Effort to buy Arcanum rights

Hey I am new to these forums and of course I am a die hard fan of fallout 2 and consequently Arcanum. I read awhile back that Vivendi currently holds all rights to Arcanum and doesn’t seem to be moving on those rights anytime soon. Not that long ago I emailed them inquiring about purchasing the rights (I know these things aren’t cheap, fallouts rights went for a million dollars) I got a reply that they were forwarding my message to the correct department. I haven’t heard back since.

Yet still I was wondering if people were interested in making a fund to buy the rights of Arcanum to either develop as a project (any of you into programming? Want to start a side-project company?) or to release the rights to the public?

I know for a fact if done well Arcanum (the world idea/style not every detail) could be turned into an amazing MMORPG. Or with the right people a wonderfully stylized and very deep, action rpg.

 

What if we don't purchase the rights, but convince them to release it into public domain / open source (graphics too, not only code!), shouldn't it be cheaper?

(Plus, they don't lose much by doing so, Arcanum is more than 5 years old, and the best buy series is $5 for 2CD, it worths buying even if Arcanum is open source; not to mention the fame it would gain)

 

Exactly. I hate being pessimistic, but I don't think that Sierra will give up the rights to Arcanum. And we wouldn't gain much on buying the rights for a fuckload of money, either.

 

The only way you'll see another Arcanum released is if a group of programmers asked Sierra (also owns Vivendi, or vice versa) to code it for free with offers of profit sharing if the game ever launched and made money. *contains laugh*

Or, pester the original designer to revive the project or face the WRATH of HoL. Maybe the amusement will spur him to action.

 

Vivendi owns sierra for the record

Fan based re-makes (ala the chrono trigger project and kings quest) are made by fans with some spare time, and of a community of a few thousand i would think there would be enough people who know programming. Im sure they would give us a message to stop or face legal trouble but the series is going nowhere, thus the rights (that they will never use again) need to be acquired.

I my myself can use 3d studio max to a certain degree and have one friend who is a computer science major and another who went to full-sail 3d art school for a year.

Edit-
lol. i do agree richard i sound like "that guy" with his stupid "1337 ideas" but SERIOUSLY dont you think it would be sweet if we made an effort? Arcanum is too badass to let die. To quote Independence day the movie “we will not go quietly into the nightâ€￾ (haha)

 

Exactly. And who knows what we're doing in ten years?

Playing arcanum? Don't kill me now, but I think that no, we won't. In ten years time, there'll be something else than arcanum on our minds, I assure you.

 

Ok then. Maybe we will still be playing it. But that's us. And a few other hundred people.


But, adding to Voraks point, noone would know what the hell arcanum was. We'd have to introduce the game to the world all over again.

 

Quite so.
Didn't we have, like, a major project here not long ago, trying to make a fan-made sequel to arcanum?


Haven't heard from that in a long time now.

 

Poor bastard. Yeah, that was the guy I meant. Damn, we did that one good. He left, saying he was a poor, naiv idiot. Shows just how well our war-machine works when we're united.


We're a little like Greece, actually. Or, more like how they used to be, back in the old days.

 

Hmm, the name sounds familliar, but since I don't know who he is, I can't claim to have heard of him. So, no, I haven't.

Who was he?