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Well, that didn't take long at all, did it? Less than a week after announcing it acquired "the trademark and select intellectual property rights of The 3DO Company," Empire Interactive has now announced plans to "withdraw from the 3DO project."
The announcement was made in an email to Time Extension, with a separate statement having since been posted on LinkedIn stating that it is abandoning plans to enter "console production" and giving up on "the idea of remastering retro games." Instead, Empire Interactive now states the company "will focus our efforts on developing our own next-generation games," which will be "published under the Empire Interactive label."
As you may have seen recently, I've been driving myself a bit mad trying to get to the bottom of this situation. After covering the initial announcement with scepticism, we reached out to the person behind the effort, Işık Şekercigil, to see if he could set our minds at rest. During this email exchange, he expressed his hopes of re-entering the console market, which we again reported on with scepticism, prompting another company, Throwback Entertainment, to reach out to us.
Throwback Entertainment contested Şekercigil's claims of acquiring the 3DO brand and related assets, stating they were "not accurate", and continued, "The rights to the 3DO trademark and associated designs, as well as the 3DO.com domain, are owned by Throwback Entertainment. These assets have not been sold, transferred, or licensed to Empire Interactive, and there are no plans for them to be sold."
In response, Şekercigil issued another response to Time Extension, stating, "We acquired the rights to The 3DO Company brand, not the 3DO console brand. Although they may seem identical, they are legally different. Trademark registrations can be filed separately in different countries and under different classes. Our trademark registration is under The 3DO Company and is limited to the game development and publishing category. It does not include console manufacturing or any hardware technology development."
Şekercigil added, "In our announcement, we did not directly refer to the console brand '3DO.' Although the abbreviation '3DO' was used in parts of the announcement."
He then conceded, "Yes, in yesterday’s statement I mentioned that we had considered console development, but I also noted that console manufacturing rights are significantly more complex than even game IP rights, and that such a process could take years. Panasonic, Goldstar, and at least four companies are involved as rights holders on the console manufacturing side."
So, in other words, what Şekercigil is suggesting is that Empire has seemingly acquired a different trademark from Throwback, but the phrasing of the initial statement and their comments to the press proved a little too ambiguous, leading to it being "widely misunderstood." I've reached out to Throwback Entertainment to get its perspective on this.
According to Şekercigil in an email to Time Extension, when Empire Interactive started this project, it "did not anticipate such fragmentation of rights," and the company has ultimately decided to withdraw from the project to avoid potential legal battles.
"The reason for this decision is the emergence of multiple parties claiming ownership rights over both the games and the console manufacturing process," wrote Empire Interactive on LinkedIn. "Given the niche nature of this market and the likelihood of prolonged legal disputes, we have chosen not to engage in lengthy legal proceedings. Instead, we will focus our efforts on developing our own next-generation games."