Chrono Crossed: Square Enix orders cease and desist on fanmade game.
Sourcelink: Kombo
A fan made sequel to Chrono Trigger. called Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes, was ordered a cease and desist by Square Enix yesterday.
The game was being made by reworking sprites from the original ROM of Chrono Trigger for the Super NES.
Square Enix also ordered a cease and desist on Chrono Compendium, which holds a forum for modification of said game.
The creators of the game are livid, saying that they planned to make no profit off of this game and the game was said to be 98% complete at the time Square Enix laid down the order.
Brad’s Take: I am of two sides of a coin on this.
On the one hand, man does it suck to be the guys who spent three years on this game and almost get it completed, only to get Square Enix to order a cease and desist and threatening legal action against the group who made the game.
There is a good chance that Square Enix didn’t know about this game until now, but there have been previous reports that Square Enix isn’t the most tactful and…well, friendly…company out there when it comes to their properties.
Still to lose all of this work after so long, my heart goes out them.
On the other hand, what did these guys really expect? You are backward programming a game that is heavily copyrighted by numerous companies, designers and business people. Did you guys really expect to get this game completed without a hint of legal trouble?
Square Enix is within their rights to cease production and distribution of this game and something tells me that these creators were more than well aware of it. To come out and say that you are livid that Square Enix for puttnig the ban-hammer on your production is quite foolish since you are doing something that is considered in business practices to be unethical and, at the most, illegal.
You’re lucky that Square Enix didn’t just go and sue you first, instead of a cease and desist.
“But Brad, they haven’t had a sequel to Chrono Trigger since Chrono Cross and the fans deserve more…”
Oh please. The gaming industry is a BUSINESS. I would love to have another Chrono game as much as the next man, but not a lot of people bought Chrono Cross and even fewer bought the DS version of Chrono Trigger. If you really wanted it, you would have bought those games.
Next, you’re gonna tell me that it’s okay to copy games because you can’t afford them, right?
