Why there is no lunar 3?
Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 12:43 pm
Nice to see you everybody.
It's my first topic and Let me introduce myself shortly.
I'm from China but now working in Tokyo. I am concerned about Lunarnet for a long time but never joined until now.
Some days ago I found something that I didn't know. And it seems there is no reference about it on Lunarnet. Of course if everybody knows about it, this thread will be meaningless. But I don't think so.
Why I put the topic here is that I think it may be an important reason for there is no lunar 3 until now.
Plz understand English is not my native language. (obviously neither Japanese) So if you can't understand what I say, plz tell me.
I'll begin.
I saw there is something about Studio Alex from the introduction of Lunar on Lunarnet.
It says
It(Lunar) was developed by a group that GameArts put together by the name of Studio Alex.
But u can find from wiki that Studio Alex was founded by respected programmer Kazunari Tomi, a former employee of Nihon Falcom.
It says Studio Alex was a company, mainly a consultant company, developed the initial three titles of the Lunar series with Game Arts as a co-developer and publisher.
Thus we can know Studio Alex and Game Arts are two different companies. And some core members of Lunar, like Shigema and Kubooka were once in Studio Alex.
I am not just talking about Studio Alex. What I really want to say is the court case between Studio Alex and Game Arts in 2003, and it was about LUNAR.
U can find the reference from the link. but it is written in Japanese, very formal, not easy to read even for a native speaker.
http://www.translan.com/jucc/precedent-2003-03-13.html
shortly speaking, Alex Studio and Game Arts shared the license of Lunar.
Lunar Silver Star Story Saturn version, Playstation version, US version, windows version are all based on the original Lunar. They are all derivative works. When producing the Saturn Version, Game Arts made a contract about how much to pay to Studio Alex. But no contract was made when producing other derivative works. So Studio Alex started a lawsuit against Game Arts, contending an infringement of copyright.
In the meantime, Game Arts counterattacked against Studio Alex, contending that Studio Alex didn't finish producing Magic School Lunar Saturn version before the deadline. Therefore Game Arts had to ask other companies for help and spent more money, about 75 million yen. So on the court Game Arts asked Studio Alex to make compensation. The plaintiff was also a defendant and vice versa.
Finally Studio Alex lost and brankrupted soon. Of course there are many details about the court case. We can make more reference if necessary.
Some core members of Lunar were once in Studio Alex. It is very likely there was a plan of Lunar 3. But coz of the court case and the brankrupt of Studio Alex, the group working for Lunar collapsed. I think it is the important reason for there is no Lunar 3 until now.
It seems now only Game Arts has the original lisence since Studio Alex was gone in 2003. But if the game is done by other ppl who are not familiar with Lunar, like you see in DS (except for Kubooka's art work), Lunar won't be Lunar.
From the court case I know another thing. If u have played Magic School, u found the encount rates were deadly high. If there is no this problem, the game will be excellent in storyline. I supposed Studio Alex didn't finish it on time and Game Arts asked other company for help in a hurry, so they caused such chaos.
It's my first topic and Let me introduce myself shortly.
I'm from China but now working in Tokyo. I am concerned about Lunarnet for a long time but never joined until now.
Some days ago I found something that I didn't know. And it seems there is no reference about it on Lunarnet. Of course if everybody knows about it, this thread will be meaningless. But I don't think so.
Why I put the topic here is that I think it may be an important reason for there is no lunar 3 until now.
Plz understand English is not my native language. (obviously neither Japanese) So if you can't understand what I say, plz tell me.
I'll begin.
I saw there is something about Studio Alex from the introduction of Lunar on Lunarnet.
It says
It(Lunar) was developed by a group that GameArts put together by the name of Studio Alex.
But u can find from wiki that Studio Alex was founded by respected programmer Kazunari Tomi, a former employee of Nihon Falcom.
It says Studio Alex was a company, mainly a consultant company, developed the initial three titles of the Lunar series with Game Arts as a co-developer and publisher.
Thus we can know Studio Alex and Game Arts are two different companies. And some core members of Lunar, like Shigema and Kubooka were once in Studio Alex.
I am not just talking about Studio Alex. What I really want to say is the court case between Studio Alex and Game Arts in 2003, and it was about LUNAR.
U can find the reference from the link. but it is written in Japanese, very formal, not easy to read even for a native speaker.
http://www.translan.com/jucc/precedent-2003-03-13.html
shortly speaking, Alex Studio and Game Arts shared the license of Lunar.
Lunar Silver Star Story Saturn version, Playstation version, US version, windows version are all based on the original Lunar. They are all derivative works. When producing the Saturn Version, Game Arts made a contract about how much to pay to Studio Alex. But no contract was made when producing other derivative works. So Studio Alex started a lawsuit against Game Arts, contending an infringement of copyright.
In the meantime, Game Arts counterattacked against Studio Alex, contending that Studio Alex didn't finish producing Magic School Lunar Saturn version before the deadline. Therefore Game Arts had to ask other companies for help and spent more money, about 75 million yen. So on the court Game Arts asked Studio Alex to make compensation. The plaintiff was also a defendant and vice versa.
Finally Studio Alex lost and brankrupted soon. Of course there are many details about the court case. We can make more reference if necessary.
Some core members of Lunar were once in Studio Alex. It is very likely there was a plan of Lunar 3. But coz of the court case and the brankrupt of Studio Alex, the group working for Lunar collapsed. I think it is the important reason for there is no Lunar 3 until now.
It seems now only Game Arts has the original lisence since Studio Alex was gone in 2003. But if the game is done by other ppl who are not familiar with Lunar, like you see in DS (except for Kubooka's art work), Lunar won't be Lunar.
From the court case I know another thing. If u have played Magic School, u found the encount rates were deadly high. If there is no this problem, the game will be excellent in storyline. I supposed Studio Alex didn't finish it on time and Game Arts asked other company for help in a hurry, so they caused such chaos.