Two Worlds II - Release Threatened by Legal Action

Publishers seem to be a big problem nowadays. Developers should try to cut out the middleman, the publishers, and just release their games as digital downloads.

If this happens, gaming would be dead for me. Jeez, did anyone ever argue that movie companies with no studios should be ignored by the movie making people, just because companies like MGM (and Carolco, Halcyon etc. before) have money problems?

No?

Thought so.
 
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Putting a game on Steam is pretty damn hard if you are no well known publisher or one of the top 5% devs. A small indie doesn't even get an answer from them, in most cases. It's an exception if Steam assigns resources to negotiate with them.

Then how did a game like Machinarium end up on Steam? They don't have a publisher and the games budget was $1000. That's pretty indie. I guess you said there are exceptions and maybe that one was the exception to the rule.
Microsoft does not allow games without a publisher to be sold on Xbox Live Arcade. Sony and Playstation Network does allow self-publishing on the other hand. I'm sure there are other options in the PC/MAC/Linux market.
 
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Then how did a game like Machinarium end up on Steam? They don't have a publisher and the games budget was $1000. That's pretty indie. I guess you said there are exceptions and maybe that one was the exception to the rule.
They are the exception. You can verify this if you browse the IndieGamer forums.

They either got lucky, hit the jackpot (won a competition or scored a good review in PC Gamer) or had vitamin C.

The reason it's not so easy to get on the DDL platforms is that the game has to be modified to technically fit the platform and then run through QA. This is effectively a 4-5 digit investment by the platform holder. Obviously they're not willing to do this unless they are sure it's worth it. So there are a few guys (maybe even only one!) who play gatekeeper and say yes or no.


Microsoft does not allow games without a publisher to be sold on Xbox Live Arcade. Sony and Playstation Network does allow self-publishing on the other hand. I'm sure there are other options in the PC/MAC/Linux market.
Of course there are options. Especially download via the own homepage should be pursued, even though it will take years to grow into something meaningful.
 
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Too bad that GOD went out of business. It was - just from the idea - a very good platform.

@Gorath: I thought GOG was more Indie-friendly ?
 
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It's quite possible they are, I don't know. But they're also quite small compared to steam.
 
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I'm pretty sure GOG doesn't release indie games, after all, it stands for 'Good Old Games' and the sole focus in on re-releasing older titles (frankly though, many of the games they've put out recently have been far from good).
 
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Yes, Topware is only a brand owned by Zuxxez nowadays. I still don't see the point behind Elwro's post yet. The old Topware died years ago. Only Zuxxez is responsible for Two Worlds 2.
I wrote that the POLISH branch of Topware is dead, this was a big story all over the Polish gaming media last month. Reality Pump are based in my city, they developed both Two Worlds and Two Worlds II. They were originally funded by Topware, so I started wondering about their future. If they're funded straight by Zuxxez now, then well, perhaps their future is brighter.
 
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I'm not following the legal intricacies of this case, but I have a question -- Is this going to negatively affect the developer, Reality Pump? And if so, how?
 
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I wrote that the POLISH branch of Topware is dead, this was a big story all over the Polish gaming media last month. Reality Pump are based in my city, they developed both Two Worlds and Two Worlds II. They were originally funded by Topware, so I started wondering about their future. If they're funded straight by Zuxxez now, then well, perhaps their future is brighter.

I don't know anything about the situation in Poland. The German mags usually write that Reality Pump is a daughter company of Zuxxez.

I suppose - but I don't know - that Zuxxez pulled out of publishing or distribution in Poland (or even Eastern Europe).

Shouldn't be that hard to find out who will publish the game in Poland.

I'm not following the legal intricacies of this case, but I have a question — Is this going to negatively affect the developer, Reality Pump? And if so, how?
Unclear. If they're really a daughter of Zuxxez it will only indirectly affect them.
 
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See the interview with Kombo on the front page. Reality Pump is an internal studio of TopWare, which in turn is essentially just one of Zuxxez' brands. Southpeak is only their NA publisher.
 
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If they cheated CDV, they should pay for it. So where is the problem?
 
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Easy. It gets complex. Let's accept for the moment that Southpeak owes CDV money...but what does that have to do with Zuxxez? Confiscating 2W2 penalises Zuxxez through no obvious fault of their own.

There may not be a solution but it's easy see this is a problem for at least one (presumably) innocent party.
 
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