iDeevil wrote...
Kit-103 wrote...
Well...color me surprised.
The original Mass Effect on the PS3 huh? Like a lot of other pemiople around the webs, I'm curious what sort of arcane black magic was used to get that game to PS3 owners. Thought MS had a tight grip on that one...
Enjoy the full experience PS3 users.
microsoft was just a distributor and distributors do not have the distribution rights to a product, ever. No black magic, just the 5 years being up that Microsoft had the rights.
Actually they do, for an agreed upon timeframe. The U.S. Copyright Laws are clear on this.
But to further clarify, Microsoft never "owned" the publishing rights; they were granted distribution rights BY the publisher (Bioware Corp). The publishing rights are now owned by E.A. which means they can now control who gets to distribute the product. But, in accordance with U.S. law, since Bioware was purchased by EA, EA still has to honor any previous agreement between Bioware and other entities (Microsoft). The only way around that was if Bioware was defunct, filed for disolution (in multiple states and Canada), and then upon ceasing, so their IP to EA, and then started up again as a new entity.
The "average" distribution rights agreement for video games seems to be around 3-5 years. Most companies will not exceed that length because it means that they must continue to produce (i.e. package and sell) a game, in the original form, for years after it's market value has come to a crawl.
Agreement with MS to finally let ME1 be published? Nope. More likely an expiration of a distribution agreement.
On a side note, this is great news for PS3 owners, but still kind of "meh." For me. Having played all 3 games, I would much rather have "ports" of ME1 & ME2 to the newest version of the engine with some heavily updated gameplay (i.e. combat) tweaks....but that's one hefty "port," if you will.