A few weeks ago, a controversy surrounding Star Control Origins surfaced. This certainly isn’t the first time an event of this caliber happens, of course. However, the game was pulled from Steam and GOG.com due to a copyright claim. The claim came from none other than the designers of 1990 MS-DOS game of the same name. However, it seems like the game is coming back to digital stores and that Stardock is winning the lawsuit.
Star Control Origins resurfaces on Steam.
For those unaware, Stardock makes clear that they own the Star Control IP. They have declared that they had a deal with Atari back in 2013. However, Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III announced a “direct sequel” to the original game called Ghosts of the Precursors. This led to a trademark infringement with Stardock which was countered by Reiche and Ford.
The dispute took place over the course of the last 2 weeks. With Star Control Origins being taken down from GOG and Steam for the time being. However, a few days ago, the game resurfaced with a tweet from one of the developers.
Star Control: Origins returns to Steam! https://t.co/fcFadWcBlu
— Brad Wardell (@draginol) January 17, 2019
Coupled with the Twitter announcement, a Steam Community post was made by Stardock as well. The post is short but it states that “Stardock and Valve are happy to report that Star Control Origins is back on Steam!”. Not only that but it seems like the game has suffered a few review bombs.
Mark Campbell from Overclock3D decided to ask about the lawsuit regarding Star Control Origins. Especially because the sudden reappearance of the game on Steam was rather suspicious. Brad Wardell, a Stardock developer had this to say about it:
Nothing I can discuss publicly unfortunately. Other than to say that the dispute is Stardock/GOG/Valve on one side and Reiche and Ford on the other.
— Brad Wardell (@draginol) January 17, 2019
As of now, no further details have surfaced regarding the Reiche and Ford lawsuit. However, from the looks of things it seems like the scale is tipped in Stardock’s favor. It’s only a matter of time before the truth comes to light about this situation.
What do you think about Star Control: Origins returning to Steam? Do you believe that the developers at Stardock are right? Are you going to purchase the game now that it’s back? Let us know your thoughts on the VGR Forums.