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tfishell's avatar
tfishell
8 years ago
Solved

Could EA legally re-release Future Cop LAPD on GOG and Origin?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Cop:_LAPD mentions that EA Redwood Shores/Visceral (r.i.p.) made the game and EA published it, so I'm wondering if EA and GOG could work together to get that onto...
discussion
  • ivrognard's avatar
    ivrognard
    8 years ago

    @tfishell Well, the AnswersHQ is, mostly, a support site, with its users trying to solve the easier problems encountered by other gamers. Sometimes we can help, other times we redirect to them to the EA support. Community managers may be able or not to answer the questions about the legal status if they are allowed, but you have better chances emailing the owners of the IP's. A couple of weeks ago, someone from this very boards enquired about the status of the Battle for Middle Earth series and in the end he got the answer from the Tolkien estates (Middle-Earth Enterprises), which still had EA listed as a license owner, but their answer indicated that it wasn't actually the case, but they are aware of the interest to see the games on sale again (Warner is now the owner of the license for developing videogames, so EA can't sell or develop anything new in that Universe.

    In this particular case, EA is clearly the owner of the IP, so, you might get an answer from the community managers (the people with EA_name).

    Some of the most asked old games on the boards are: Sims 1/2, Sims Life Stories Series (Life, Pets, Castaway), the old NFS games, the Command and Conquer series, the old Battlefield games, pre-Bad Company 2.

    There are also requests for other series, but those are lost licenses: Dune (Herbert estate stated clearly that they have no interest in renewing the license or giving it for the development of new videogames), the Harry Potter games made by EA (license now to Warner, JK Rowling has no interest to renew it for EA), the sports games series (those are too expensive in our days, so i doubt that EA will even try to renew those), the Middle-Earth series (Warner has the license for now, but it looks like the Tolkien estate is at least open for discussions), the James Bond games made by EA (especially Nightfire), but Bond is now with Activision, so no actual chances to see those back anytime soon.

    I hope i gave you a picture of the boards requests for old games not available for sale anywhere for now. As you can see, the requests are for the more popular games.

    Personally, I would love to see stuff like Road Rash, the Strike series (Desert, Jungle, Urban, Nuclear), Armies of Exigo (this one is a bit in a legal limbo, i think) and maybe the rest of Theme games.

ivrognard's avatar
ivrognard
Hero (Retired)
8 years ago

@tfishell  You can let GOG know about your desire by adding your vote in the Community wishlist

From what i recall, when a number of votes is reached, GOG approaches the publisher/owner and tries to make a deal with it. Sometimes, the publisher is the one that approaches GOG, looking to instill new life in their back catalogue. So, add your vote, maybe convince some friends to do the same. More votes means that there are more chances for your voice to be heard. 

EA has an impressive back-catalogue with owned IP's that i would love to see back in sale. And GOG has the will and the know-how to make the magic happen. I hope that more of their pre-2009 games (when Origin launched) will be added on both GOG and Origin Store. And i am not talking about licensed games (like Harry Potter, Middle Earth, Tolkien, the sports games, James Bond - those are all unlikely to make a comeback due to their legal situation). One can dream, right?!

Anything developed by EA, that wasn't a licensed videogame, has a decent chance to make a comeback. Depends of the number of interested people. 

tfishell's avatar
tfishell
8 years ago

Yes, I've used the wishlist many times, and I think have a decent understanding how that works. It's used to gauge interest in certain games and what is financially worthwhile to pursue. AFAIK GOG doesn't make "one game at a time" deals; they want to one deal for at least several games at once. It actually has over 1,000 votes which is plenty, coupled with the fact that the game isn't legally available anywhere else currently.

I was just seeing if I could get a response about the legal status of the game, but I guess that might be asking too much.

Anyway, yeah EA still has quite a few unreleased classics! Maxis Sims, Hi-Octane, some DOS flight sims, PowerMonger, The Neverhood, and perhaps dozens more. What are you waiting for EA? :P (Granted they'll earn much less money than brand-spanking new 2017 releases...)

  • ivrognard's avatar
    ivrognard
    Hero (Retired)
    8 years ago

    @tfishell Well, the AnswersHQ is, mostly, a support site, with its users trying to solve the easier problems encountered by other gamers. Sometimes we can help, other times we redirect to them to the EA support. Community managers may be able or not to answer the questions about the legal status if they are allowed, but you have better chances emailing the owners of the IP's. A couple of weeks ago, someone from this very boards enquired about the status of the Battle for Middle Earth series and in the end he got the answer from the Tolkien estates (Middle-Earth Enterprises), which still had EA listed as a license owner, but their answer indicated that it wasn't actually the case, but they are aware of the interest to see the games on sale again (Warner is now the owner of the license for developing videogames, so EA can't sell or develop anything new in that Universe.

    In this particular case, EA is clearly the owner of the IP, so, you might get an answer from the community managers (the people with EA_name).

    Some of the most asked old games on the boards are: Sims 1/2, Sims Life Stories Series (Life, Pets, Castaway), the old NFS games, the Command and Conquer series, the old Battlefield games, pre-Bad Company 2.

    There are also requests for other series, but those are lost licenses: Dune (Herbert estate stated clearly that they have no interest in renewing the license or giving it for the development of new videogames), the Harry Potter games made by EA (license now to Warner, JK Rowling has no interest to renew it for EA), the sports games series (those are too expensive in our days, so i doubt that EA will even try to renew those), the Middle-Earth series (Warner has the license for now, but it looks like the Tolkien estate is at least open for discussions), the James Bond games made by EA (especially Nightfire), but Bond is now with Activision, so no actual chances to see those back anytime soon.

    I hope i gave you a picture of the boards requests for old games not available for sale anywhere for now. As you can see, the requests are for the more popular games.

    Personally, I would love to see stuff like Road Rash, the Strike series (Desert, Jungle, Urban, Nuclear), Armies of Exigo (this one is a bit in a legal limbo, i think) and maybe the rest of Theme games.

    • EA_David's avatar
      EA_David
      Icon for Community Admin rankCommunity Admin
      8 years ago

      Great post Ivrognard. 

      Unfortunately I have absolutely no idea about the status of the Future Cop, but I would assume it's still owned by EA. 


      I'd hope that Future Cop -well the whole Strike series really- can be added to future batches of games that GOG brings back but I don't have any exclusive or insider info, sorry. 

    • tfishell's avatar
      tfishell
      8 years ago

      Thanks for the responses. I'll try to avoid asking these questions of legality in the future, since it seems to basically be outside the scope of the forums.

      Crying shame that Herbert Properties doesn't want to do anything with the old Dune games.

      • EA_David's avatar
        EA_David
        Icon for Community Admin rankCommunity Admin
        8 years ago

        Yeah sorry that we don't have a more substantial answer.

        If you have any more questions in future please don't hesitate to ask. Worst case we won't have an answer but perhaps you'll get lucky. 


        Cheers. 

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