Most Recent News on Certain Legal Issues

[theliel]

Correct.

There was a settlement, the court was ok with it, and the case is over.

What that means? Who knows. Pgi feels like they got a good deal, but are heavily limited as to what they could say.

We know that the settlement covers catalyst, who defaulted, because it's stipulated in the filing, but aside from that, nothing more is certain.

We will know the fallout once mechs are announced, not before then.

 

[PauloBrito]

Official comments before the weekend would be excellent. Im not gonna celebrate until we know what status those mechs are in.

Get a comfortable chair, a pair of soft shoes and a good brandy (if you are on it), or a good book.
After almost (or a bit more than) 30 years, a bit more can be survived.

 

[Fox the Apprentice]

I agree but dont know why he dont have an answer. Hey pgi can we use your models yes or no.

Because the case was possibly closed earlier today? (I still need to review the info in this thread to make sure the judge actually already signed off on it.) Maybe the folks want a victory drink before they starts making business decisions? Have some patience. It's barely been a day.

 

[Havamal]

Greetings Mechwarriors,

This thread has derailed.
This is a news thread with special posted rules.
Please avoid conjecture and tangential discussion.
But even more so please avoid spamming posts looking for direct official response or action.
As other Mechwarriors have already said, that's just not how this circumstance works unfortunately.

Some posts have thus unfortunately been removed from view to reset the thread back to baseline.

I know patience is hard, but please let us all ride out this stretch here.

Thank you.

 

[Ozymandious]

Oops ninjas by mod

 

[Pewpew!]

Haha it's barely been a day and we are already frothing at the mouth. Cheers to the devs.

 

[KnightCole]

Yes.

Anyone declaring a winner at this stage is jumping the gun. PGI and HG worked out some manner of settlement, but nobody knows the details and the court filing just requests a mutually agreed dismissal with prejudice. It's entirely possible the terms of settlement may still prevent certain mechs from going into the game. We're still at "wait and see".

But basically, at the end of the day, its going to result in the same crap as before?

Someone dares to make a mech game, HG jumps on them like stink on shit, they go for awhile, and ultimately, HG wins because of the settlement money. Then, the BT community and devs are the ultimate losers as, at the end of the day, the game still doesnt have the unseens.....

Really, anything short of: "The unseens are allowed in game" is a loss for PGI/HBS and the BT community.

 

[Nebula Serpent]

a good summary of the final developments of the case

 

[Pewpew!]

But basically, at the end of the day, its going to result in the same crap as before?

Someone dares to make a mech game, HG jumps on them like stink on shit, they go for awhile, and ultimately, HG wins because of the settlement money. Then, the BT community and devs are the ultimate losers as, at the end of the day, the game still doesnt have the unseens.....

Really, anything short of: "The unseens are allowed in game" is a loss for PGI/HBS and the BT community.

Um did you not read what Russ said on the PGI forums? The reseen are allowed in his game. That MOST LIKELY means he will be selling those mechs to HBS to use. It would be foolish to agree to any less.

 

[Max_Killjoy]

Um did you not read what Russ said on the PGI forums? The reseen are allowed in his game. That MOST LIKELY means he will be selling those mechs to HBS to use. It would be foolish to agree to any less.

Why would PGI stick out one millimeter of their neck for HBS?

I do not understand where all this optimistic conclusion-jumping is coming from, we have NO evidence to go on other than a couple dismissals and a happy dev for another game and another company.

a good summary of the final developments of the case

We have no reason to conclude what he's saying in that video about "being done" with HG.

 

[Tribalist]

a good summary of the final developments of the case

I Disagree, there have been some good summaries in this thread, and I can only think it may be that the You-Tuber being sick from "Con-Crud" and excited about something happening in the case has metaphorically speaking "Shot his wad" as demonstrated by his "We Won! We won Moth** ***hers!" at the end of his Video. Kinda reminds me of the OJ Simpson Verdict, I remember people celebrating in the streets yelling "We Won!!" which was nicely put into perspective later by a Comedian who noted, We didn't win shit, you get a Car? I didn't either..

I see the same Hype happening now. The facts as I understand them, and as have been pointed out here in this thread are much simpler, in my onion (and I'n NOT a lawyer)

• There was a lawsuit claiming IP / Copyright infringement / violation
• Both sides filed motions, PGI wanted it tossed, HG wanted the court to wait for additional information from Japan proving their case (allegedly)
• Prior to the Judge ruling on the Motions, the Lawyers got together and were able to reach a tentative agreement, they them asked the Judge to slow his roll, that they may have a solution and withdrew their motions without prejudice (that way they could "Get it on again" if negotiations didn't work out.
• The two firms HG and PGI were able to come to a mutual agreement (that's code for a settlement, or pay-off, or whatever other term you want to accept) because it was privatly settled, they can set terms to this agreement including, making it private as opposed to public.
• There are terms to the agreement, we may not know them, we may never know them. We have to trust that PGI would not cut it's own throat regarding their product line, which allows for SPECULATION. like The unseen will be seen. That is Speculation based on the fact that an agreement was reached.
• We did not win shit. (only the Lawyers won)

We live in a time of instant gratification, and as frustrating as it may be we are gonna have to wait for additional details to be released, if they are ever released. in the meantime we can note the behavior of these companies determine potential impacts of their agreement.

