There are a few orgs who have a claim to the rights. By going through their records/finances, it would not be hard to figure out who ACTUALLY owns that slip of paper and deserves what percentage of the royalties. But said orgs have no incentive to open up their books to an audit and no desire to potentially give money to one of the other orgs that they actively dislike.
And it gets even messier because the people who have the hard drives with the code and assets (assuming they even exist: See Icewind Dale 2) might not be the ones who own the rights to NOLF who might ALSO not be the ones who own the rights to Cate’s likeness in media because the early 2000s was around the time we were putting video game characters in maxim and playboy…
So the easy answer is “nobody knows who owns it” rather than “one of these three assholes owns it” considering that GoG et al want to convince said assholes to do them a solid.
Honestly, it might be better to just do a new, similar game in the same genre and theme. NOLF is pretty long in the tooth now. Hard to compete with current shooters.
The Operative: No One Lives Forever (abbreviated as NOLF) is a first-person shooter video game developed by Monolith Productions and published by Fox Interactive, released for Windows in 2000.
That’s a quarter-century ago now.
It was followed by a sequel in 2002, entitled No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way.
Almost as long.
I mean, I don’t think that the actual IP from those games is necessary to make a similar game to scratch the itch.
I’m just waiting for the day they get the rights to the games No One Lives Forever 1 & 2 from back in the early 2000’s.
Loved those games, especially 2… 60’s setting, female spy protagonist… Excellent games.
I’m pretty sure they’ve been on GOG for a while now.
The games are listed on GOG, basically as games that have existed but they are not available to purchase.
Nope. There is a question about who actually owns the rights to NOLF. Somehow.
A super simplified explanation:
There are a few orgs who have a claim to the rights. By going through their records/finances, it would not be hard to figure out who ACTUALLY owns that slip of paper and deserves what percentage of the royalties. But said orgs have no incentive to open up their books to an audit and no desire to potentially give money to one of the other orgs that they actively dislike.
And it gets even messier because the people who have the hard drives with the code and assets (assuming they even exist: See Icewind Dale 2) might not be the ones who own the rights to NOLF who might ALSO not be the ones who own the rights to Cate’s likeness in media because the early 2000s was around the time we were putting video game characters in maxim and playboy…
So the easy answer is “nobody knows who owns it” rather than “one of these three assholes owns it” considering that GoG et al want to convince said assholes to do them a solid.
Weird. I thought I’d downloaded them a while back. I must be wrong.
You probably got them from NOLF revival.
Honestly, it might be better to just do a new, similar game in the same genre and theme. NOLF is pretty long in the tooth now. Hard to compete with current shooters.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Operative:_No_One_Lives_Forever
That’s a quarter-century ago now.
Almost as long.
I mean, I don’t think that the actual IP from those games is necessary to make a similar game to scratch the itch.