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Fan-Made 'Metal Gear Solid' Remake Cancelled; Gamers Blame Konami (hothardware.com)
MojoKid writes: Fans of the popular Metal Gear Solid series are ticked off at Konami over the cancellation of an unofficial, fan-built remake of the very first title that shipped for the original PlayStation way back in 1998. The remake's cancellation was announced on the project's Facebook page, which immediately prompted backlash aimed at Konami for presumably having a hand in it. The project, dubbed Shadow Moses, was the brainchild of indie game designer Airam Hernandez. It appears he may have assembled a small team to remake the original Metal Gear Solid using Unreal Engine 4. While it hasn't been confirmed that Konami shut the project down, it wouldn't be surprising to find out that it did. This wouldn't be the first fan project to be cancelled, and it likely won't be the last— Metal Gear Solid is Konami's property, and even Hernandez acknowledged at one point that he would eventually need Konami's permission to publish it.
These days basically everyone in the gaming industry agrees that the world would be a better place if Konami finally dies in a fire.
#Fuckonami, started by Jim Sterling (Think Moviebob, but for Games) has gotten trendendous pickup right up to the audience having a solid reason to Boo! Konami at the Game Awards - they legally prevented from Hideo Kojima from recieving his own award (No joke!).
The borderline insane bullshit Konami has done in recent years is bedazzling and let's even non-industry observers wonder why a company is so hell bent on destroying its reputation and ip. Hideo Kojima has since moved on and Konami is shunned as the semi-dangerous nutbag bum in gaming town by just about anybody.
Bottom line:
If you want to mod a commercial game, steer clear of Konami.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Now let's all listen to the butthurt gamers...
It probably wasn't about making a game to make money or the like. They probably liked the old game and wanted to play it with a modern engine.
How to become an indie game designer in 3 easy steps. Step 1: Think up an original idea (oh shit) Step 2: You really need to complete step 1 before you get here Step 3: You didn't even read step 2 did you?
If you have an idea in the current industry, you have to have something to present as a model of your idea. It's seems that copyright is getting in the way of even getting to that point. The folks that ran this project knew they would have to present it to Konamii eventually. It is a shame that fans won't even have the chance to see this since Konamii seems to want to sue first and ask questions later.
Having worked in the industry as a programmer for the better part of 11 years now, all I can do is scoff at this point at the countless aspiring developers who decide that their best bet is to remake an actively-marketed IP held by some other company. Sorry, but I'm innately skeptical of the game design chops of someone for whom designing a game involves going "Let's remake [some existing game]," or perhaps "I'm going to make [game], but with [thing]."
If you're a creative or skilled enough designer, programmer or artist to the point that you could actually do justice to a remake of a classic, well-respected game, then surely you're creative or skilled enough to make your own game, right? If so, why gamble on a project that could be shut down at any time by the actual rights-holders? To me, it seems like a disingenuous and lazy hedge to try to get people to buy into your project by tying it to an IP that people already think of fondly. If you're really skilled enough to stand on your own, prove it.
Lol neither did you
These days basically everyone in the gaming industry agrees that the world would be a better place if Konami finally dies in a fire.
...and then dies again 29 more times.
Well yeah, that's kind of the core of the system. And you nailed it. The indie devs could EASILY have made their own game paying homage to metal gear. From the sounds of it, they wanted to do a direct remake in a new engine. That's a pretty shitty idea for a bunch of reasons. Firstly, every damn game company is doing "classic" remakes of everything in their catalog so it is pretty stupid to assume this company wouldn't be thinking forwards like that. Second, who the hell wants to trace? That's what this would have been, tracing. The game is already completed, they would be redoing it, reworking the assets. I'm not discounting the skill for those actually revamping the models and such. But for the designer, this is a cheap cop out. That goes against everything I would put into an indie developers pocket. Seriously, you want to be a indie developer so you go ahead and decide to illegally remake one of the biggest games of all time from one of the larger publishers? Clearly this whole deal was done to get them to stop the project and get these unoriginal asshats some publicity.
Just open source the game's code. Then there's really no way to stop its "viral" spread.
And all you'd need to do was change an unused/little used variable, like the text on a sign, and BAM, new compiled file, new file signature, new MD5 sum, so any automated search would fail to find it. As for the source code, that could be passed on discretely through email or even sneakernet.
Exactly. I really don't know what they expected. Trademark law requires you to defend your trademark or you risk losing it. It would have made much more sense to just make a game that copied the style of the original game without making an outright copy. Konami is still selling games using the Metal Gear Solid name. So I could see why they would want to shut down this project to get rid of any confusion between the fan-made game and official releases from Konami.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
I don't understand why when faced with a cease and desist, groups don't just switch gears to making a parody.
"!"
