ChaplainDMK
Warlord
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2010
- Messages
- 103
You think there is a chance Firaxis can make a remake of SMAC in Civ V like they did with Colonization in IV?
Civilization V: Aplha Centauri?
- Thread starter ChaplainDMK
- Start date
Psyringe
Scout
It's not impossible, but so unlikely that it's probably not worth thinking about it. Although SMAC is highly revered by fans of the genre, and got glowing reviews on release, it didn't sell particularly well, for a number of reasons (one being that players have a much easier time to understand a complex game about human history, because that's something we all have at least a bit of knowledge about). Then, as already mentioned, the rights to SMAC are owned by EA, and 2K/Firaxis would have to buy them off them (which, knowing EA, won't be cheap). The chance that 2K spends a lot of money to revive a concept that has already failed once on the mass market is very small, imho.
ChaplainDMK
Warlord
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2010
- Messages
- 103
Maybe... But as far as I know Colonization wasn't too great of a sucess either. (I think
)But I agree that EA would probably block any attempt at a reboot... They like to sit on old franchises like Ultima, Syndicate etc.
Didn't know EA published SMAC =/
While EA might have the rights to SMAC, it still bears Sid's name.
Second of all the term "Alpha Centauri" is not under EA's license.
That's like trademarking the name "Planet Earth", yeah you cant do that...
Same goes for most of the factions in that game, or the techs.
They could easily use the CiV engine and make a complete carbon copy of SMAC, as long as they would name the game itself diffrently.
Hell slapp a "The Space Race Ending" on the expansion as the name and i'll be happy to spend 50$ to get a new SMAC. (yes i still play it lol)
Second of all the term "Alpha Centauri" is not under EA's license.
That's like trademarking the name "Planet Earth", yeah you cant do that...
Same goes for most of the factions in that game, or the techs.
They could easily use the CiV engine and make a complete carbon copy of SMAC, as long as they would name the game itself diffrently.
Hell slapp a "The Space Race Ending" on the expansion as the name and i'll be happy to spend 50$ to get a new SMAC. (yes i still play it lol)
I_pity_the_fool
Warlord
Yeah, no. Unfortunately intellectual property law is not so easily defeated. Stuff like mindworms, prokhor zakharov, unity rovers, fungus, the red terrain, the ascent to transcendence, the cyborg factory and the planetary council couldn't be left out without it not feeling like SMAC. And rights to all that stuff belong to the publisher.
In fact I just bought it a few weeks before CiV launched. Sadly it has UI deficiencies (and not as nice graphics) that make it less fun to play (I'm used to Civ4 after all, that's a huge difference in age). I'd certainly pay for SMAC2 right away.
Darkness
Shadow creature
You better hope they don't follow the Colonization path, as the remake of Colonization was really awful.
I could use better words to phrase it clearer but they'd probably not make it past the profanity filter. 
There's a mod for Civ 4 (in the Civ 4 Customization forum) that lets you play a pseudo-SMAC(X). I have seen the thread for it, but I'm not sure how stable the mod is as of last release.
I haven't tried it, but if anyone wants to download it and give a review...?
I haven't tried it, but if anyone wants to download it and give a review...?
Doctor Phibes
Prince
Don't know if it needs to be remade. Loading up the original or SMAX and beating up on Chairman Yang and/or Sister Miriam still works for me. Very therapeutic.
But I wish there were a way the SMAC design workshop thing could be incorporated into other games, it's great to be able to specify your own units...
But I wish there were a way the SMAC design workshop thing could be incorporated into other games, it's great to be able to specify your own units...
Psyringe
Scout
That doesn't change a thing unfortunately. Any rights that may have been based on the use of his own name in the franchise ended precisely at the moment when he sold the trademark and intellectual property.
Erm, of course you can trademark "Alpha Centauri" - actually Firaxis did that when they worked on the game, they even registered it. How do you think generic terms like "Civilization" and "Football Manager" got trademarked?
A trademark protects the usage of a term (which can very well be quite generic) within a specific area of business (and/or a specific geographical area). If I create a record label "Alpha Centauri" and sell music under that label, without making a reference to the game, then EA can't do squat against it, because I'm in a different area of business. (That's a real world example btw, the record label exists.) If I create a computer game and name it "Alpha Centauri", they can sue me.
I also don't understand what you mean by "EA's license". I don't think the term "license" is appropriate here. EA doesn't have a license to Alpha Centauri, they own the franchise and intellectual property. If anything, they'd be the ones granting licenses to others.
No. While that would not infringe on the trademark, it would infringe on EA's intellectual property. Simply renaming stuff doesn't prevent that of the concepts stay the same. Firaxis would need to substantially change the game's concepts to at least get into a grey area where they have a chance to survive a lawsuit. However, the original intellectual property for the game (mindworms, characters like Deirdre Skye or Planet, etc.) is part of what players liked about the game, so the result wouldn't be what we wanted.
duxup
Prince
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2001
- Messages
- 385
The best Civ game ever made.
Psyringe
Scout
Interesting find regarding the trademark issues I mentioned above: Electronic Arts (last listed owner of the trademark) canceled the trademark registration 10 days ago:
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4003:1qjti.2.1
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4003:1qjti.2.1
Kark
Mad berserker
Maniac
Apolyton Sage
The patch to fix the graphical bugs in v14 will be released soon.
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