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This should work for video game developers right? Can they reclaim ownership of the games they created in the 80s/90s that have been abandoned?
by october8140 11mo ago
This should work for video game developers right? Can they reclaim ownership of the games they created in the 80s/90s that have been abandoned?
- monkeywork 11mo agoIf the developer was a work for hire and never owned the copyright then no. If the developer licensed the game to a publisher then maybe.
- crooked-v 11mo agoVideo game copyrights were rarely ever held by a single person, even in the early days of the industry.
- 0110101001 11mo agoNot exactly the same, but in Japan (where obviously many of the great games of the 80s and 90s were authored) there's a mechanism to acquire a license from the government to publish abandonware. The government collects a royalty from the new distributor that it holds in case a valid copyright holder comes forward. Little Samson, a late-era NES game that because of its rarity can sell for thousands, was developed by a now-defunct company and is getting a re-release next year using this process. https://www.timeextension.com/news/2025/10/daunting-limited-run-explains-how-it-resurrected-one-of-the-most-expensive-nes-games-of-all-time https://www.timeextension.com/news/2025/10/daunting-limited-...