Main question in title. It sounded like the majority platform for the game is PC. What’s stopping the devs from just re-releasing the game on PC without Sony as the publisher? Can the devs just abandon ship and start fresh, but without Sony?
That is likely covered by the contracts they signed.
I mean, I know they likely have some ironclad contracts, but it probably wouldn’t cover AH’s “next” game, right? I’m realizing this is probably a silly question, but what recourse does AH have at this point? Did they just sign a contract giving away all rights to their game to the publisher?
That is how its generally done yes, especially when there is such a large power imbalance between the two parties (one being a multinational corporate giant and the other a mid sized studio with only average releases so far). Maybe they even signed a deal for hd3 with them in advance as well
Whelp. That’s unfortunate.
Playstation most likely owns the IP. You should create an open source helldivers type game.
Sony definitely owns the IP.
They probably also own all the code and assets. If arrowhead tries to release a “hell jumpers” with most of the same code, they’d get sued for copyright infringement.
Helldivers is Sony IP, not Arrowhead IP, so no, Arrowhead can’t just release another game in the series without Sony’s involvement.
Damn. Maybe their next game can be called Shelldivers. Armed snails deployed to the bottom of the ocean to destroy trash monsters and deep sea creatures.
