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A lot of great indie games wouldn't even have been finished when their copyright expired if it lasted only 5 years (Factorio, Minecraft, Terraria). And Cave St
by nearbuy 4y ago
A lot of great indie games wouldn't even have been finished when their copyright expired if it lasted only 5 years (Factorio, Minecraft, Terraria).
And Cave Story wouldn't have made any money. It was released for free in 2004 but few people knew about it at the time. It wasn't until 2010/2011 when it released on Nintendo and Steam (paid version) that it took off.
- elsjaako 4y agoMinecraft kept being updated during early development, so unless you wanted to play a five year old version it would still have been under copyright. I agree it probably wouldn't have sold for a billion dollars, but they were making a lot of money before the sale. Cave Story I'm less familiar with, but again the Nintento and Steam versions would probably be different and have new copyright. But I think you're saying the game sold well despite a free version being available. Isn't this an example that you don't need any copyright to make money off a game?
- nearbuy 4y agoYeah, the first 3 games were (and still are) being updated. Still seems problematic to lose your original copyright before your even finished making your game. People looking to make a quick buck could put old copies of your game on Steam, same name and everything. The Cave Story Steam version had some minor graphics changes but no major differences. Mainly, a lot of people hadn't heard of it before then, and people weren't necessarily aware there was a free version. Copyright was important here; without it, someone else would have put it on Steam years earlier.