Chroma Squad dev discussing ultimatum with Power Rangers owner [Update]
Chroma Squad developer Behold Games added a backers-only update to its Kickstarter page yesterday informing the game's funders that it is negotiating a royalty-share deal with Power Rangers owner Saban. According to the update, Saban contacted Behold Games about Chroma Squad and found the game was too similar to the Power Rangers brand, agreeing to either split the game's royalties or go to court to ensure the game would not launch.
As Behold Games told Joystiq via email, the developer opted to "make a win-win negotiation" by discussing terms with Saban, though it did not note how royalties from the game's sales would split between the two parties, should they come to an agreement. The developer also stressed in its Kickstarter update that Chroma Squad "is inspired by something much broader than Power Rangers. We're talking about an amazing Sentai culture that is mostly Japanese, but got even bigger with fans from around the world."
"But Sentai is a genre, that is not a creation of Saban," Behold Games wrote to Joystiq. "So, if we're negotiating a win-win partnership, we won't change anything in the game, and we'll make it in a way that we could get some advertisement from them, and use some direct references of their show. I know some of the players will like it."
Chroma Squad earned $97,148 on Kickstarter in August 2013. The early access beta version of the game launched in April for its backers. We've included a copy of Behold Games' backers-only update below.
Update: To clarify, Behold Games has agreed to discuss terms with Saban, but is not partnering with the Power Rangers owner as of yet. We've updated the headline and text to reflect this.
[Image: Behold Games]
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A small hiccup
Hello everyone!
For quite some time we were absolutely focused in developing the beta version and
releasing it for all early adopters to try. That's why we've stayed offline for sometime now.
But a big thing happened, and considering that you all are our investors and backers, we
have to talk to you about this.
The producers and attorneys from SABAN, the company that owns the rights for Power
Rangers in the West, have been in contact with us for a while now. They have been playing
our game and making some questions about it.
This week they've contacted us to offer a deal. They see two options in this negotiation: the
first one being using the court to make sure that our game wouldn't get released. The
second option would be that they would join our project with a royalty share. We both prefer
the second option, considering that going into court would be painful for both sides. So, we
started a win-win negotiation.
You all know that our game is inspired by something much broader than Power Rangers.
We're talking about an amazing Sentai culture that is mostly Japanese, but got even
bigger with fans from around the world. We're talking about tokusatsu in general, japanese
super heroes, animes, kamen riders, everything that inspired us very much in our
childhood and continue to inspire us now.
We're talking to them right now and we hope that everything goes well, and we can stay
indie as we want, and as the game needs to be: heartful, inspiring, amazing, and with a lot
of jokes, quirky stories and every bit of the meta layer that we love.
Don't worry, we'll do everything to make the game come out!
Have a great week, and I hope pretty soon you'll all gonna play the game.
Cheers!
