So I got kinda bored/frustrated during the week because of the powerlessness one feels when thinking about how we may never see another Maniac Mansion, Monkey Island, Full Throttle… etc etc…
So I took it upon myself to email the Disney overlords directly and inquire about purchasing or licensing one of these properties, here is the response I received (you may find it quite interesting):
Why would they? They don’t need the money. Companies are sometimes reluctant to let stuff go because the person that buys it might turn it into a huge franchise, then they look dumb. If you don’t need the money, just sit on it. You can now see my frustration and why I’m tried of people asking “Have you contacted Disney yet?” every-damn-week.
I’m sure if you offered them an unreasonable amount of money you might be able to get them talking. And when I say unreasonable, I do mean that.
Did you try offering an unreasonable low amount of money already?
In case this doesn’t help, you could send them bills with unreasonable increasing amounts of money each week. After some time you notice the headaches and the overall bad influence this case causes on your health and those of many others and you loudly start to think about involving a lawyer for a class action-lawsuit. Then you could move into the neighborhood of the person being in charge …
I am amazed he even replied to a 2-line email that basically goes “What’s up, bro? You wanna sell me your IP? Peace!”
At least he made the right deduction that at best you want to make a fan-game and warned you that you shouldn’t charge money for such derivative art. “At a minimum, it would be inappropriate”
So the real takeaway message here is they seem to be legally supportive about reusing art, characters,… for free fanart/games.
If you would have sent them a mail with some actual proposal and a business case that you would like to present to them in person, I am sure you’d have gotten a different answer.
I am pretty sure @RonGilbert is talking about an unreasonably high amount of money. And even in that case, they most likely still want to sit on the IP for said reasons.
But ok, let’s say @dangerouslee offers the net worth of entire Disney for just those IP’s. And leaves Indiana Jones and other movie franchises with them (they’ll never part with those). Then you might have chance. But seeing you don’t have millions to billions to put on the table, that’s all just hypothetical.
Just think of this: why do you need sequels to the same game? If we only would have got Maniac Mansion 1 to 15, it would have been as boring as all the other franchises in games/movies the big players are doing now. It is because new worlds were created for every game that they are so fondly remembered. NOTHING is preventing people from making games that play and feel like a classic Lucasarts game. Thimbleweed Park did just exactly that!! Even including the original guys - for the real purists. The problem is finding enough people to buy your games to make a profit so you can pay your programmers, writers, artists,… (see Telltale)
If you have a few million to spare, I would donate that to Ron, Gary, David,… and ask for more Terrible Toybox games! And preferably not Thimbleweed Park 2.
That has waaay more chance of succeeding.
Someday I will Ron, and I will give you back your IP’s for a dollar
Yeah of course I see the frustration.
Do you think you will ever own your IP’s again in our lifetime?
I am quite surprised he emailed back as well, I wasn’t half trying when I emailed him, I wonder has he received many emails regarding the Lucas Arts catalogue?
For a few reasons, because those franchises deserve at least 1 more sequel each, especially MI for obvious reasons.
I’d love more terrible toy box games, of all variety, but the P’N’C genre take time and resources for what seems is not a huge return, thus making Ron and the guys seem less likely to pursue them as a means for monetary gain which is sad. I’d love to donate millions to the that!
I would say GOG are largely the ones to thank for that. But the fact that the guy emailed me back, actually makes me feel positive, it means they are willing to open dialogues.
This is the question. The only reason would be to let Ron produce the last “real” Monkey Island part.
The LucasArts games were/are classics because of the (genius) people who made the games. And I doubt that you will get them together again.
You would have that problem with new LucasArts games too. Ok, you have the IPs. But I doubt that a Full Throttle 2 would attract the masses.
When do we see the next Terrible Toybox game, @RonGilbert?
Really? The stories of Grim, Full Throttle, The Dig, Zak McKracken are completed. I can only speak for myself, but I don’t want to see a sequel. (Same with BASS, btw.)
You only need to turn by π and then you got my post right.
Whilst I can understand the desire to get the rights for a game/games you’ve worked on and which had such an importance on your life, is it so much worse to come up with something new instead? I’m mean there are things which are quite unique and you don’t want to let them go but The Cave was a wonderful new game, A Vampyre’s Story was a great setting … I think there are still many great new ideas available.
Some themes are more interesting than others, but I would be happy about any new adventure as long as it’s good, and high-res, hah!
I get kinda bored/frustrated with people trying to milk old ideas. Personally, I don’t want to see another Maniac Mansion or Monkey Island – they were fantastic, but I’d rather see something new.
Me neither, especially since Maniac Mansion was so much a product of its time (Horror movies starring a group of kids like The Gate or Monster Squad). Even though that kinda is en vogue again with the Stranger Things thing. But I´m also kinda sick of Stranger Things (and didn´t miss it this year TBH).
The only reason would be freeing the Monkey Island universe.
The rest can stay there. We don’t need old remakes. Heck, we’re on the forum of a completely new game. OK, it has some citations and in-jokes but TWP can live on its own.
But who is gonna buy my pitch of a game that is set in the snowy norweigan woods and combines elements of paganism, norse mythology, satanism and tolkienesue fantasy set to a classic black metal soundtrack?
Put the shoe on the other foot. Would you be willing to license Thimbleweed Park, the assets, or the game engine for any money?
My thoughts really are that Disney sits on things because they are big enough that they can. The only third party developer that actually treats Disney licenses like they’re more than a cash cow is Square-Enix (with Kingdom Hearts), where as EA’s Star Wars games have run the full gamut from “good game, make more” to “thinly veiled wallet pinching gambling”, and it’s unlikely anyone but another large IP holder would ever be able to license something from Disney, any more than they could license a Nintendo IP.
In in some respect I’d rather get no “bad” licensed games than 60 licensed games per year of only which one or two are good. But you’ll never find that one or two good games if there aren’t some flops.