This was pure stupidity from start to finish. Putting considerable time and effort into developing a game which you know you do not have the rights to publish is generally not a bad idea. When the game you are developing is a remake of a game which still has considerable commercial value, and which is owned by a company which does not have a long history of encouraging third party modding and development, it is dafter still.
Konami own the rights to Metal Gear Solid. If you want a remake of it, tell them so (letters, e-mails, petitions, questions from the floor at trade-shows - whatever). Companies like making money and if they think there is an audience for a remake of an old game, then they will generally do the remake. If they don't, then... there's not really much you can do.
If you want to make a stealth-action game, then make one. Konami own the rights to Metal Gear Solid, but they do not own the rights to "everything that looks a bit like Metal Gear Solid". There are no shortage of games out there, both AAA and indie, which take a degree of inspiration from Metal Gear Solid. If you have a team with the skills to make a game as ambitious as a full remake of Metal Gear Solid would be, then go that route.
But trying to make a game which you know it is vanishingly unlikely you will be allowed to publish and then whinging when you are not allowed to publish it is just stupid.
Playing the devils advocate for a moment.
So the fans want the content.
The IP holder does not want the content to go out. Why should they not do with what is theirs?
Why should the fans have the right to do it anyay? As it is the IP of the company, is it not up to them to decide what happens with it? If they want, they can make it public, but the do not want to do that. If they want, they can develop the game itself, but they do not want to do that. If they want, they could sell the IP, but they do not want to do that.
If they want, they should be allowed to lock it up and throw away the key.
It is theirs and should they not be allowed to do with it as they please?
All that just shows how insane the current duration is. Go back to a copyright of 14 years (or less) and this would not even come up.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Metal Gear Solid was like the 3rd game in the series. The first 2 were 8-bit top down games for the NES.
Except Konami wasn't the first to take down a project based on one of their still-actually-available-for-sale productions, and it won't be the last.
Remake or not, the game is still Konami's property. If you replaced Metal Gear/Konami with Final Fantasy/Square Enix or Mario/Nintendo or any other game/game's owner you get the same response.
The only "borderline insane bullshit" here is from people that think Konami was wrong in this particular case.
And then when they are, distribute it in a way that makes it very difficult to shutdown, from a country that isn't beholden to the copyright cartel.
But no, everyone announces their silly clone project, and then the C&D's come flying. Either commit to the 'outlaw' approach, or don't announce anything until you're secured permission; anything else seems foolish.
Firstly, every damn game company is doing "classic" remakes of everything in their catalog so it is pretty stupid to assume this company wouldn't be thinking forwards like that.
Especially since Konami's already done it more than once.
Visit the
Jeez, once again, here we are with an Internet Outrage![tm] story about IP on Slashdot. And once again, it's some fucking moron who didn't even know better than to not rip off a major corporation's IP. Come on! You think just because you're not making any money they should allow it? By lawyer standards, they're losing money! It doesn't matter what makes sense!
God damn, how hard is it to make something new. Really hard, I guess! All these efforts on remakes and reimaginings and reboots. And supposedly creative people are better because they're constantly creating new ideas. I guess that's another treasured myth we're going to have to get rid of. I mean, seriously, the guy didn't expect that a mega-million dollar company was going to put a stop to his project? It's the most likely outcome.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
The game belongs to the company that made it. It doesn't belong to you. They paid for the development. They took the risks. You bought it and played it, great. But the fact that you bought it and played it doesn't mean you somehow own it now.
If they don't want it remade, then what you want is irrelevant. You're not entitled to anything, snowflakes.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
remake of the very first title that shipped for the original PlayStation way back in 1998.
And here I was thinking that was actually "Battle Arena Toshinden" in '94...
If every gamer was as good at playing a games as they are at bitching and moaning about them, then I wouldn't have to deal with so many shit players in my PUGs.
No one gives a shit, snowflakes. Konami, Valve, Bioware, etc. don't owe you ANYTHING. If you don't like what they're doing, then stop buying their games and move on.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
Have you seen the amount of bullshit exposition you have to read / click through in Metal Gear games? Having to write an original pastiche of all that would double the development time at least.
The trend of "____ fan remake built in Unreal Engine 4" has gone on far too long... Sadly it makes great clickbait for game sites which inveitibly hype up something that will most likely never see the light of day.
Yeah, I'm bitching about bitchers--but only because I'm bitching to the bitchers about their bitching.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
If you can get this far into a game's development, please consider creating original content. It has never been easier to fund or publish a game. You can get paid instead of shut down.
Twinstiq, game news
Hell, they could just make a game in the same style with a marginally modified story to avoid the copyright lawyers
Until they end up getting lawyers breathing down their necks anyway on a claim of "nonliteral copying".
