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UC Dev Status - Ship it or give it another month?


Supreme Cmdr
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quote:

Someone had to stand up to this rubbish and prevent it from happening again. I'm but one guy - the industry rebel and bad boy - but the industry can thank me later.

Lol, Right on. Without your persistency and dedication, things could have been really bad.

Looks like things are starting to look up, at least for our side of things. DC actually made 30,000 copies... There had to be some HUGE communication problems from within DC for them to be shelling out those faulty disks. DS was totally clear, but they still went on like nothing was wrong with the RC1 copy. Lawyers must speak a language everybody can understand . Well, at least their mistakes will cost them, and not DS. I hope everybody has a Merry Christmas, and I look forward to be gaming with you all very soon!

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Derek,

Thank you for your time, effort, negotiability, frame of mind, and intellect.{and team members}. It seems as if a long trip on a good ship will finally make port.

In addition although Im a long time player but am new to this forum let me say thank you for continuing your efforts that are consistently creative and out of the box... Within the gaming world. With an industry that can be unforgiving, you do stand your ground for what you believe in I have faith in what is sure and solid as a rock that you and your team on all dynamic levels[family and professional will be rewarded for your hard efforts.

Thanks for the gamming world.

Cpt. Featherstone

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quote:

Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr:

Long story short. We
ALL
win, like this:

  1. An unauthorized version of my game never enters the channel.

  2. Unsuspecting gamers (especially my very, very long time fanbase) don't get - yet another potential dud-in-a-box

  3. Dreamcatcher gets to avert a nasty lawsuit they stood
    ZERO
    chances of winning. EVER.


This is great news SC. Keep on rocking!

quote:

This thread will self-destruct by tomorrow and be archived away from the public.

Can you tell me at what time? Don't want to miss the fireworks.

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Guest rtoolooze

This is wonderful news, thanks S.C. hip hip hoooray!!!!

(Can you believe I was worrying about this at work today, hoping to get home as soon as I could to find out what happened?)

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Right on SC, good job.

Was pretty sure it would turn out OK, now, are you going to go on vacation, or is it too late for you to get on the plane and get the heck out of dodge?

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quote:

Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr:

Long story short. We
ALL
win, like this:

This thread will self-destruct by tomorrow and be archived away from the public.

Great news. You know I found this whole fiasco very educational. We got the down and dirty on the inside workings of developer and Publisher relations and brings the truth of your sig quote "Dealing with publishers is like stepping through a minefield.In the dark. Blindfolded. With people shooting at you. And your ex mother-in-law giving you directions." If only HaveFun and Takvah took the time to do research on Publishers behavior they might not be so willing to defend them to the extent they did. Like they were speaking from experience and had business dealings with Publishers other than being a consumer of their products.

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quote:

Originally posted by Jaguar:

Right on SC, good job.

Was pretty sure it would turn out OK, now, are you going to go on vacation, or is it too late for you to get on the plane and get the heck out of dodge?

After all this crap, SC deserves a well earned vacation!

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I hope your daughter is feeling better, my daughter just had a bout with that so I feel your pain.

Rather than repeat what other members have said, Featherstone and I are in the same boat. Long time fan and first time in the community.

Glad to hear DC and you are going to find a solution. I look forward to adding UC to my BC collection.

Special thanks to Featherstone and his well thought out post.

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Guest Hellbinder[CE]

quote:

My only regret is that I let them talk me into rebranding my franchise; only to be faced with a situation where the very first title in a new franchise (I own the Universal Combat IP as well) stands the risk of being tainted.


Actually.. and I may be a minority here..

I really like the new Brand name for the game. I think its good for a few reasons..

Primarily.

1. The games Scope is simply WAY bigger that it was back in the day. IT literally covers all aspects of Combat and SCifi experience. Universal Combat fits it perfectly.

2. It gives the Game with all its massive evolutionary and revolutionary changes a chance to shine under a new banner that may separate it a little from the Stigma unfairly associated with its ancestors

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We must continuingly seek to find the middle ground, always strive for what we ourselves can create and push forward, Step out side ourselves and compromise, always have faith in that which seems not to be there, allow others to advise, support and listen,  that I know will be rewarded. Derek has done these things.

