14 DAY TRIAL // The Star Control fans can rest easy as the creator of the original series and Stardock have reached an agreement, and it looks like bees played a major part.
If you’re a 4X fan, you already know everything there is to know about the Star Control and Star Control 2 games initially created by Paul Reiche and Fred Ford. But you might also be aware that Stardock recently released a game called Star Control: Origins, without the help of those two.
It turns out that there was a legal dispute regarding the trademark and the copyrights to the Star Control franchise. As you can imagine, Paul Reiche claimed he had the copyright and things quickly escalated to legal problems. Somehow, not only that the problem was solved, but now the creators of the original game are going to work on Stardock’s new project as well.
It’s all about the bees
The makers of old and new Star Control games couldn’t agree on what the copyright and trademarks actually covered. But Paul Reiche, Star Control’s creator figured that he could speak directly with Brad Wardell, Stardock CEO.
The two didn’t manage to reach a legal agreement regarding Star Control, but they did have something in common, and that was the love of bees. One loves honey and the other one mead. It was a perfect match.
"We added a section in which I'll be working with Paul on beekeeping. He's going to send me some mead, I'm going to send him some honey. I don't think the lawyers were particularly enthusiastic about us incorporating some of this into the agreement. I did a tutorial video on beekeeping I was going to send over but got stung in the video, so thought better than to actually send it," said Wardell, Stardock’s CEO.
Most importantly, the new agreement allows the classic Star Control games to return to sale on Steam and GOG. And, to top it all off, the Paul Reiche and Stardock are starting the work on a new project this fall.