The IP holder does not want the content to go out. Why should they not do with what is theirs?
First, why say "intellectual property" instead of "copyright"? The term "intellectual property" lumps together copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, and right of publicity. These areas of law have different origins, different scopes, and different reasons for existing. Conflating them just confuses readers.
Second, Konami's IP is 133.221.216.6. When you abbreviate "intellectual property" to "IP", you're making restrictions associated with copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, and right of publicity sound as natural as the use of Internet Protocol.
Third, what purpose does legal recognition of copyright serve? In the U.S. legal framework, copyright theoretically exists "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts" (U.S. Const., Article I, Section 8). I fail to see how dog-in-the-manger tactics promote any progress.
All that just shows how insane the current duration is. Go back to a copyright of 14 years (or less) and this would not even come up.
And the difference between the copyright term and the patent term just shows how insane the term "intellectual property" is. If exclusive rights under one area of law expire 20 years after application, and exclusive rights under another area of law expire 70 years after the death of the last surviving author, how can "intellectual property" be considered a cohesive field of law?
Ultimately, the rationale for the present copyright term is the life of those heirs who knew the author personally. But the entertainment industry is willing to budge on neither the scope nor the duration.
Wishful thinking. The trademark owner has the exclusive right to the IP. That being said, it would be perfectly legal to create a game in the spirit of Metal Gear without using any trademarks, assets, or source code that played very similarly.
Ok. So unoriginal art. The makes sense. Odd that he wouldn't even try to make new art that was at least subtly different. Names could have easily been changed too, and I'm not sure why he didnt. There are dozens of Mario clones out there, so it's not like there isn't precedent for this.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
See what I did there?
In this case Konami actually made a remake for it on the Game Cube if memory serves.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
So much human effort wasted on projects destined to die, which could have been spent on something more original and less obviously derivatively infringing...
Maybe, but consider this: why are you holding these unpaid enthusiasts to a far, far higher standard than what you're holding the game companies and Hollywood to?
All I've been seeing out of Hollywood and the game companies for the past decade now (at least) is derivatives. Granted, they're derivatives of stuff they actually own the rights to, but still: Hollywood can't come up with an original movie any more, it's all sequels, prequels, further installations in the same "universe", etc. Game companies are the same, everything they make now is yet another derivative of something that came out in the 1980s. This article is case-in-point: how many derivatives of Metal Gear have there been now? Metal Gear came out sometime around 1985!!! I'm still seeing Metroid games, and that came out even earlier. Didn't they just release a new Metroid?
So if the game companies can't come up with anything original like they did when the NES was brand-new, how do you expect a bunch of unpaid volunteers to do better?
Game mechanics can't be copyrighted
Counterpoint: Tetris v. Xio .
and pretty much nobody actually bothers filing patents for them.
Except Konami, which prevailed in a claim construction hearing in Konami v. Roxor that its patents for Dance Dance Revolution covered a competitor's game. Other games have patents, such as Dr. Mario (US Patent 5,265,888, since expired), the cylinder mode of Pokemon Puzzle League, Crazy Taxi (enforced in Sega v. Fox), and plenty of other rhythm games.
Konami own the rights to Metal Gear Solid, but they do not own the rights to "everything that looks a bit like Metal Gear Solid".
I wouldn't be so sure. Konami once convinced the judge in Konami v. Roxor that its patent on Dance Dance Revolution extends to "everything that looks a bit like Dance Dance Revolution".
God damn, how hard is it to make something new. Really hard, I guess!
Especially when the developers of The Simpsons: Road Rage got sued by Sega for copying Crazy Taxi.
That's right! He could've made "Super Stealthy Mario Bros: Extreme Tactical Espionage Plumbing" Edition, the version where Mario eats the wrong mushroom, grows huge, and then irradiates the wrong mushrooms and turtles in a secret nuclear facility. Unhappy that Mario is a big boss about stomping mushrooms, they kidnap Mario's mushroom retainers and Princess Toadstool... er, wait, Princess Daisy, .. no - I got it! Princess Peach. To defend themselves against Mario and his brother Luigi, they'll create 'Metroid', a giant walking tank with the nuclear capabilities, driven by Justin Bailey. She'll be the blue haired female pilot that will serve as the final boss for the brothers.
There! That's probably different enough that Konami will no longer have a problem with it. There's probably enough material there to squeeze out a couple of sequels, too.
Yeah... no.
Unless tons of stealth games suddenly start referring to themselves as "Metal Gear Solids", and Konami does nothing about it, they're in no danger whatsoever of the brand name becoming genericized (ala Kleenex).
Konami shut down this project because it could potentially harm sales of their own remake down the line. That's it. They certainly have every right to protect their IP in this manner, but it's not because "they had to or risk losing the IP", or because "consumers would become confused" (though the latter may very well be how they try to spin it).
