As May 8th Approaches...

[Dinos]

It's because they think if you have good chrono games to play then you won't want to play final fantasy games.  That's why they let FF hacks fly free and clear but everything big for chrono gets shut down.  They should really just rename their company Final Enix or Square Fantasy. 

[HeadlessFritz]

I always thought the C&D letter was sent independently of Square-Enix of Japan. I don't have a single clue on why the headquarter would care about a fan game being freely distributed except maybe, just MAYBE (because it would rather result into a form of marketing) if they were making a sequel. And we all know they aren't.

Been there, done that, get that next FF done and let the past behind.

There's probably a person at Square USA that was hired especially to piss us because they are looking for a purpose.
 

[V_Translanka]

They don't care about you and your fan base, and you will be sued at the first possible chance.

Who have they sued so far...?

"Take legal action against," would've been a much better phrase to use, but it doesn't detract from what he said.

I still don't see it. CT:R, CTRP & CE are three projects. There are more than three fan made Chrono projects out there that have seen completion or are still in production that have had no legal recourse set against them. The real problem is setting up secrecy. Publicity is all well & good, but what puts you under the limelight also puts you under the spotlight (I tend to think more of d-bag pseudo-fans and/or outright h8rs who get their jollies out of making other people miserable by tattling)...In the end it comes down to IF there were a legal battle down the line and they had been informed of it prior and had done nothing then they would have a lesser legal standing and no company is going to want to risk that (it just isn't in their favor).

[Truthordeal]

You seem to have forgotten that Prophet's Guile and Temporal Flux were also mentioned in the C&D, as well as any attempt at hacking into the CT ROM.

[V_Translanka]

Prophet's Guile was already complete though, wasn't it? And Temporal Flux I didn't think of because I was thinking of actual game projects rather than development tools or what-have-you...and likewise earlier builds of TF were already released as I recall...

[Nangbaby]

As someone who was completely unaware of the project until after the posting of the order, in the year that has passed, I've actually gotten even more peeved about SE's action in retrospect.

Legally, though, SE is on pretty solid ground.  That and as much as I disagree with the decision, I can't go as far as to wish the company to fail or to swear them off forever.  As horrible as their decision was, they do have the right to protect their copyrighted material.  Besides, boycotts don't work any more for a variety of reasons.  For instance, I've boycotted purchasing Viacom-subsidiary owned products because of the YouTube lawsuit, but it's not going to stop, say, Iron Man 2 from making money hand over fist.

I am extremely disappointed, though, at the selectivity of their actions.  Admittedly I am not aware of the inner workings of SE's legal department, but I refuse to believe that CE got the legal treatment just because it was reported to them -- trust me as I'm sure their legal department gets inquiries and messages every day and there are far more public and well-known fan works SE could have gone after but let slide in willful blindness.  I guess the pink elephant in the corner can just get fatter while the Chrono fans get screwed.

I just wish SE were smart enough to tap into this user-created-content model and actually let players create games with a Chrono Trigger style engine for a nominal license or something.  Come on, throw the fans a bone.

[RySenkari]

I just don't know what was so special about the beta that if it leaked, Square would automatically nail your asses, while they did nothing about the alpha that got leaked. Think Square still has lawyers checking the torrents every day?

[Phillies64]

It's because they think if you have good chrono games to play then you won't want to play final fantasy games.  That's why they let FF hacks fly free and clear but everything big for chrono gets shut down.  They should really just rename their company Final Enix or Square Fantasy.  

What's sad is people probably believe this. There is no conspiracy people.

[Truthordeal]

Prophet's Guile was already complete though, wasn't it? And Temporal Flux I didn't think of because I was thinking of actual game projects rather than development tools or what-have-you...and likewise earlier builds of TF were already released as I recall...

V, I think we're arguing about two different things here.

IAmSerge said something to the effect of: "Square-Enix doesn't care about their fanbase, and will sue if they get a chance." This is the statement I'm defending, although I amended "sue" to "take legal action against," so that C&D's and even warning letters would be included(yes, lawsuits too). No more, no less.

You mentioned three projects that got the boot: CT:R, CTRP & CE, and I added Prophet's Guile and Temporal Flux, which were both post facto C&D'd. Five projects that Squeenix has taken legal action against over the past decade. That seems to me like an overall negative response to fan projects on Square-Enix's part.

[_Janus_]

Square may be a buncha bastards, but sure, they have the law on their side, and, apart from a handful of crappy games, everything they've done in the past decade has been very very good.

Maybe we'll see a new chrono game, someday.Maybe not. I personally, would be glad with just a port of CC