Tesseraction Sues Dreamcatcher!

[Justin Prince]

Found this on the Wargamer.com.

Industry News : Tesseraction Sues DreamCatcher
Posted by Chris Abele @ 15:22 EST


Fightin' over the distribution of Enigma Tide, again.


Blue's News is reporting this morning on new legal action brought by the developers of Enigma Tide (review) against the North American publishers of the naval sim, DreamCatcher Interactive. According to a posting on the official game web site, Tesseraction Games is unhappy in how it was treated by DreamCatcher Interactive in the 2003 publication of its naval sim, citing "unpaid royalties, fraudulent sales reporting and intentional contract violations damaging Tesseractions intellectual property." DreamCatcher has issued no response and a quick check of e-store shelves shows the game is all but gone from most catalog lists. However, it can still be found and bought from DreamCatcher's online store.

Back in 2003, Tesseraction also filed suit against its European publishing partner, GMX Media, for much the same reasons. No resolution has been announced.

At last word, Tesseraction was working on a persistent world, online version of Enigma.



Back to news list...

[em2nought]

ERT occupied retail shelf space for a long time and in a large variety of stores. I was really surprised to see it around for so long, don't know how they did it. Microsoft is about the only other company that can keep a title on the shelf that long. MMG's excellent Civil War Bull Run came and went in an instant compared to ERT. Now those guys should be upset.

If I created a game, having StarForce put on it would be what would bother me. If ERT hadn't had StarForce, I might have kept it. I liked the game, but not the SF.

[GlobalExplorer]

-- DELETED --

something completely unfounded about ERT and multiplayer

[EAST]

Our having a beef with any publisher has to do with how they are performing to the contract, nothing more.

Talk to the publishers about anti-piracy measures. We're a developer. It's unfortunate Starforce is such an issue, none of these things were known about it when it was chosen for Enigma - don't retroactively apply evil intent - there was none. It was chosen, as are all copy protection schemes, to try and protect the investment in the game and give it a fighting chance to stay on shelf long enough to compete with EA and Microsoft, etc. PLEASE NOTE: As soon as controversy began regarding starforce, we were the FIRST group to publicly post the starforce removal tool.

We worked very hard behind the scenes to help keep Enigma selling, we've provided tech support to thousands of players - 99.995% dealing with starforce problems or out of date systems (a publishers job btw - poorly handled by thim in our opinion). That said, it is likely that Starforce had a part in helping Enigma stay on shelf as long as it did because of the piracy prevention or delay. It has stayed on shelf mostly because it's an accessible game to the new naval enthusiast and has an extensive amount of gameplay and moddability. You'll notice there has been almost NO promotion done for the title beyond our press releases, interviews, demos and community interaction.

I invite anyone to show us some publisher advertising for it. The 2 early PC Mag and Computer Gamer ads were paid for by us.

I want to note: Halcyon and Auran are the exceptions when it comes to publishers - we have zero complaints about either and highly recommend them both (Germany and Australia respectively).

Multiplayer....our still unborn child. Truly a regret that we have seen so many obstacles that the likelyhood of reaching that goal is remote. To the whiners, detractors and entitlement crowd...well, you can figure out what I think about your posts.

Kelly 'East' Asay
Tesseraction Games, Inc.

[Jesper]

I read the article a few days ago, cant really say i am suprised, people that has been watching enigma.tidesofwar.net in the past kind of knew this would happen.

Kelly (East) and his gang has my full support.

Tesseraction Games never ever sold you single player ERT as a "massive alternate history persistent online game", it is a single player game and you can not find 1 CD cover/text book/other on any other written piece of anything that your Single Player CD is Massive MultiPlayer.

[GlobalExplorer]

Tesseraction Games never ever sold you single player ERT as a "massive alternate history persistent online game", it is a single player game and you can not find 1 CD cover/text book/other on any other written piece of anything that your Single Player CD is Massive MultiPlayer.

Forgetaboutit. I cannot prove that statement, so I have deleted it. But when I bought ERT I thought I was buying a completely different game. Must be because I am stupid.

Multiplayer....our still unborn child. Truly a regret that we have seen so many obstacles that the likelyhood of reaching that goal is remote. To the whiners, detractors and entitlement crowd...well, you can figure out what I think about your posts.