Thank you KhanJm for the toast and drink, {it taste good after good has been done:-} a salute and smile to Derek, family and teammates

Cpt. Featherstone

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quote:

RC1 - all 30K (their numbers, not mine) copies they replicated

30k!? 30,000 units is really a hit in the wallet, not to mention the cost of destruction! If they are already boxed, it may be difficult to destroy them all. What a waste, but my computer is too slow to run UC anyways so the release date was never an issue for me anyway. "It's ready when it's ready," but this time it almost jumped the gun.

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quote:


Originally posted by Wolferz:

This is about as bogus as it gets.

Sorry to say I have added another publisher to a growing boycott list.

I won't be giving them any of my money for fear of getting another unfinished product out of the box. Sorry SC.

"Load lawyer tubes 1, 2, and 3."

Prepare to fire!

Anyone wanna show some suits how the airlock functions?


Guess I have to retract this post with the recent news that DC has recovered from Cranial Rectal Syndrome. I'll get a copy of UC with the hope that it bears the RC1 build numbers, kind of like the lottery

Oh, SC, you forgot one very important piece of news::: When is it being released?

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  • 1 month later...

Well, it looks like this publisher and I are destined for the courts, regardless of my best efforts to avert this.

Yesterday, in this thread, it came to my attention that EB had the price of UC set at $19.99. So I decided to do some checking and found this to be the case. So I checked GameStop as well. Same thing. Though Gogamer and a few others had the previous pricing. I just noticed today that Amazon have also revised the pricing from what it was yesterday.

When I checked with DC, I was informed that this was the price they had set, due to pressure from those retailers. So I did some more checking and found this to be - yet another lie coming from this publisher.

Naturally, I have objected because when we signed this game, the price of BCM Gold (released in March this year) was set at $29.99 and BCG (now UC) at $39.99.

As you all know, I recently prevented them from shipping the game in Beta and because they insisted on shipping the game - any version - my attorneys talked me into giving them a version to ship. Had I not done that, they would naturally have shipped the RC1 build, which was the topic of the controversy in this thread.

I have no idea when they changed the price of the game but they never informed me. Which they should have. When Lisa checked last week (someone had sent email asking where to buy the game), the prices were as they appeared on Amazon, GoGamer etc etc. So, it looks like they waited until they got the 1.00.01 build from me, then made this their next ridiculous move in an attempt to seemingly tarnish the value of my IP and indeed prevent us from making money on two years of our work and a ton of money spent (by me). I suspect they did this because in a recent contract amendment, they would no longer have access to any future properties from us, most especially not the UC sequel that we have started work on (and which they know about) for another interested publisher.

Because of how the deal is structured and given how we are paid, we stand zero chance of making ANY money on this game, let alone turn a profit for our efforts. And with that, we certainly won't have the money to allocate resources to its support. Which means, this particular UC game - unless this matter is resolved prior to the game going to retail - will be the one and only version released. No patches. No tweaks. Nothing. In other words, its Take Two all over again - except that in the case of this game, it actually works.

We [3000AD] fully intend to litigate this because this is just ridiculous.

Below is a very short list of things this publisher has done to us since we signed the deal with them in Dec. 2002.

  1. Never made milestone payments on time. Perhaps one or two, thats it.
  2. Asked me to prepare a version of the game for E3, then asked me to attend. I went. The game wasn't even being shown. But rather, other games, including Painkiller etc, were on display. There is a discussion about that farce here on the board. When I got there, I protested and they setup a machine for the game etc. Naturally, you've all seen the positive E3 feedback as a result.
  3. Asked me - while in late Beta - to refocus and rebrand the game. After extensive discussions related to my initial refusal, I agreed. We weren't paid for the additional work that was done - which incidentally contributed to the delay in getting the game out for Christmas. Which in turn, sparked the whole RC1 release farce.
  4. Once it was clear - and they had been advised - that the game would not be ready to ship for Christmas, they attempted to ship the RC1 build, which had known problems and a copy protection scheme that only I could disable. You all know conclusion of this, as I fought tooth and nail and spent a considerable amount of money in attorney fees in order to stiffle that action.

