Majestic Speaks Up Regarding Limbo of the Lost; Tries to Blame Someone Else
Posted by Stephany on Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 at 3:27 pm under Computer, Game Companies, Gamer Life, Games
Majestic, creators of Limbo of the Lost, has come under for its blatant thievery of Oblivion and other games of late, and while Tri Synergy has had all unsold copies of the game pulled from shelves and production on the game halted, they seem to be the only ones who have issues a statement up until now.
Yesterday, Majestic decided to issue a statement after being quite for so long - apparently they were on holiday, and had this to say regarding the matter and I highlighted the most interesting sentence:
In response to the shocking notification that some alleged unauthorized copyrighted materials submitted by sources external to the development team have been found within the PC game Limbo of the Lost, we (the development team) have given our consent and full cooperation to both publishers who are recalling all units from all territories immediately.
Please be assured that we do not condone in anyway the use of unauthorized copyrighted materials and if we had been made aware earlier, we would of course have ceased development of the product and rectified the issue prior to the publication process.
To the best of our knowledge no one at Majestic, [European publisher] G2Games or [North American publisher Tri Synergy, Inc.] knew about this infringement and knowingly played any part in it.
We can only apologise to all regarding this issue, as a team we are shocked and mortified regarding these events and we continue to work with said publishers in order to rectify the issue.
To be honest with you, I find it a bit hard to believe that a development team would not look over the game with almost a Sherlock Holmes mentality before unleashing it on the public, if not they are not worth what they are getting paid. That being said, while the audacity of the situation is indeed mind boggling, I personally believe that the game never should have seen the light of day to begin with if the video posted below is any indication of the game’s quality.
Apparently, Tri-Synergy did not look over the game before deciding to publish the steaming pile of crap either, so both are at fault here.
Thanks: VG247
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June 24th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
That's precisely why you don't integrate third-party content in retail games. Morons.
June 24th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
I have a feeling this video could replace the Rick Roll. You've just been Limbo'd!
June 24th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
"That's precisely why you don't integrate third-party content in retail games. Morons."
You're the real moron. Even AAA game developers like Valve routinely use third-party content like textures, shaders, and music libraries in their games. The difference though is that the third-party content comes from reputable sources and is properly licensed for use.
June 24th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
"Yesterday, Majestic decided to issue a statement"
Majestic is really just one guy named Steve Bovis. There is no real company or team.
"apparently they were on holiday"
No, Steve was just waiting for the storm to die down before responding.
"In response to the shocking notification that some alleged unauthorized copyrighted materials submitted by sources external to the development team"
LOL! In reality Steve got caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and this is the best spin he could put on it without just openly admitting what he had done. There is no "alleged unauthorized copyrighted materials." The material at issue is undeniably from Oblivion, Thief 3, and UT2004.
"if we had been made aware earlier"
LOL! No, Steve, what you really mean is if you had been caught earlier, you would have ceased development of the game. However, no one apparently noticed last year when your UK publisher G2games released it because no one who had played those other games bought your product. The only reason you got caught when your game hit the U.S. is because your American publisher Trisynergy sent out review copies of the game to experienced reviewers and one of them recognized what you had done.
"We can only apologise to all regarding this issue, as a team we are shocked and mortified regarding these events"
Sure, you are shocked and mortified. Not that you took the material but that you got caught and have been made a worldwide laughing stock.
"To be honest with you, I find it a bit hard to believe that a development team would not look over the game with almost a Sherlock Holmes mentality before unleashing it on the public"
Stephany, normally expecting a one-man development team like this one or even a small team to recognize all copyright infringement in their game assets is unrealistic. Small independent game developers routinely use commercial art and music libraries in their games to save time and expecting them to substantiate the licenses of these libraries before using them is an unrealistic burden. They simply trust that the licenses they purchase to use the content are legitimate.
That said, that is NOT what happened here. Steve Bovis knew damn well that he had taken that material from those other games. You can follow the development of his game through his forum posts on the Wintermute engine website. He doesn't even solicit for texture artists until AFTER Limbo of the Lost had been released, and the artists he wants are for the sequel. So, the obvious question is what happened to the texture artists for the current game? And, the obvious answer is there weren't any because Steve lifted those screenshots and textures from Oblivion, Thief 3, etc. himself It's the same story with the movie clips Steve used from Pirates of the Caribbean and Spawn. Steve made the videos in the game and the promotional trailer for it himself, so he knows damn well what material he used.