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
Because, as opposed to physical property that can be held in hand, intellectual property is immaterial and is held in the mind.
A lot of things cannot be held in hand, but that doesn't make them "intellectual property".
Referring to those combined as intellectual property is more accurate than focusing only on copyright.
How long does "intellectual property" last? Under intellectual property, what uses are reserved for the copyright owner and what uses are subject to a limitation on exclusive rights (such as fair use or exhaustion after first sale)? The answer is not the same for these disparate areas of law. It's clearer to pick the most pertinent area of law and talk about that. And in the case of fan games, copyright is likely to be the most pertinent.
I fail to see how dog-in-the-manger tactics promote any progress.
The ideal of copyright allows the owner to profit from their own work, and said profits were intended to allow the creator to continue being employed as a creator.
If the owner of copyright in a given work is not selling copies of that work, where exactly does this "profit" come from? I ask in order to open discussion about whether this sort of profit is in society's interest.
For that matter, patents should never have been allowed to receive extensions.
Patent term extensions are very limited in scope, granted only when the patent office or the drug regulator has caused an undue delay in issuing a patent. And they still expire after about a generation. This difference in philosophy is why I take care to separate discussion of copyright from discussion of patent.
None of that, however, means that copyright by itself is insane. Only the degree to which companies have gone to make it into the current insanity.
The insanity of copyright derives ultimately from the insanity of voters' continued tolerance of elected officials who put the interest of entertainment industry PACs over those of their constituents outside the industry. How can that be fixed?
A few examples (google "fan game remake shut down":
Streets of Rage Remake, Resident Evil 2, Chrono Trigger, Legend of Zelda (Link to the Past, typically). Even the Mario 64 tech demo in Unreal 3 got shut down, it wasn't even released or any levels created.
I'm sure there are others, but the only instances that come to mind where they publisher didn't go ape on the little guy was Duke 3D remake in Unreal Engine, and The Dark Mod (basically Thief remade in the Doom3 engine).
Yeah... no.
Unless tons of stealth games suddenly start referring to themselves as "Metal Gear Solids", and Konami does nothing about it, they're in no danger whatsoever of the brand name becoming genericized (ala Kleenex).
Yeah... yes. It's not about being genericized, it's about trademark law requiring it. They forfeit their rights to the trademark if they don't enforce it.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Shutting down a fanmade game is one thing, but look at what became of Silent Hills. Then they went as far as insisting that the demo of it be remotely removed from people's consoles. I'm so done with console gaming. It's over.
PROTIP: That is a myth.
Wrong. "They let this other entity use it!" ... is a valid legal defense.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
"Man gets dissuaded from burglary due to load alarm".. Burglar complains..
No, almost all the posters have it wrong - a carefully done re-implementation can be legit. You can't use the exact same potentially trade-marked names. You can't re-distribute the original art work. But, you can do things like create a new engine and anyone who owns the original game can then re-use the content in the new engine. See the article on Game Engine Recreation or the OpenMW project that's creating a version of the Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind game in a new engine.
That said, I don't know if this Metal Gear Solid remake wasn't careful to follow the rules or if maybe they did, but Konami gave them enough grief to make them stop anyway.
Tons of fan-made games have been made over the years without issue.
Example: http://openxcom.org/. You're suggesting Firaxis is in danger of losing their Xcom IP because of this?
Can you cite a single incident of this ever happening?
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
Here is an article from the EFF about it:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/...
You are just flat-out wrong here.
Konami is not "required" to shut down the Shadow Moses fan project or somehow risk losing their MSG trademark. That's just ridiculous.
In fact, I don't even see how Shadow Moses was using the Metal Gear Solid TRADEMARK in the first place. A trademark is a very specific thing (the stylized MGS logo in this case), not "anything related to the IP".
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
Looks like I have some more reading to do, thank you.
My source was that a friend of mine is the creator of a semi-known comic. His character was parodied on a popular TV show. His lawyer was pressuring him to take action about it, that was the reason he gave him. Perhaps I misread an attempt to drum up business for the lawyer.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
You know what dude? Kudos to you.
Too many people just refuse to even admit they might've possibly misspoken about something. I learned some stuff too from this exchange too.
High five. Have a great weekend.
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
Sorry for the double reply, but I thought I would add that you should direct your friend to both the article I posted, highlighting this bit:
And also, to the Mattel vs RCA case which is linked at the end of that article, which specifically deals with parody (Mattel was pissed about the "Barbie Girl" song by Aqua. Mattel's claim was dismissed, parody is protected. The judge famously stated "The parties are advised to chill.").
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
Thank you! I realize I'm a little late in saying this, but have a good weekend, man.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)