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[–] Admiral_Greyfield [S] 0 points 5 points (+5|-0) ago  (edited ago)

My submission from /r/KiA

TxK is a game that is supposed to serve as a spiritual successor to Tempest. It was released on PS Vita late last year and Sony even made it a PS+ title. It received critical acclaim and a warm reception, but flew under most people's radars due it being on an essentially dead system. Minter, the developer, intended to release this game on more platforms (PC, PS4, VR, Andoid) but Atari apparently sent Minter threatening legal letters preventing this. Eurogamer Article (Archive)

Here is Minter's response to Atari. (Pastebin) Very relevant section at the bottom where he talks about how Atari did the same thing they're accusing him of to deny him royalties for Tempest 2000.

So Atari:

  1. Hired Minter to make a Tempest update 20 years ago
  2. Purposefully modified the game just enough to deny Minter's royalties when porting to Playstation
  3. Are now claiming that Minter ripped them off by making a spiritual successor to Tempest after Atari has done absolutely nothing with it in years. They also want to prevent the release of this game on other platforms, and want it pulled from PS Vita.

What we can do about it:

  • Buy TxK on Vita/PS TV if you're interested. If you know someone that would like it, show it to them. (If it does get pulled, Sony still allows re-downloads of prior purchases.)

  • Put pressure on Atari to back off. Send tips to other outlets to cover this, post on any other forums you visit about this. Spread the story around on twitter or other social media.

  • Crazy Idea: Make Tempest clones (or clones of other Atari games, Pong is really easy) in a show of solidarity and a way of saying "Fuck Atari".

Update: Atari's Response (Archive because of Gamasutra)

TL;DR: We [Atari] own the gameplay of Tempest.

Gameplay isn't copyrightable, or Cities would have been sued out of existence by EA/Maxis.

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[–] shirtlords 0 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago 

This Shirtlord would like to add, that the current 'Atari' is in no way the same company as made the classic arcade and home games, it is 'Atari' in name only, and the name has been sold at least twice that I can remember.

[–] [deleted] 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago 

[Deleted]

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[–] Admiral_Greyfield [S] 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago 

Huge Vita fan myself. I end up only playing jRPGs and Indies because that's all there is though. Most AAA devs have abandoned ship, but PS Vita is still cool.

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[–] RangerSix ago 

Crazy idea, but it just might work.