Game News Mystery solved? "Anonymous industry source" reveals unpaid royalties as reason for BG:EE takedown

[Infinitron]

Tags: Atari; Baldur's Gate; Beamdog

Last month, we learned that due to unspecified "contractual issues" with Atari, former Bioware developer Trent Oster and his company, Beamdog, had been forbidden from independently selling Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition and from developing its sequel. Today, a newspost at GameBanshee seems to finally set the record straight on why exactly this occurred. I quote:

Two weeks ago we reported that Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition was pulled at Atari's request, and also noted that Atari was selling the title on Steam themselves. Now that we have been contacted by an industry source that requested to remain anonymous, we might know why.​

Apparently Beamdog hasn't paid Atari the royalties that they were owed, which led the publisher to ask them to pull the title from their services, and delay both Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition's patch and the release of the sequel's remastering.​

However it has to be noted that the circumstances surrounding this aren't clear at all. Something like Atari informally telling Beamdog that they could delay payment is hardly out of the realm of possibilities, but right now we have no elements to assume that, and this amounts to pure speculation.​

We contacted both Atari and Beamdog to comment on this. While, as of this posting, Atari hasn't gotten back to us, Beamdog president Trent Oster reiterated that they're working with Atari to resolve this dispute, though he wouldn't confirm or deny whether what we heard from our source is true.​

We'll let you know if we hear more news, and I'm certain I echo the sentiments of the GameBanshee staff at large when I say my hope is that this gets resolved sooner rather than later.​

Tsk tsk, Beamdog. I certainly hope this was all a big misunderstanding and not an attempt to make an easy buck off of a dying publisher.

 

[Sensuki]

I'm gonna go with option #2: dodgy beamdog

 

[Diablo169]

They sat there harping on about making Baldur's Gate 3 when they hadn't even paid Atari royalties for the first game.

 

[himmy]

dodgy beamdog

Schemedog!

 

[Scruffy]

Reading the title, i thought that "Anonymous industry source" was something out of 4chan.

anyway, i'll agree that

I'm certain I echo the sentiments of the GameBanshee Codex staff at large when I say my hope is that this gets resolved sooner rather than later later rather than sooner.

possibly never

 

[Lagole Gon]

They fucked Baldur's Gate like a cheap hooker and didn't even pay for it

 

[evdk]

They fucked Baldur's Gate like a cheap hooker and didn't even pay for it

The lovely STD that they've caught from her is sufficient repayment.

 

[tindrli]

ehem. i come from the third world country and i have never heard about term pay royalities can anyone explain what is that ??

 

[St. Toxic]

ehem. i come from the third world country and i have never heard about term pay royalities can anyone explain what is that ??

Sort of like how you have to bribe the cops if you don't want to be arrested for doing nothing wrong.

 

[Infinitron]

ehem. i come from the third world country and i have never heard about term pay royalities can anyone explain what is that ??

Beamdog weren't paying Atari the percentage they owed off of each copy of BG:EE they sold.

 

[Scruffy]

ehem. i come from the third world country and i have never heard about term pay royalities can anyone explain what is that ??

i have an idea
you want to use that idea to make money
i say "sure, you can use my idea, but since it's mine, i want a percentage on what you earn"
that percentage is royalties
(more or less)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royalties

 

[evdk]

Waiting for Trent's butthurt spin on this news. "Waaah, limiting my artistic expression!"

 

[Diablo169]

Reaction on the official forums is awsome

For now I take this information with 10^oo grains of salt, Beamdog has proved many times that it cares for their fans more than any company out there.

 

[Stabwound]

As much as I want them to crash and burn, I see this as being pretty unlikely or some kind of misunderstanding. They had a contract for BG2:EE and I doubt they'd fuck it up by pulling a stunt like this.

Maybe there's some sort of butthurt from Beamdog about Atari selling the game directly themselves through Steam and other sources, because it was supposed to be a Beamdog exclusive. Who knows?

 

[tindrli]

got it.. i wonder.. does anyone knows how much atari wanted?? what is usual amount if such think exist anyway?? 1 %, 2 %??

 

[Infinitron]

http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/19702/gamebanshee-update-on-current-situation

You are my hero...you put it well together. This is a very good example of what is happening in my home country right now (Egypt), how rumors and speculations, and a horrible nasty deceiving media can do. Create conflicts, civilians deaths, chaos, unrest, illegally overthrowing an innocent leader and so on.

The Muslim Brotherhood supports BG:EE

 

[FeelTheRads]

For now I take this information with 10^oo grains of salt, Beamdog has proved many times that it cares for their fans more than any company out there.

So, does anyone know what they actually did to become known as so caring?

 

[Scruffy]

For now I take this information with 10^oo grains of salt, Beamdog has proved many times that it cares for their fans more than any company out there.

So, does anyone know what they actually did to become known as so caring?

fanbois
fanbois are retarded by definition
anything they say is probably not true

 

[Lagole Gon]

got it.. i wonder.. does anyone knows how much atari wanted?? what is usual amount if such think exist anyway?? 1 %, 2 %??

More like 6-12%
But this is an unusual situation, so I don't know shit about shit.

 

[himmy]

The Muslim Brotherhood supports BG:EE

Finally, the endorsement I was waiting for. Got to give it a try now, I guess.

 

[mindx2]

http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/19702/gamebanshee-update-on-current-situation

You are my hero...you put it well together. This is a very good example of what is happening in my home country right now (Egypt), how rumors and speculations, and a horrible nasty deceiving media can do. Create conflicts, civilians deaths, chaos, unrest, illegally overthrowing an innocent leader and so on.

The Muslim Brotherhood supports BG:EE

 

[tuluse]

So, does anyone know what they actually did to become known as so caring?

They released a broken game, so they've patched it like a 100 times and makes the fanbois feel like it's improving.

 

[Grunker]

I'm certain I echo the sentiments of the GameBanshee staff at large when I say my hope is that this gets resolved sooner rather than later.

Good to see you still hold the torch of decline high, GB

 

[octavius]

Reaction on the official forums is awsome

For now I take this information with 10^oo grains of salt, Beamdog has proved many times that it cares for their fans more than any company out there.

Most companies have the same automated software that generates such replies. FanBot, I think it's called.

 

[Ramireza]

Great news