Rifts CCG question

[Forar]

I wonder if I ever got around to throwing out the big pile of those I had?

I definitely went through to find the 'rares' just for the hell of it, but man, that game died an ignoble death.

Though to be fair, I've never really been a fan of 'mill the deck when doing damage' games. Games like Magic having it as an alternate win condition don't bother me, but that mechanic being the default always kinda irked me. Just a personal preference thing.

It was nice to find a few local shops that did carry the boosters, and even sold them cheaply. Less so when it flat out disappeared and basically nobody in my group wanted to play it.

[Rallan]

The rights to the expansion (and the rest of the Rifts CCG) are most likely owned by whoever owns the rights to all of Precedence's other stuff these days, so Palladium probably couldn't release it even if they wanted to.

[CaptKaruthors]

The rights to make the game are licensed out by Palladium. It's their IP. They can do with it as they please once a license expires. It is why you see some of the artwork commissioned for the cards used in the RIfts:UE book. My guess is that it probably doesn't serve them any purpose to release it. It's a dead game. I'd rather they reboot a CCG or even make it a LCG like FFG does. :shrug: My friend and I designed a CCG for Rifts, but there is zero interest in developing a game like that it seems..so it sits on our hard drives.

[Rallan]

Doesn't work like that. Palladium can license someone else to make a brand new Rifts CCG (or even just make their own one in-house), but they don't own the rights to the game Precedence made. Sort of of like how Mirage Studios can't go and publish Palladium's old TMNT RPG even though Mirage owns the Ninja Turtles brand.

[Steve Dubya]

See also: the reason the N-Gage game hasn't been ported to a different platform by Palladium.

[Forar]

As a layperson, it's my understanding that it comes down to the contract in question.

Some of them seem to lack (intentionally or as an oversight) language that makes it easy to reacquire rights.

Others, such as the ones Marvel wrote up with Fox, Sony and whatnot seem to include "make new products with this IP every X years or it reverts to the original owner", which is how Marvel got Daredevil back recently, and why there's at least one "never released to theaters or home video" Fantastic Four movie tucked in a vault somewhere.

So it's kinda both. If the language is there, Palladium could get the rights back (or hell, might already have them, I have no idea), if not, yeah, that becomes more complicated.

Though given their works with HG for the Robotech license, surely they're no stranger to how crazy it is to give up rights to things indefinitely.

[CaptKaruthors]

Doesn't work like that. Palladium can license someone else to make a brand new Rifts CCG (or even just make their own one in-house), but they don't own the rights to the game Precedence made. Sort of of like how Mirage Studios can't go and publish Palladium's old TMNT RPG even though Mirage owns the Ninja Turtles brand.

Palladium doesn't own the rights to the format/ gameplay of the game. But for all intents and purposes...it's Palladium's game...their licensed brand. Precedence licensed Palladium's IP to make a card game..but all things relating to Palladium's IP contained within that game belongs to Palladium. This is why you see the artwork from the card game appear in Rifts: UE. Precedence paid a royalty fee like most companies that design licensed product do. In those contracts, it's specifically called out what they can, or cannot do with the licensed IP. The same goes for what they can, or cannot make. However, all art generated by the licensee becomes the property of the licensor. Disney is a classic example of this. Now that Precedence is no longer around, those assets revert back to the licensor most likely, unless some other arrangement in the contract was made. We know for sure that the art assets revert back to Palladium as we see evidence of it in their books. Palladium is now free to make their own card game, or license their IP to someone willing to do it on their behalf. They could even use the old rules mechanics if they so chose. However, I don't think they will do any of that.