it would be so good though
I reckon Cyberpunk might give them some shooting mechanic experience too, so S.T.A.L.K.E.R. would be such a good follow-up for that. Never happening though, I doubt anyone will make a Stalker/S.T.A.L.K.E.R. anything game for a whiiiile because of this.Sephiroth503
Member
Guys guys WE (GAF) should put in a bid for the Stalker/S.T.A.L.K.E.R. rights!! Everyone else is buying them up!
Then we could kickstarter it.
Then we could kickstarter it.
Yea, sorry, I think the link threw me off(bit-composer.com vs bitcomposer.com).
That being said, I'm still unsure of what's going on. I've read the gamasutra article and RPS's article(s). The only conclusion I've come to is this is either a battle of words or bitComposer acquired the rights to develop S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games from GSC and something got lost in translation.
doniewhalberg
Member
Nono, we should license the S.T.4.L.K.E.R.5 rights. It's like the aliens to Stalker. Or was it S.T.A.L.K.E.R. ?
It seems like it should be fine - one party having the book rights, one party having the movie rights, both making alternate versions of a similar idea, it's just bitcomposer's weird assertations - they genuinely may think they've purchased rights to something they haven't. It'll be interesting what their next comment on the situation is. I don't know how the author passing away/his brother or estate dealing with this stuff might have further confused matters. Also I think the estate itself already has a lawsuit going on over there to do with the property outside of games? Fucked up haha. I hope this isn't just this poor dead guys family trying to make quick cash off what he did in his life.
EDIT: You know, the more I read about this haha. I don't even think the game series is licensed off the movie, I just think it's more *like* it than it is like Roadside Picnic. But it's its own thing, owned by GSC. Literally, unless GSC sold it (which they clearly have not) no one could own the rights to the pre-existing game series, regardless of the authors of Roadside Picnic etc.
And while the movie is also seperate to the book, the screenplay weas by the authors of the book. So it is possible those rights go together with the book rights. So maybe, if we just ignore Roadside Picnic for a sec, Bitcomposer have bought the "stalker" movie rights, for which they can make a videogame of. But not S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
The more I think about this, the more I think Bitcomposer were just trying to be fly, stating they had the rights to Stalker (but refering to the movie), then referring to the previous games (because they published the last expansion) in order tobuff up their press release into looking like something it isn't. Which is fine, but a little disingenuous, and really in the day and age of the net, I'm not sure how they thought this would go unnoticed.
Messofanego
Banned
omg don't even put that beautiful thought in my head
Some slight spoilers:
The original book written by the Strugatsky brothers, Roadside Picnic, dealt with an alien visitation to Earth that creates pockets (or "zones"; there are six or seven zones across the planet) of strange anomalies/environmental behavior. Stalkers are criminals who venture into the Zone (with an alarming death rate) and find artifacts/"loot", then sell it to interested parties. The Golden Ball was a big plot point, as it was rumored to grant wishes to those who could find it.
The Tarkovsky film, Stalker, originally had a screenplay that the Strugatsky brothes and Tarkovsky collaborated on, although I believe much of this was ditched and rewritten. The basic framework is similar, but very pared down--the plot is basically: a man called Stalker leads two others (Professor and Writer) into the Zone to reach the Room, which is said to grant wishes. It dealt much more with the concept of faith and man's corruption via knowledge. Although this was filmed before the actual Chernobyl disaster, it is eerily reminiscent and one of the filming locations was downstream from a chemical plant. One of the crew members believe that the chemical exposure was responsible for the deaths of three cast and crew, including one of the leads and Tarkovsky himself.
The game series, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., takes elements from all of these but really does its own thing. The Zone is manmade and originates from the Chernobyl disaster, the Golden Ball/Room has been replaced by the monolithic Wish-Granter, mutants are prevalent, people live fairly freely in the Zone (in the book and film, you had to have a guide to even walk through the Zone safely), etc.
I know you were asking for a difference between the licenses, but I love this shit. Not sure how the licenses between the three properties work, really.
Ahh ok, do they all have throwing bolts to check for anomalies? Or is that just the game? Might check out the movie.
Anton Sugar
Member
I would absolutely be okay with this, hahaha. GAF has good taste.
Ah yes, the bolts! They are technically in all versions.
In Roadside Picnic, when exploring previously untraveled areas of the Zone, the protagonist uses bolts (only one scene with these in the book) to find gravitational/magnetic "anomalies". If a route has already been mapped out/explored, bolts aren't used.
In Stalker, the Stalker tosses bolts a few times, but I don't think he does it consistently. A big part of the movie is whether or not the Zone is actually real or not. The Writer is hoping the Zone will give him inspiration, the Professor wants to understand it, and the Stalker just faithfully believes in it.
In S.T.A.L.K.E.R...well, you know.
I will say that the movie is not your average movie that most audiences will enjoy. It is very slow, metaphysical, and open-ended. It's highly regarded by filmmakers and film critics, but can be very hard to get into it. I do recommend you watch it, but just want you to be prepared!
Messofanego
Banned
I do like Solaris, so I know what I would be getting into
Anton Sugar
Member
Good job man, you should "enjoy" Stalker then. It's one of the most stressful movies I've ever watched (makes The Cube feel like a relaxation spa at moments), it's so great, one of my favorites...I do like Solaris, so I know what I would be getting into
He does it in areas he's not 100% sure are anomaly free, after they've changed, and swears by it (the bolt) as a means to keep the three of them safe.