36 replies to this topic

[Phoenix Branson]

The Founder's Package was a great success for Piranha Games to raise capital for this game.

So here's a thought, what if PG put together a program to buy the intellectual property rights for 6 Unseen Mechs (listed below) from Harmony Gold? Basically, PG would offer significant money to HG, and if both parties agreed, PG would then launch a massive campaign to raise capital from their devoted fans. The Unseen Package would look something like this:

Unseen Package Price
You gain access to 2 unseen mechs in MWO: $60
You gain access to 4 unseen mechs in MWO: $120
You gain access to 6 unseen mechs in MWO: $180

The Six Unseen Mechs
Locust
Warhammer
Rifleman
Marauder
Shadow Hawk
Battlemaster

Harmony Gold
"Twelve Unseen images, those originating from Macross, were again pulled from circulation and will remain unseen, due to their exclusive distribution rights (within the United States) belonging to another company (Harmony Gold). Whether or not these images will be licensed or purchased in the future remains to be seen."

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Unseen

Edited by Maverick01, 10 August 2012 - 08:10 PM.

[Grimskar]

never going to happen,

[Vashts1985]

wayyy too much.

[Grimskar]

you do realize that other people own that stuff other then harmony gold right? HG only has the license to distribute in the west

[Dodger79]

Max 60-80$ for all the 6 Mechs, perhaps plus 20 if they have lifetime boosts like the founders. But i think you are missing some like the Phoenix Hawk, Archer, Thunderbolt, Wolverine, Crusader, Griffin, Stinger, Wasp, Valkyrie, Ostscout, Ostsol and Ostroc.

If there was a package with Marauder, Warhammer, Thunderbolt, Crusader, Phoenix Hawk, Archer and Battlemaster all with lifetime booster, i'd pay another 120$ for it.

[Mech79]

I would Invest because I think this game will be around for years to come!!

[Vincent Hall]

In addition, Harmony Gold’s license for came from Tatsunoko Production, but Japanese courts ruled that it was Studio Nue (creators of the series) that controls the Macross intellectual property. The license Tatsunoko was given was for international distribution outside Japan only, and does not allow them to control the intellectual property.

Harmony Gold has nothing to do with them remaining Unseen anymore, only those who were involved in the practically three way case between S&T/Piranha, HG, and Studio Nue know the details of why the Unseen remain Unseen. If I had to take a guess its simply the devs not wanting to rustle any more feathers and are keeping them unseen until they have been redesigned, since they have been redesigning pretty much every mech to varying degrees.

Edited by Vincent Hall, 10 August 2012 - 09:15 PM.

[cinco]

every single one of the unseen, with the exception of 2 or 3, look like complete horse dun. gundam is that way>>>, leave us mech warriors alone, please.

[Commander Kruge]

Won't happen. I'm a robotech/macross fan, and sit in on the panels at Akon (anime convention in Dallas) every year for the past few years. This same subject has actually been brought up twice by the PR rep, and HG adamantly defends their IP rights to the mech franchise in the west. Believe me, they're keeping a close eye on the development here. One mech that looks too much like something they own the rights to, and PGI will get lawyer-slapped pretty hard. No way PGI will go near any of those mechs.

[Jebediah Saint]

i would buy the living heck out of a battlemaster. i might just buy three packages just so i can own 3 of them.

[Team Leader]

Woah sorry forgot I was made of infinite money to buy imaginary robots with! Sign me up for dropping another $180 worth of code in a game file!
120 is enough for a F2P. I made my contribution. If I got one of those free fine thadt be great. I am not willing to spend another dollar on video games for the next 3 years or so.

[Jebediah Saint]

Commander Kruge, on 10 August 2012 - 09:49 PM, said:

Won't happen. I'm a robotech/macross fan, and sit in on the panels at Akon (anime convention in Dallas) every year for the past few years. This same subject has actually been brought up twice by the PR rep, and HG adamantly defends their IP rights to the mech franchise in the west. Believe me, they're keeping a close eye on the development here. One mech that looks too much like something they own the rights to, and PGI will get lawyer-slapped pretty hard. No way PGI will go near any of those mechs.

i dont get this. its not like theyre even DOING anything with the designs.

