Buying the IP?
sam, 01/15/2022 - 16:40
With the community chomping at the bit to take Spiral Knights and put it back into the era of content updates and insanely high CE prices, has anyone considered the most obvious method: actually purchasing Spiral Knights from GH?
Has GH made any statements regarding this? I would be interested if anyone has any estimates regarding what kind of revenue this game actually brings in annually. Perhaps the community could crowdfund such a purchase, with ownership/revenue being shared or going to some large investor who's willing to make the development of the game more open.
Everything has a price. With people willing to work day and night to mod this game and patch it, what's keeping the community from nabbing the IP? This game isn't like battlefield heroes or TF2, it probably makes a relatively small amount of revenue compared to most other games being held in pseudo-archival dev-limbo. Perhaps GH would make the sale for less than we expect?
Of course, they could have said at some point "it's ours forever!" and all this could be moot.
sam, 01/15/2022 - 17:18
#2
@Carbonjinxmesa
Interesting, was there any information regarding the price quote? Why they rejected the offer? I've tried researching any past attempts and can't seem to find posts regarding it.
sam, 01/15/2022 - 19:20
#3
could look into whatever kind of deal was made with Bang! Howdy, that one was sold off
sam, 01/15/2022 - 23:49
#4
.
It wasn't something discussed on the forums but someone contacted GH directly and was told that they weren't interested in selling it.
dim, 01/16/2022 - 13:54
#5
two recent threads
There have been two threads about this quite recently in General Discussion. I can't find them right now. They're not even in the Graveyard. Perhaps they were removed by the administrators.
mar, 02/01/2022 - 20:45
#6
.
i bet theyd take it if i offered 7mil
jeu, 02/03/2022 - 11:54
#7
If GH has no interest in
If GH has no interest in improving the game, adding new content to it or rejuvenating its playerbase, then why not consider selling it to another developer that does have an interest in revitalizing the game?
mar, 03/01/2022 - 23:16
#8
.
It could mostly be up to personal sentiments; GH reserves the right to hold the IP for Spiral Knights until either the company folds or enough stakeholders allow for their main IP to be sold off. At the end of the day, GH has sought to preserve their vision of Spiral Knights as they see fit; next to a private server, this currently is the most feasible way to maintain what Spiral Knights was and what it will be into the future.
Personally, I'd love if they could bring the IP, its code, and its assets to be open-source, as essentially the same plot has been redone by dozens of other MMOs (many of which have not lasted as long as SK itself) and Java has been on the way out as a platform for game engines; there isn't much point to consolidating the IP under the banner of Grey Havens unless they were to license it out to the Chinese spin-off (the status of which I'm not sure of at the moment). But it is what it is, and we should be respectful of GH's wishes to preserve SK as-is for the time being.
People have already tried this and been turned down.