To own the strategy game’s license, the original developers filed a counterclaim.

Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III (aka Toys for Bob) already told Stardock in December to please stop selling the first two Star Control games which were published by Accolade in the early 1990s (except the second game’s 3DO port, published by Crystal Dynamics). Stardock claims that they bought the license rights from Atari in 2013 at a bankruptcy auction. The duo, however, thinks that the Atari rights were „terminated” long before this auction happened.

Stardock tries legal ways to stop Ford and Reiche from developing a new installment called Ghosts of Precursors. However, the pair filed a counterclaim against Stardock to gain the rights back and be legally capable of developing a new Star Control game.

„Star Control is a pair of games we created at the start of the computer gaming revolution. Now, largely as a labor of love, we are returning to the universe we created to update it with new adventures, characters, and worlds. Stardock seems to think not only are we not the creators of Star Control, but they claim to have the exclusive rights to sell our games and otherwise use our alien races, ships, narrative, and other creative materials without our permission. This is why we felt compelled to file our counterclaim today to stop Stardock‘s theft of our games, copyrights, and the universe we created for ourselves and our fans,” Reiche said.

The Ford-Reiche duo claims that both Atari, as well as Brad Wardell, the CEO of Stardock, „repeatedly admitted in private” that they are the copyright owners of Star Control. Wardell also allegedly offered to license „the Star Control characters, ships, and other materials [Reiche and Ford] created to Stardock for use in a new Star Control game Stardock wanted to develop” shortly after the Atari auction. Ford and Reiche want Stardock to stop selling the two games, as well as to hand over the revenues from the sales to them.

The Stardock/Wardell duo responded to Ars Technica – they had no other choice than to defend the Star Control IP. Wardell believes that the ownership of the rights is „incontestable,” and that he also believed that Reiche and Ford were the original creators of Star Control, but they never had control of the IP.

„I certainly believed it. We figured Fred did the coding and Paul did the art and story. But as it turns out, that’s not the case… I remain a big fan of theirs. But in reality, Accolade paid them to make Star Control for them. And while our respect for them is undiminished, that doesn’t translate into owning our IP,” Wardell said.

Have a look at the first game’s Amiga port, as well as the sequel’s 3DO version.

Source: GamesIndustry