The fact they dropped the suit against CGL, a defendant that had failed to defend and thereby defaulted is big.
For all intentive purposes, that was money in the bank. Yet they gave it up. we can speculate as to why, but ultimately it's because they HAD to. Something in the agreement with PGI mandated that. What that something is we can only guess at. I have a couple guesses but only the two parties and (speculation) possibly potential partners in related planned future endeavors may be aware of the details, and they could be bound to privacy clauses.

We'll see

 

[Camicon Dachass]

Why would PGI stick out one millimeter of their neck for HBS?

I do not understand where all this optimistic conclusion-jumping is coming from, we have NO evidence to go on other than a couple dismissals and a happy dev for another game and another company.

PGI being able to license their designs to HBS puts money into their pockets. It's not about "sticking their neck out", it's about being able to monetize their work as much as they possibly can. From a business standpoint, getting HG to agree that PGI can license their Unseen designs to other parties makes sense for PGI.

On the other hand, PGI did stick their necks out for CGL; rather, they included HG's suit against CGL (which CGL defaulted on) in the dismissal with prejudice. Either PGI did this out of the goodness of their hearts (unlikely. HG was going to get money from CGL otherwise, so PGI must've had to budge on some other aspect of the settlement to include them), or they had another reason for doing so. The only way I can see PGI coming out ahead by including CGL in the settlement is by entering into some kind of business relationship with them, perhaps something to do with licensing their designs as miniatures for example.

We do, in fact, have a reason to be cautiously optimistic about the Unseen making it into BATTLETECH.

 

[Eximar]

MWO still has all the questionable mechs for sale on their store, so if the agreement affected that negatively in any way, you can bet they would have been taken down.

We won't know for a bit if HBS can still use those designs as originally planned, but there hasn't been any reason to think they won't thus far. The celebration isn't here yet, but I feel pretty good that it's coming.

 

[Clannerkiller]

MWO still has all the questionable mechs for sale on their store, so if the agreement affected that negatively in any way, you can bet they would have been taken down.

Well to be fair when they put them in the game in the first place, Russ essentially said "screw HG" lol

It was a lot wordier, like a page in full but that was what it boiled down to

 

[PauloBrito]

Can you provide a link to that post ?

 

[Clannerkiller]

Can you provide a link to that post ?

It was an announcement when the Phoenix pack was announced (or maybe later with the Warhammer I cant remember now) so unless it could be found still... I havent even looked over at the forums for MWO in probably three years.

It was worded to the effect of if they have an issue with it so be it but they wont stop us from putting in in our game type of language

I was looking but googling anything involving anything with pgis name just brings up the current situation

 

[Pewpew!]

Why would PGI stick out one millimeter of their neck for HBS?

I do not understand where all this optimistic conclusion-jumping is coming from, we have NO evidence to go on other than a couple dismissals and a happy dev for another game and another company.




We have no reason to conclude what he's saying in that video about "being done" with HG.

They aren't sticking there necks out for anybody. It's called monetization. He's selling those mechs to HBS.

 

[Zeusbunnyears]

It sounds like HG only pops up around when BT is selling well...gotta hop on that gravy train nyet?

 

[Psyckosama]

They aren't sticking there necks out for anybody. It's called monetization. He's selling those mechs to HBS.

Considering they were in some early builds it looks like they already have.

[Mod edit: Please read mod posts above, avoid contributing to spam for direct official response or action.]

 

[IceTitan]

They aren't sticking there necks out for anybody. It's called monetization. He's selling those mechs to HBS.

Considering they were in some early builds it looks like they already have.

[Mod edit: Please read mod posts above, avoid contributing to spam for direct official response or action.]

I'm pretty sure they had a partnership of sort or a cooperation, since the more exposure MechWarrior/BattleTech gets, the more players the more likely MechWarrior 5 will sell etc. Also while they may control the licensing for games at the moment with their deal with MS, they need things to succeed on every front. For them to be able to ensure the licensing doesn't get thrown to a rival. And with Jordan in HBS a cooperation is good for busyness since he is the father of BattleTech, it's creator, the god of battletech if you want to go that far.

There is likely monetization in it, but there's more to it, because if he steps on Jordan's foot it can hurt him in the long run because of the fans.

It's as much about exposure, being on the good side of BattleTech fan base, specially the hardcore ones. Good busyness is a healthy cooperation since their not competing on the player bases. HBS is focusing on the tactical aspect of the board game to video game, while PGI is focusing on the FPS team style pvp Online and FPS style simulator game play. Both current games and the coming Mech 5 is actually helping both companies in a sense as it's drawing players to both aspects of the game.

Also CGL could of been helping PGI in the background, since everything really depended on PGI's outcome, since PGI is who woke up the sleeping evilthingamabob. And PGi's art was likely going to be used to make everything forget the word, standardized between the Board game and the video games.

At least that's my perception of it, and this is kind of going off topic again.​