An Audacious Proposal

[KebreI]

@maggiekarp: Guess I should have shown you the code sitting on my #4 desktop before I started in on this, eh?

Seriously, this is not about a game, or game development--or at least, it isn't just about those things. It's also about proving to large companies in general that, in their language, consumers are stakeholders--that we want, and deserve, a share in the worlds they create, which have become a significant part of our culture.

So what do you plan on doing with it when you have the rights? I understand that the act of buying the IP is about showing the world that the consumers can take action, but thats not what she meant. A game development studio must be established. The team must be skilled and experienced, and there are only a couple people like that here. The $32 mil was just the profit margin to over come, that IP will be more then that as to appeal to SE, plus you will need even more to use the IP when you have it (employees, location, tools, etc).

This is a HUGE bill that some one gonna look at, just for comparison Childsplay the largest video game based charity in the world has only raised 3.5 million since 2003. This will need some company or foundation to donate something hefty.

[IAmSerge]

@maggiekarp: Guess I should have shown you the code sitting on my #4 desktop before I started in on this, eh?

Seriously, this is not about a game, or game development--or at least, it isn't just about those things. It's also about proving to large companies in general that, in their language, consumers are stakeholders--that we want, and deserve, a share in the worlds they create, which have become a significant part of our culture.

So what do you plan on doing with it when you have the rights? I understand that the act of buying the IP is about showing the world that the consumers can take action, but thats not what she meant. A game development studio must be established. The team must be skilled and experienced, and there are only a couple people like that here. The $32 mil was just the profit margin to over come, that IP will be more then that as to appeal to SE, plus you will need even more to use the IP when you have it (employees, location, tools, etc).

This is a HUGE bill that some one gonna look at, just for comparison Childsplay the largest video game based charity in the world has only raised 3.5 million since 2003. This will need some company or foundation to donate something hefty.

Some of the hardest parts to the programming in 3d is actually the calculus related to it >.>.

That, and making everything run fast enough (60fps or moar!)

[Chrono'99]

$32 million is within the bounds of what I was anticipating, actually (toward the high end, but not unexpected). We're talking about buying something from one of the biggest names in the game industry, and it could not possibly come cheap...but if we could convince even half the people who've bought a copy of Chrono Trigger over the years to throw in $20, we'd have enough and then some.

No offense, but I find this completely sickening. If someone or a community had $32 million to spend, I'd rather they spend it for a charitable organization or to help out those kids in poor countries that are starving so much they're forced to eat mud cakes with salty butter (true story). $32 million for a video game? Seriously? Obviously no one can save the world and stop poverty in the blink of an eye, but I know if I could raise 32 million bucks I wouldn't spend it on a potential video game.

Was Double Helix a startup, or has it been around awhile? That's the company Square Enix sold off/farmed out Front Mission to. If Double Helix is pretty fresh, maybe Square Enix really is willing to sell to anyone with the money.

I think SE just outsourced one installment to them like they outsourced FF3 and 4 DS to Matrix Software. I doubt they actually sold off the Front Mission series considering its creator Toshiro Tsuchida is still in the company.

[IAmSerge]

Some of the hardest parts to the programming in 3d is actually the calculus related to it >.>.

That, and making everything run fast enough (60fps or moar!)

Ok, thats not 100% true, but I'm sure theres some truth to it, ok?

[ONSLAUGHT]

Way I see it, I've rallied up people for crazier things before. Get the support, like somone else here said, get the higher ups of the Compendium's support, and you'll have my support I guess. Til then, I don't think this is worth it THAT much. it'd be better off convincing them to sell off to someone else.

[alfadorredux]

@Chrono'99: In one sense, that's unanswerable: there's always something better that can be done with money. Including the money in your pocket. Somehow, I don't think you give every cent in your possession that you don't need for immediate survival to charity--I know I certainly don't. You spend some of it on frivolity, just like the rest of us.

So the real issue here is that you think that $32 million is too much money to do something relatively frivolous with like buy out a video game's IP. Which is fine, but you have to remember that that number, if not chosen entirely at random, is still not likely to be Square Enix's exact asking price. So, consider, how low would that price have to go before you would consider it worth it? One million? Ten thousand? One hundred? A bent nickel? At some number, it does become worthwhile, right? So without knowing the number, how are we supposed to make a decision?


@KebreI: Cart before the horse there a bit, I think, but I'll try to answer anyway.

Given the IP, if we want a true sequel game, we go looking for real business-type (not fundraised/donated) funding. And we look for cost-cutting measures. A lot of the expense in developing a modern game comes from the visuals. Minimize the FMVs/fancy motion capture/other lagniappe, and we save some money. Make careful choices about publicity methods--also very expensive--and we could save a lot more. Heck, we could even hire the Dream Team to work on it if we wanted to and could afford it.

$2-$3 million--and it's hard to get business funding in amounts that small--buys you a year's development time with actual qualified and salaried employees, if you spend it appropriately. Sell the finished game at $10 a copy. The novelty and relatively low price should move enough units for it to break even.


Anyway, I'm signing off for the night. If things haven't changed here significantly in the morning, I'll file this under "ideas whose time has not yet come" and stop replying to the thread, because the last thing I want to do is promote more nastiness and division here.

[neo-fusion]

So, start the donation board... a lot of sites do it so lets take a shot!

(If the CC got the rights.... then i could make money off chrono

[mav]

Compendium has a big no-no policy, in regards to donations. If we wanna raise funds, it shouldn't have anything to do with the Compendium.

[Dialga_Palkia]

why not we allow Xseed to make one? Or...Monolith Studios to work on it? Yes I know I got it wrong.

[Delta Dragon]

Wouldn't it work to just do it on another site or make a site specifically for that purpose? 

[Katie Skyye]

Argh, if only I were a year or so older! I'm just starting my Senior portfolio in order to go to video-game college, and I'll be learning the ins and outs of video game creation, so its not so much of a stretch to say that at that point I'd be able to rally support from my community and even help out if Kajar Labs were to become its own company.

But there really is a dearth of Chrono fans at my school as it is. The one kid who's played Cross couldn't care less about Trigger or whether there's a sequel.

So I'm pretty much helpless...

[alfadorredux]

Seeing as the reaction has been rather lukewarm so far and my RL has taken a turn in an awkward direction over the past twenty-four hours, I'm shelving this idea...for now.

(Sorry if that seems like a cop-out to some people--that really isn't my intention, but without a translator who's willing to help out on this there isn't much I can do anyway. If one turns up, I may reassess.)

[neo-fusion]

Well I would do the whole make another website thing. Alfadorredux, you don't have to put this on the shelf. Just let people who are interested take over.

[Dinos]

Instead of trying to spend millions of dollars to buy a license, why not just GIVE square the game(s), tell them that you claim no credit or copyright to them at all, and then allow them to sell the games.  Then the game sees light to the fans, via an official box and CD or a Wiiware download or something, square makes money, and then possibly gains interest in a sequel. 

[Belaith]

It's not that simple, Dinos. For one, all copies of the Crimson Echoes beta should be wiped from all beta testers' computers. Secondly, that idea has been brought up several times and it's gone nowhere. Lastly, Square-Enix wouldn't take interest in this whatsoever.