These whiners, detractors and entitlement crowd were once your customers.

[EAST]

Wrong GE. Those people were never our customers. Complaining needs to be seeking a resolution to have any value. Whining, same criteria.

Every critic who was looking for something more than to run us down or try to degrade our product we've responded to. Most of them are honest enough to look at Enigma on it's own merits, not measured against some dream standard that a player may hold. They still may not like playing it and that's fine.

What do you gain by running down Enigma? You may hurt us if anyone actually pays attention to you, but how does that help us deliver multiplayer?

You really think we would rather release a SP product, deal with unbelievably dishonest publishers and people like yourself than release MP? We'd have some control of our IP, we'd have some idea of our revenue stream month to month instead of hoping we can keep the candle lit, not knowing if it's another candle we'll get or a blast of air. We'd be growing a worthwhile franchise, a gameplay that you obviously would pay money to see in a MP format....

Entitlement Crowd...I don't want them as customers. You think we owe you something beyond what you purchased, even after the free upgrades we've created and released? Pfft.

[Pioneer]

I was a customer of Tesseraction long before I ever had the chance to play the game. Bought the old GMX version, shipped it out from the UK to Australia, even though it would be two years before I did an upgrade to my pc to be able to play it. Why - belief in the people. Their word was all I needed. I now own three different versions of the game (UK, US, and AU) and none refer to multiplayer.

Customer service at TAG has always been paramount. TAG decided to speak "out of the office" and were very open about Chapter 1 being the platform for MP. Their word was all I needed.

The news of the distribution issue is nothing new.

As best I know there are only three members on this board that have any professional relationship with TAG. As an employee of Tesseraction Games, East has never misrepresented any business dealings, either with me or my counterpart. Their creditability is well beyond the community at large.

To the whingers.....blow it out your @$$.

Pioneer
Tesseraction Games, Inc.

[Theta Sigma]

UGH!

Some may have seen this coming, and looking back in retrosepct, I'm not surprised, but I still found it to be shocking news. :(

Unlike some, I'm totally behind East & Co. I've gotten a better impression, over the last year or two, of how difficult it is for them to not only make money, but bring their new games to market.

Rather than attack them about Starforce, which I've also come to hate, I don't strike out blindly at the makers of my fave game, I offer constructive criticism.

When those new games are released, the naysayers will be eating quite a bit of crow.

[The Avon Lady]

I bought ERT after the DreamCatcher packaged US version became available. Really nice game. Kept me busy quite a while.

And East's participation on the ToW forums was outstanding. TAG is a customer friendly developer, for sure. :yep:

Looking forward to new developments I've been reading about. Keep up the good work! :up:

[Cpt-Maxim]

I found ERT back in the day when they were offering beta CD's for $20 several years ago- and if you bought the beta cd you were delivered a full version of the game when it was released (at $40 retail.. but you got it free being a beta user) and ERT always kept their word and not only delivered.. but delivered autographed copies to boot.. even during the time other publishers were not keeping their end of the bargain, ERT shipped these out of their own pocket - I imagine ERT took a loss when you consider handling it out of their office and shipping costs all in the name of keeping their word..

Not many developers are interested in keeping their long ago vapor ware promises.. I can name multiple companies that ERT shines above and beyond in every way.. nothing negative to say about EAST or how his company is run. Take the time to ask for help and he answers you personally? That is unheard of from big name brash companies that are too good for you, but not too good for your dollar.. they give you a website FAQ to solve your own problems.. I remember the first time EAST helped me with a technical issue.. I thought to myself "hmm.. maybe I got lucky to get an answer so fast, eventually when they are well-known, he wont have time for his customers like all the rest of the big software think tanks - I will get some dumb intern on the phone.." - but here we are years later, and EAST still handles even the worst whiners with style and helpful attitude.. you have to ask yourself, who do you know in your personal life that can do "that"?

All this time and have I been watching the forums, supporting them to the max wherever I can, been to the enigma conference, and met the company employees and had a great time knowing these people.

These are people you want to talk with, not yell at.. they will always be your friends if you let them..