Square Enix Shuts Down Fan-Made Chrono Trigger Sequel

KIllagouge writes "Just days before the release of Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes, SquareEnix sent a Cease & Desist letter to Chrono Compendium to stop everything to do with Crimson Echoes. People might remember when they did this with Chrono Resurrection. Seems to be the growing trend; instead of listening to their fans, which would net them even more money, game developers continue to lock down old gaming IP. A copy of the C&D letter is available online." The fan project had been in development since 2004 and was 98% complete.

Comments

Unfortunate

[Junior J. Junior III]

A lot of great PC games were even more successful than they otherwise might have been because they opened themselves up to the mod community. It's sad and wrong that a fan-produced work that was to be released for free is seen as a threat to the commercial interests of the original IP creator. It's especially bad that Square/Enix decided to wait until the game was nearly completed before the C&D.

I'm afraid that ROM hacking of older systems is going to see this sort of C&D treatment with more frequency. It's the downside of the Virtual Console and the rise in popularity of retro gaming -- when Nintendo put the Virtual Console into the Wii, they basically eliminated the "Abandonware" argument that emulator fans had clung to.

Is there any way they might possibly work a deal out with Square/Enix to have their game put out as an official title, distributed through Virtual Console/Live Arcade?