mtoschlog: Hey, Folks. Here's the story.

Parallax Software still exists and still owns the copyrights to the Descent games. Under our 21-year-old agreement, Interplay has the exclusive rights to sell Descent and Descent II, and they have been doing so on Good Old Games and Steam.

The problem is that Interplay has not paid to Parallax any royalties since 2007. We've talked to them about this numerous times over the years, and finally took action this fall. We served Interplay official notice that they were in breach of the contract, and when they still failed to pay we terminated the agreement.

This means that Interplay has lost the right to sell the Descent games, which is why they came down from GOG. (We're not sure why they're still on Steam; they shouldn't be.)

Interplay does, however, still own the Descent trademark, which they are free to use or license as they see fit (such as for Descent: Underground) as long as they don't violate our copyrights.

As for whether Descent and Descent II will be available for purchase again, we hope so. We'd be very happy to work things out with Interplay.

Matt Toschlog & Mike Kulas
Parallax Software

Roin: I really hope they sort this stuff out.
Well anyway thanks for posting this, do you have the original source or a link to where this comes from? Thanks in advance :O

mtoschlog: Hey, Folks. Here's the story.

Parallax Software still exists and still owns the copyrights to the Descent games. Under our 21-year-old agreement, Interplay has the exclusive rights to sell Descent and Descent II, and they have been doing so on Good Old Games and Steam.

The problem is that Interplay has not paid to Parallax any royalties since 2007. We've talked to them about this numerous times over the years, and finally took action this fall. We served Interplay official notice that they were in breach of the contract, and when they still failed to pay we terminated the agreement.

This means that Interplay has lost the right to sell the Descent games, which is why they came down from GOG. (We're not sure why they're still on Steam; they shouldn't be.)

Interplay does, however, still own the Descent trademark, which they are free to use or license as they see fit (such as for Descent: Underground) as long as they don't violate our copyrights.

As for whether Descent and Descent II will be available for purchase again, we hope so. We'd be very happy to work things out with Interplay.

Matt Toschlog & Mike Kulas
Parallax Software

catpower1980: Looks like this thread is gonna get some exposure:
http://gamasutra.com/view/news/262910/Descent_games_yanked_from_GOG_store_thanks_to_royalty_dispute.php

DustFalcon1985: Welcome to GOG.com Matt Toschlog! Off topic question: Since Descent 1 & 2 is open source. Does Descent 3's source code exist? If so will it be released under GPL just like it's previous two installments? I would like to see Descent 3 get ported to Mac and Linux and having advanced user level and mod support just like Doom, Dxx-Rebirth, eduke32, and anything else. Can it be done?

I would like for us to see Descent 3 gets future Windows OS support like forever.

Robette: Well... crap... I saw myself buying those at some point...

8BitChris: I am not considering myself as the biggest fan of Descent 3 - story-wise - but if the source is ever published, I'll adopt D3 to the DXX-Rebirth family. :)

Klumpen0815: I've heard the multiplayer of Descent 3 is the real selling point and there are still people playing it online.

Lyoko774: Descent 2 co-op however is way better. :B
Well that's one hell of a first post on a site I've visited for years.

Lyoko774: Descent 2 co-op however is way better. :B
Well that's one hell of a first post on a site I've visited for years.

HunchBluntley: That's an awful long time to be lurking. : P