    After they had gone back/forth with my attorneys an agreement was reached in which I would submit to them my current build of the game. I did so and during that time, they had me fix several issues (multiplayer) before signing off on it as being ready. That version being 1.00.01

    I then produced a Gold Master and sent to them. That was also signed off on and was sent off to manufacturing - I'm told - earlier this week.

  5. Then there is the ongoing dispute about royalty and licensee reporting on BCM Gold - which they promised to rectify and still haven't. In fact, it was because of this that the trust level started taking a nose dive a few months back. I can't go into contractual detail unless and until legal action has been taken by us.
  6. Now we have this issue where they have unilaterally reduced (by half!!) the price of our game to budget level pricing, guaranteeing that we don't make any money on our work. Yet, they would expect us to support it.

This is just crazy. I simply can't imagine what they're thinking or what sort of response they would get from me.

If I wanted to release a budget title, I certainly won't have needed a publisher for that, since I had already self-published BCM back in 2001. And I certainly would not have signed with Dreamcatcher, when I could have released a budget title through larger players (e.g. Activision Value) etc.

[ 01-29-2004, 03:22 PM: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

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quote:


Originally posted by AWD2:

Well, all I can say is good luck. It would be a shame not to have post release support (always a nice thing to have just in case).


Since I have NO intentions of charging for patches (in order to fund post-release support), it looks like everyone will have to wait for either the Gold release or an add-on, neither of why DC has rights to.

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This is just another example of big business trying to screw the independant (and therefore having less resources for lawyers etc)

"Dreamcatcher" titles have always been games that I avoid buying because they always seem to release "CRAP" or games that are not ready for the public.

They are obviously not a company that is run by gamers.

I bought your other release, BCMG, even tho it had dreamcatcher's logo on the box,and will buy anything else that you make...

Good luck against them and I wish someone would just put them out of business as they give the industry a tarneshed image.

My opinions of DC were formed way b4 I heard of BCM or DS... but what they have done to you is just icing on the cake.

{edit) BTW when do we get the demo? J/K

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Dear Lord, they must be insane. If they had just left everything alone with the original plan BCG would be on our computers and DC would be rolling in their share of the dough. But NOOOO!! We want to rebrand the title....we want to release the RC1 build....now we want to fiddle with the price at the expense of 3000AD delaying it even further and potentially crippling it forever. How can they expect the developer to support something they wont be paid to support...unless they dont care which seems to obviously be the case.

What we have here is a lack of communication on DC's part. They wont just sit down and talk about their concerns...they want to play the "big publisher" like EA and do what they want. Ive never forgiven EA for what they did to westwood (/mourn Renegade) but in the long run it was Westwood's fault for selling out. I had high hopes for the 3000ad/DC relationship. Was seeming to be one bent upon mutual concern. 3000AD would make the game they want the way they want and DC would take care of the business/financial part. It would have been a beautiful relationship but apparently it was not to be.

I dont want to buy a 3000ad product but not have the legendary support of 3000ad. If necessary I will wait till UC Gold becomes a possibility. Something that doesnt have 100% of 3000ad backing wont have my backing. I might just have to go back into Hibernation and wait for hints of UC Gold or BCO or whatever comes next.

SC might just have to start his own Publisher....if want something done right you need to do it yourself. Hey, perhaps he could even publish for other developers just wanting to make their games the way they want. Sure its a long shot in the fog but it could happen. Its all about integrity. Make games based on integrity and have a publisher willing to respect that integrity. Ahh well. Perhaps its a just a dream gone too far. Even if that dream did come true UC is tied up at this point.

Lets just hope SC can convince Dreamcatcher to see reason once again....there is hope.

P.S. Heh..."Dreamcatcher"... Kinda an oxymoron at this point. Should be more like Dreamcrusher. Maybe maybe they will live up to their name or maybe maybe they will change their name to fit their actions.

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quote:


Originally posted by Spindoktor:

Wow, this royally sucks. Doesn't this mean DC is shooting themselves in the foot? Aren't they going to lose money? Or are they guaranteed some kind of fixed margin?


Someone was thinking the same thing. Here is my response.

Basically if spent $10 on something, then gave it to someone to sell, and that person spent $1 on it, they can sell it for $1.25 and not lose any money. That is exactly what is going on in this case.

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