Black Isle and D&D, the ramifications

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Tue Feb 06, 2001 8:53 am

As some of you might of heard, (in fact it might have been mentioned on this board if so ignore the rest of my post) The D&D lisence has been purchased by another company meaning that Bioware can no longer produce the game for Black Isle, what ramifications will this have, any opinions.

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Nighthawk · Post by **Nighthawk** » Tue Feb 06, 2001 11:05 am

This is news to me. You mean they bought an _exclusive_ license to the game? I know there are several companies who have purchased licenses to produce the game...it seems it would be hard for them to withdraw a license that has already been sold.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Tue Feb 06, 2001 11:14 am

Hasbro Interactive was sold. They own WOC, which owns TSR, which owns the D&D universe. The software companies that currently own licenses will be able to continue making software till the license expires (I believe they are only good for a couple years). Problem is, the company that bought Hasbro Interactive (can't remember the name) makes games as well, so it's unlikely they will sell any more licenses once they expire.

Ajantis · Post by **Ajantis** » Tue Feb 06, 2001 11:17 am

But the point is, how about the "quality" of the game they make?

Weasel · Post by **Weasel** » Tue Feb 06, 2001 11:18 am

Here is a link.. [url="http://desslock.gamespot.com/archives/200012/200012.html#20001222-01"]http://desslock.gamespot.com/archives/200012/200012.html#20001222-01[/url]

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Krom · Post by **Krom** » Tue Feb 06, 2001 12:00 pm

Whoops. Never saw Desslock's new posting. Looks like WOC is staying with Hasbro (guess they love those Pokemon cards). Since Hasbro Interactive has been sold to Infogrames, perhaps Hasbro will continue to license out the D&D Universe to Interplay and Black Isle. It's not like they aren't collecting any royalties.

Agoth · Post by **Agoth** » Tue Feb 06, 2001 12:01 pm

They're going to continue to liscense it out to Black Isle till 2005.

bootlegcorndogs · Post by **bootlegcorndogs** » Tue Feb 06, 2001 12:07 pm

Yeah, I had heard about it earlier. Frankly, I'm a little worried....the only decent game I've seen that was even remotely connected to Infogrames was Drakkhen, and that one wasn't exactly great. Disrupting the Black Isle/Bioware relationship can't be a good thing, given the quality of the RPGs they've produced.

-BC

Flagg · Post by **Flagg** » Tue Feb 06, 2001 12:08 pm

Both Interplay and SSI have contracts with WotC detailing their rights concerning publishing D&D titles. As far as I know, Interplay has a license that is based upon time. So the 2005 year could be correct.

SSI, producer of Pool of Radiance, on the other hand probably has a more limited license. I think they have the license to produce a sequel to the game they are developing.

The future of D&D is basically in the hands of Infogrames. I personally find this a shame, as their reputation is not all that good. I hope that they will allow outside producers to develop future D&D titles.

A plus side could be that Bioware is not part of Interplay, thus they could theoretically produce D&D titles for Infogrames.

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Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Wed Feb 07, 2001 4:35 am

Thankyou for clearing that up, for i was a little confused myself, infogrames were the producers of Outcast, so their RPG pedigree does exist.

Bioware are indeed free to make the game for anyone, but we do not know how much of the content in the BG games was Black Isle Derived.

Karembeu · Post by **Karembeu** » Wed Feb 07, 2001 5:38 am

Originally posted by bootlegcorndogs:
Yeah, I had heard about it earlier. Frankly, I'm a little worried....the only decent game I've seen that was even remotely connected to Infogrames was Drakkhen, and that one wasn't exactly great. Disrupting the Black Isle/Bioware relationship can't be a good thing, given the quality of the RPGs they've produced.

-BC

Didn't Infogrames release a game called "North & South"???.......I played it on both PC and NES......I though that was a great game.......

Aegis · Post by **Aegis** » Wed Feb 07, 2001 10:52 am

If worse comes to worse, There are enough people on this board that we could get a petition going to let Bioware continue their great work. We have several hundred on this board alone, we could other boards with us. I'm not to worried, because I always have some sort of plan to get past dillemias like these.

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bootlegcorndogs · Post by **bootlegcorndogs** » Wed Feb 07, 2001 12:24 pm

Originally posted by Aegis:
If worse comes to worse, There are enough people on this board that we could get a petition going to let Bioware continue their great work. We have several hundred on this board alone, we could other boards with us. I'm not to worried, because I always have some sort of plan to get past dillemias like these.

I'm a great believer in petitions....I believe that they're hopeless. Call me a cynic, but when a situation gets bad enough to require a petition there's usually no chance of anything being done. Not saying I won't sign it, just saying that this board could be triple the size and it would still accomplish nothing.

-BC

Agoth · Post by **Agoth** » Wed Feb 07, 2001 12:42 pm

We speak with our wallets. They know BI/Bioware makes quailty that we buy. If Infogrames makes crap, don't buy it. It'll work.

MistJaguar · Post by **MistJaguar** » Wed Feb 07, 2001 1:43 pm

aye, infogames are usually not good not the worst i heard of, but still not good.

money wise it would be somewhat idiotic from my pov for them to not license it AD&D out and let other companies make games, esp those that actually know what they're doing like SSI and BlackIsle. Because they get paid for this, and it is likely alot more then if they try to hog the license to themselves unless they suddenly get a _HUGE_ jump in game making quality

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Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Thu Feb 08, 2001 8:48 am

Money makes all the difference in the end, although what amused me was that the official Game for the Dungeons and Dragons movie is BG2, that was a cracker, it seems the wallet pulls the one way and the intelligence pulls the other.

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right to talk nonsense, and I ask humbly to be allowed to be wrong sometimes."
-- Federico Fellni

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Flagg · Post by **Flagg** » Thu Feb 08, 2001 9:53 am

My guess on this issue would be that Infogrames will produce a D&D MMORPG. They will most likely allow other companies, SSI and Interplay, to produce other types of D&D games.

I previously stated that Interplay has a license for D&D till 2005. I should make one slight adjustment to this statement. They have the exclusive rights to produce D&D games that take place in the Sword Coast region.

I know that petitions are useless, but this is one case where it is worth trying.

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Gruntboy · Post by **Gruntboy** » Thu Feb 08, 2001 9:54 am

I remember North&South. Great little game. Hardly AD&D quality material though...

Isn't Infogrames a fruity french company?

Ubik · Post by **Ubik** » Thu Feb 08, 2001 9:56 am

Infogrames is primary a game distributer and secondly a developer, so it would definitely be stupid of them not to license others or - more likely - take advantage of the work of other, lesser, game developer houses.

Hey, the name of the game is bussines, making money and all... and BG series make BIG money! So, why kill the chicken with the golden eggs?

bootlegcorndogs · Post by **bootlegcorndogs** » Thu Feb 08, 2001 10:45 am

Interestingly enough, Infogrames has been aggressively aquiring the rights to a lot of things lately. For instance, they've got the next official DBZ game on their plate too.