New Dune movie; EA should work w/ GOG and Dune owners to release Westwood games [ Edited ]

[tfishell]

https://www.theverge.com/2017/2/1/14471312/dune-movie-adaptation-director-denis-villeneuve

With a new Dune movie potentially in the works, now would be a good time for EA to work with GOG.com and Herbert Properties LLC to re-release Westwood's Dune games.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_games_based_on_Dune#Video_games

Dune 1 isn't with EA afaik, but Dune 2, Dune 2000, and Emperor Battle for Dune could be possible, in theory. I know this is really legally messy stuff, unfortunately.

https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games#search=dune&order=votes_total - I think there's over 25,000 votes here for EA-owned Dune games.

[ivrognard · Accepted solution]

@tfishell sadly the Herbert estate stated clearly that they have no interest into renewing the contract, nor that they were interested in new videogames based on the IP.

I would love, too, to see the old games back, but as long as the Herbert heirs are not interested, i am afraid that it won't be possible. Plus, there is a lot of bad blood between EA and Herbert Properties, as the Herbert heirs took EA and a few other companies to court for copyright infringement. So, i doubt that there is anyone in the industry that would actually touch the Dune series after all that (EA being probably the least inclined) and the chances for EA to be allowed to re-publish those games are even lower.

As for the potential movie...while Villeneuve was enlisted to be the potential director, i can't help but look to the number of times where the movie companies let the IP lapse and done nothing with it.

We can hope, but unless the Herberts have a change of heart (which i suspect that would involve an apology towards the companies that they've sued), the Dune games are toast and on their way to oblivion.

[ivrognard · Accepted solution]

@tfishell sadly the Herbert estate stated clearly that they have no interest into renewing the contract, nor that they were interested in new videogames based on the IP.

I would love, too, to see the old games back, but as long as the Herbert heirs are not interested, i am afraid that it won't be possible. Plus, there is a lot of bad blood between EA and Herbert Properties, as the Herbert heirs took EA and a few other companies to court for copyright infringement. So, i doubt that there is anyone in the industry that would actually touch the Dune series after all that (EA being probably the least inclined) and the chances for EA to be allowed to re-publish those games are even lower.

As for the potential movie...while Villeneuve was enlisted to be the potential director, i can't help but look to the number of times where the movie companies let the IP lapse and done nothing with it.

We can hope, but unless the Herberts have a change of heart (which i suspect that would involve an apology towards the companies that they've sued), the Dune games are toast and on their way to oblivion.

[tfishell]

All stuff I'll try to remember, thanks.

I got some fresh hope because back around October, Brian Herbert was tweeting about exciting new things happening to the Dune IP, which got me thinking maybe there was a chance they were now open to working with EA, or whoever has the rights to Dune 1, to get the Dune games back out there, especially with the new movie potentially happening. 

https://twitter.com/DuneAuthor/status/916544842502594561

https://twitter.com/DuneAuthor/status/951897492777459712

"There is a lot going on behind the scenes for DUNE, and we hope to be able to raise the curtain on this soon, providing more details for the fans, who have been waiting so optimistically"

I'm not personally interested in the games but I figure it's worth occasionally mentioning these games have lots of votes on the GOG wishlist. https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games#search=dune&order=votes_total