Hello gamers. As you read this (depending on when you read this) I will be commentating the Fargo ND, X-Wing Regional Championship Tournament over on Twitch. I may even be doing some giveaways for those of you who tune in to watch!
But, that’s not why you came here. To the news!
Video Games
So some of the biggest news to pop up in a while is the announcement from Frontwire Studio’s release of “Galaxy in Turmoil.”
This game is just a studio who took what was sitting around of the abandoned Battlefront 3 game, and completed it. And they’re releasing it for free on Steam.
This isn’t a re-skin or anything; it’s just a straight up unlicensed Star Wars game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L6HdX74-mA
Now you might be thinking, but how on earth is Lucasfilm going to let them distribute that? Isn’t that a copyright violation?
The answer seems to be maybe. The studio seems confident that this falls under a “fair use” case, and since they’re not selling it for money, they should be safe from anything from Disney or Lucasfilm.
But a top Legal Expert Ryan Morrison, founder of the Fair Use Protection Account, seems to think otherwise.
Morrison / Lee co-founder Ryan Morrison specializes in video game law and has founded the Fair Use Protection Account. The account is designed to help victims of copyright trolls and unfair copyright takedowns. He believes that despite Romanelli’s confidence, Frontwire is in for some trouble.
“You would be hard pressed to find a stronger advocate for fair use on the internet than myself, but this game is in no way fair use,” Morrison tells us. “It actually infuriates me to see people spreading such terrible misinformation throughout various websites, especially journalists, because it encourages other developers to do the same. It quite literally ruins lives. It doesn’t take more than a five second Google search to see this game has nothing to do with parody law. And if you further examine fair use, you will see it is a defense, not a right. Not charging for your product is a factor in fair use, but not the end all be all. You can’t just remake a game start to finish, utilizing every asset of the original, and pretend it’s okay because it’s free. After so many games have been taken down over similar [circumstances], and after so many developers’ lives have been ruined from this, it’s just the definition of insanity at this point.“
Some seem to even think that Frontwire knows that this venture will fail and be taken apart by Lucasfilm, and is just using this as a means of getting some publicity and sympathy after they’re taken down by the house of mouse. Sympathy for the little guy.
We’ll have to wait and see how this all pans out. Lucasfilm tends to not bind fan made work, look at all the amazing fan films on YouTube for example, but I’m curious if this will be a line too far. Time will tell.
Back on the official side of things, EA has revealed the key art for the Bespin DLC:
Purdy.
In addition to that gorgeous artwork, they tease a picture of one of the two new blasters coming in the expansion and shed a little light on the two new heroes’ abilities.
It looks like the gun pictured is the X-8 Night Sniper, the gun Lando uses in Star Wars Rebels.
Lando and Dengar both feature new traits that will give them unique gameplay abilities. Dengar is a villain that thrives on being in a fight. He wields the DLT-19, which makes him the first Hero with a heavy blaster so far. Lando is very skilled with a blaster too, but his greatest talent comes from knowing the odds and using tricks against his enemies.
The Bespin DLC will be available to season pass holders on June 21st, and to everyone else on the 28th.
ILMxLAB will be showing off their new Star Wars VR experience at Celebration Europe. Won’t be at Celebration? Don’t worry, I’ll be there and I’ll tell you all about it.
Tabletop Games
Planning on participating at Worlds this year? Well FFG has put up an article that will hopefully prepare you for all the hoops you’ll need to jump through this year to secure a ticket.