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Game News Star Control: Origins Released

Infinitron

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Tags: Star Control: Origins; Stardock

The story of Star Control: Origins begins in 2013 with the collapse of publisher Atari SA, owners of the Star Control license since their acquisition of Accolade in 1999. In the subsequent bankruptcy auction, the license was picked up by strategy game developer Stardock, who soon revealed their intention to produce the first new Star Control game in over 15 years. After what appears to have been a lengthy period of preproduction, Star Control: Origins was officially unveiled in late 2016 as a kind of reboot/reimagining of the Star Control continuity, set in a universe with entirely new alien races. Many of us were skeptical of this idea, but Stardock were serious about the project and pressed on.

Things took a turn for the wild a year later when the original creators of Star Control, Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford, announced their intention to create a Star Control game of their own - and almost immediately became embroiled in a vicious intellectual property dispute with Stardock. Tentatively titled Ghosts of the Precursors, Reiche & Ford's game was to be a proper sequel to the legendary second game in the series, for which they still owned the substantive copyrights. It's not clear what preceded what, but it was around this point that Stardock CEO Brad Wardell appears to have made the decision to add some of the alien races from the original games to Origins after all, albeit with different visual appearances and new backstories.

Bystanders soon took sides, with certain figures in the mainstream media predictably aligning with Reiche & Ford against the occasionally outspoken Wardell, and some of those who dislike said media reflexively siding with Wardell. The legal trench warfare has presumably continued behind the scenes, but it didn't stop Star Control: Origins from being released today. Here's the launch trailer and description:



Most of the launch day reviews are quite positive, with the notable exception of IGN and GameSpot, whose reviewers seem to approve of the game's writing but find its arcade action elements tedious.

GamingTrend 95/100
GameWatcher 9/10
GameSpace 9/10
Windows Central 4.5/5
USgamer 3.5/5
IGN 6.9/10
GameSpot 6/10​

I have to say that my own impression is that Stardock have done some legally questionable things here - but I also don't care. At the RPG Codex, we're all about games first, and right now Stardock are the only ones who have a game. But is it a good game? If any of us ever get around to playing it after this crazy September, maybe we'll tell you. Star Control: Origins is available now on Steam and GOG for $40.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Norfleet

Moderator
Joined
Jun 3, 2005
Messages
12,250
So while it's obviously not Star Control, is Stardock Control any good?
 

Mortmal

Arcane
Joined
Jun 15, 2009
Messages
9,158
Nothing for months then suddenly everything at the same time... Also you should remove " legally dubious things " from news , he could sue you for defamation.
 

Spectacle

Arcane
Patron
Joined
May 25, 2006
Messages
8,363
"legally dubious things" ?

they "stole" the IP, made the game without consent from original devs

https://www.pcgamer.com/star-control-creators-file-lawsuit-against-stardock/

I'd much rather see Stardock steal Star Control and make a decent game, than Bethesda legally buying Fallout and desecrating it.

There's not much overlap between what's legal and what's ethical when it comes to creativity, so let's not concern ourselves and enjoy any good games we get.
 

ArchAngel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 16, 2015
Messages
19,882
"legally dubious things" ?

they "stole" the IP, made the game without consent from original devs

https://www.pcgamer.com/star-control-creators-file-lawsuit-against-stardock/

I'd much rather see Stardock steal Star Control and make a decent game, than Bethesda legally buying Fallout and desecrating it.

There's not much overlap between what's legal and what's ethical when it comes to creativity, so let's not concern ourselves and enjoy any good games we get.
Error, error. Does not compute.
 

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