CorporalRutland: I came looking for this today, unbelievable that it's not on here. Want to echo the sentiments of others - why do these publishers take a decade-old IP and freeze the rights on it to... make no money whatsoever. Unfreezing it would make money and, you never know, might just generate enough traction for a sequel. Idiots.
Petrell: If what mentioned earlier is correct, it's distribution issue, ie. Eidos has contested Rebellions right to distribute (or grand rights to distribute) the game probably due to distribution contract they had with original devs. GOG needs worldwide distribution rights so if someone else has exlusive rights to game somewhere, even if it's say Andorra, GOG can't distribute the game. Back in the day giving exlusive distribution rights for different regions were unfortunately quite commonplace not to mention they sometimes forgot to set expiration date for the contracts.
This, however, in no way prevents Rebellion from developing sequel, prequel or otherwise using the IP in any way they might want.
As for dispute, I wouldn't be surprised if Eidos (or who ever the contesting side is) did this simply to prevent the competition from earning funds from sales. Tech companies seem to do it all the time.
I get that bit, and that's a bit unfortunate, but you're absolutely bang on: I remember the days of different distributors in different territories, and often different names of the game to boot. I remember explaining Star Wars: Supremacy to a friend, a game he told me could not and did not exist until I pointed him in the direction of his copy of Star Wars: Rebellion!
I also get that it doesn't prevent development of a sequel per se, I grant you that, but the whole reason one never materialised was because interest in the game as it was when it came out just wasn't enough. It was ahead of its time and too demanding on the hardware of the time, and the review scores largely (with exceptions like PC Zone, another missed great) reflecting people going 'whu?' I remember my local game store saying they'd had a slew of returns on those grounds. You can trace a path relatively clearly from Republic's poor performance via Evil Genius' (another cult game that is, thankfully, on GOG) to Hassabis (a mind, let's not forget, to greater or lesser extents behind Syndicate, Theme Park and Black & White) quitting the industry and becoming a neuroscientist.
However, Republic is now recognised as a cult classic. Being able to distribute it via GOG would show that there's a market and interest for a sequel. God, with online play now the way it is the possibilities for just such a thing are dizzying. Freezing it up, distribution contract dispute or no, does not. Republic remains that little cult classic that everybody misjudged and nobody wants to risk money making a sequel for because it's not Call of Republic.
What's sad about the whole affair is that it's a reminder that the game industry's most creative time was at a time when the hardware and player mindsets didn't match. Now that they do, publishers want the safe and the yearly resellable...
I miss PC Zone as well, that magazine pretty much nudged me through adolescence, which is probably not a good thing... =( Still, ranting about nostalgia's to be expected on a site called Good Old Games, isn't it? =)
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