Hi all,

There have been some fairly interesting developments on with regards to Blood over the last few months, so I felt it'd be worth it to let other Blood fans know:

-The XL Engine, after years of appearing dead or abandoned, has finally been making steady progress over the last few months. For those unaware, this is a project that aims to act as a source port of sorts for a number of games (Daggerfall, Dark Forces, Outlaws and of course Blood). Those who have been following its development will know the project has suffered stalls and a rocky development for years, and these developments are certainly no guarantee that it'll see the light of day. That said, it's great to see things are (at least for now) back on track and if the author is to be believed, it shouldn't be to much longer of a wait (again, take that with a grain of salt though).

http://xlengine.com/blog/

-At the launch of the System Shock: Enhanced Edition, GOG held a livestream with Night Dive Studios' CEO Steven Kick (the studio is responsible for reviving a number of classic games and IP's from copyright hell, others including Strife & I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream). At one point during the stream, he mentioned the studio was interested in bringing back the game in some form (more than just a DOSBox port we currently have), and that it may be possibility. Unfortunately, the VOD of the stream has since been removed, but before it hand been I brought this to the attention of gaming website thegg.net, who added the info to an article they had on the history of the IP (in case the word of a random internet stranger isn't enough for you, which it probably shouldn't be). Night Dive has also hinted at this on their Facebook. From what they've said, however, they seem to only be in very early talks on the matter and this could very well fizzle out similar to how their attempts at reviving No One Lives Forever did.

http://thegg.net/indie-games/the-rise-fall-and-resurrection-of-monoliths-dark-evil-and-brutal-blood-fps-series/

https://www.facebook.com/NightDiveStudios/photos/a.194457070696388.53219.194438327364929/685809678227789/?type=3&permPage=1

So not the official release of the source code we've all been hoping for, but perhaps the next best thing. If anyone is able to find a VOD of the aforementioned livestream, please PM me the link and I'll edit the post to include it, and credit whoever does so.

Hopefully it being "Crazy 'spensive." isn't going to be an obstetrical this time round.

I still feel that the most id ever contribute to any kickstart project would be "Free Blood from the grips of WB/Atari/Whomever" and have a guarenteed release of the source code even if Night Dive or whomever else would try to wrestle the rights back is making their own port. If we can have Megaton Edition and Shadow Warrior Redux while still having free open source code, Blood could get it too. Id also love to see if anyone could ever get a source code for Blood 2 and hope to help "fix" the game of its bugs and instability, but that's a more complex thing.

I remember some time ago there was talk about the Blood source code being released but of course we never heard from it again. What are the big wolves (copyright holders) so afraid of? I just would never see a reason not to release it - especially after 2 decades. Look at Doom and other games, communities have grown and expanded over the years and still coming out with new user created content. Sadly we are still playing this game in Dosbox with no light at the end of the tunnel. A enhanced edition would be nice but looking at Strife's re-release it is nothing more than some GZDoom port with a fancy shaders overlay.

I really can't see any logic in what Atari is doing with this IP: They obviously don't plan to do either a remaster (they even killed that Jace Hall attempt from few years ago) or any sort of sequel (not that they are even capable of later at this point), they apparently ask for ludicrous sums of money in order to sell the IP (kind of money that they perfectly know nobody in their right mind will pay for what is basically a long dead IP), they refuse to release the source code to public and any Ex-Monolith fellow that might try do do it would probably be sued to hell and back...

There is probably some sense in all that, and some way in which parasites that are currently keeping Atari's corpse in some sort of animation are being benefited by this situation... but it is utterly beyond me.

Not even close to saying I will (can't unless I win the lottery. lol) but where would I go *if* I (or anyone) wished to purchase the IP? And how much is "ludicrous"?

Honestly, I'm not certain if Atari or WB know who exactly holds the copyright. From what I understand Monolith sold the Blood franchise to GT Interactive, shortly after Blood II was published (1998). But in 1999 Infogrames bought GT Interactive. Presumably they got the Blood francise this way. They also bought up Atari and started using that name, at least in the US. Infogrames is a French company that had branches in the US (Atari), but they have recently gone through a bankruptcy which separated Atari (US) from Infogrames (France) Anyway, this happened right after Jace Hall made comments about wanting to do stuff with Blood again (2013), which tossed a monkey wrench into the whole thing.

When they announced the bankruptcy, Atari was going to auction off all assets, but to my knowledge they only sold off a handful of titles, which didn't appear to include the Blood franchise. (RollerCoaster Tycoon, Test Drive, Humongous, Backyard Sports, Total Annihilation, Airborne Ranger, Battlezone, Master of Orion, Moonbase Commander, Star Control, Atari Brand / Atari Classics / Atari Casino). Each of these titles went for anywhere between $100K, to $1.5 million

Atari.com still sells a digital download of Blood, so they probably still have publishing rights to it.

WB acquired Monolith back in 2004 and had secured the rights to the Blood TM, but on October 24, 2009, that TM was canceled and is currently listed as "dead"

*If* you had the money and wanted to start someplace... I'd hire some one that knows the ins-and-outs of game publishing first... go from there. Maybe check into how InXile was able to secure the IP for Wasteland.

Unfortunately the actual paperwork for who owns Blood is probably in a box someplace, not even digitized yet, which may have "saved" it from Atari's bankruptcy auction.

If it's closer to 100k then... hmmmm... give me a few years.

Well considering those were what they were willing to get rid of, and the best they did was for $1.5 million, I would think that would be the minimum end they would sell it for. Also consider that was during a bankruptcy auction, so it more of a fire sail, "everything must go" type situation. Conservatively, I'd double or triple that 1.5 million in a normal situation. And that'd be if Atari owns it. If WB owns it, I'd not be suprised if "Crazy 'spensive" was closer to 10 mil