[nksharp]

cinco, on 10 August 2012 - 09:29 PM, said:

every single one of the unseen, with the exception of 2 or 3, look like complete horse dun. gundam is that way>>>, leave us mech warriors alone, please.

How does a mechs design somehow make it either gundam/mechwarrior, care to explain this to me ?

I wouldn't buy any unless I had an interest in the design of any so not sure if it would be worth it at all for them really when we still have a ton of mechs they can use.

[latdheretic]

The whole issue with unseen was not that FASA ever was not legally entitled to use the mechs, but that it wasn't worth the money to fight Harmony Gold's weak claims to the mech likenesses.

Since this is a separate project, licenses for such likenesses would likely need to be obtained separately. Piranha Games has plenty of other designs with no such considerations, and are understandably going to do them first. Especially because there can be no irrational third party trying to sue them about it.

Jebediah Saint, on 10 August 2012 - 09:59 PM, said:

i dont get this. its not like theyre even DOING anything with the designs.

They are still reaping money from the US sales of Robotech, and have a vested interest in that franchise. The real kicker though is how does the likeness in a board/computer game hurt them in any way? Not at all. If anything it would raise sales of the cartoon that the cool mech in Battletech came from, they could have made far more money using it as cross-advertising. Sadly none of their reactions make any logical sense.

[Jebediah Saint]

nksharp, on 10 August 2012 - 09:59 PM, said:

How does a mechs design somehow make it either gundam/mechwarrior, care to explain this to me ?

I wouldn't buy any unless I had an interest in the design of any so not sure if it would be worth it at all for them really when we still have a ton of mechs they can use.

it doesnt. the battlemaster is just my favorite mech of all time. it doesnt matter to me otherwise. i just love the mech. and they have a reseen they CAN use. so id even settle for that inferior one.

[CocoaJin]

Harmony Gold may not want to sell...what if they want to make a Robotech Online game one day?

[Jebediah Saint]

latdheretic, on 10 August 2012 - 10:06 PM, said:

The whole issue with unseen was not that FASA ever was not legally entitled to use the mechs, but that it wasn't worth the money to fight Harmony Gold's weak claims to the mech likenesses.

Since this is a separate project, licenses for such likenesses would likely need to be obtained separately. Piranha Games has plenty of other designs with no such considerations, and are understandably going to do them first. Especially because there can be no irrational third party trying to sue them about it.



They are still reaping money from the US sales of Robotech, and have a vested interest in that franchise. The real kicker though is how does the likeness in a board/computer game hurt them in any way? Not at all. If anything it would raise sales of the cartoon that the cool mech in Battletech came from, they could have made far more money using it as cross-advertising. Sadly none of their reactions make any logical sense.

yeah it doesnt at all its pathetic. and the thing is though that they have the reseen variant of the battlemaster, and i dont see why they wont use THAT its clearly nothing like the old version.

[RedAngel121]

I MIGHT buy the entire unseen collection for 20 if i wanted them quick and easy, otherwise i would buy them in the game with ingame currency. thats how PG wants it for the entire game not just the founders pakge. you can buy all 4 of those founders mechs without the founders pakge but most of us want the extra cash and xp.

as for the unseen themselvs? i could care less if they made it into the game... they have hundreds of mechs to build, test and ditribute. soon enough we will be playing games where EVERYONE in a different mech and then those same ppl play another game with a whole new set of mechs and so on.

[Tzeentch]

Would pay money for Marauder and Warhammer.

[SakuranoSenshi]

It's always nice to see people thinking but I believe this is a non-starter and if it were not, you'd want to be talking to PGI itself, with figures, not polling us. No offence.