Bolg:
Darn, I was seriously considering this. If GW is behind it not going through I’m going to be about average unhappy about it all. (what all in all wont lead to much except not buying that next blister). But first we wait fore more info before we go for the pitchforks.
Time of Madness:
I’ve heard from multiple sources it was Moon Design who filed the complaint. Moon Design owns the USa rights for the game.
Hasbro owns the UK rights and Gamezone owns the Spanish rights.
Time of Madness
Kamphre:
I quote the mail sent by Gamezone :
Please bear with us. Gamezone and Moon Design are in a meeting negotiating a settlement for both parts at this time.It seems that it’s just delayed and we can expect the project to go on…
Moon Design believes that their interests in the HEROQUEST brand within the USA will be infringed upon. Although we are not distributing or selling our product in US territory. As a precaution Moon Design presented a C/D on the 27th of Nov. Our talks are coming to a point where the negotiation will benefit all those involved, which finally would let us offer our product in stores in the USA sometime next year.
The Moon Design C/D was suspended, but on the table, as another element in the negotiation. Here at Gamezone it is our hopeful understand that its activation is possibly by error as both parties where coming to an agreement. Said agreement would finally end beneficially for Fans in the USA by opening the physical distribution to stores in that country. This brief pause of activity is as harmful to the interests of Moon Design as it is to Gamezone Miniatures.
We are as surprised as the Heroquest community, we didn�?Tt expect that on Thanksgiving, of all days, to be wrapped up in this mess, that is so disagreeable for everyone involved. On a day such as this it is extremely complicated to get in touch with Moon Design. We are working diligently on a solution so we can continue with the project from where it is at the moment and reinforce it for the future.
Thank you. Dionisio
Nicodemus:
Sounds positive, I just hope not many of the Kickstarter whiners and complainers on the comments forum there, who were already p*ssing and moaning about shipping costs, etc. haven’t decided to pull their funds. At the end of the day it’ll likely only be a drop in the bucket, but as it’s only a few days into the official campaign this isn’t the time to be taking steps backward.
~N
Bloodbeard:
Another update from Gamezone:
GAMEZONE Communiqué, Saturday 30I hope they moved it to another platform, Indiegogo or something like it.
We would like to inform you all about the present situation, after the pause of our Kickstarter project by Moon Design P. during the thanksgiving holiday, which is an administrative petition within Kickstarter.
Yesterday, Friday, at the start of the day, U.S. east coast time, we sent a letter to Kickstarter, LINK invoking our legitimate trademark rights so they would deactivate the pause and let us progress in the fund raising campaign. We are waiting for Kickstarter�?Ts reply on this matter.
Simultaneously we, Gamezone and Moon Design P., had a reunion to discuss this issue face to face as and not email exchange as was what was happening up till now.
Moon Design P. solicited the pause in Kickstarter because of fear that Hasbro could act against Gamezone in our crowed funding because we are using an American company on American soil. Their argument was that Hasbro could act against them as well for not impeding us in this project. Even thought they are not in any way included in this project or affiliated with it.
If Kickstarter does not reactivate the pause taking into account our letter ( indicated above in the link), then it can only be reactivated if Moon Design P. asks them to. For Moon Design P. to do so they are asking for two things: An official letter from Hasbro in which it states that they, Hasbro, will neither act against our HQ25th nor Moon Design P. They, Moon Design P., have also demanded a considerable sum and percentages from the Kickstarter project.
If we wait for Hasbro to make a declaration, which we can solicit, weeks or even months could pass. With that our production and creation calendar would be severely affected, as not having the funding to continue the campaign.
If the Campaign does not restart soon, the HQ25th will not be ready for Christmas 2014. It will not be ready to celebrate its anniversary.
There exist 3 possible solutions to this conundrum.
1. Kickstarter reactivates the project attending to our petition
2. Wait for Hasbro to declare that they are not against this crowed funding campaign of HQ25th en Kickstarter (an American Company).
3. Immediately move the crowed funning to a platform within Europe, where no risks of legal repercussions exist.
Option one; we can only wait, we cannot be sure that Kickstarter will lift the pause. We cannot influence their decision any more than we have already.
Option two; Hasbro is not obligated to do anything at all.
Option three; here there is no risk, except of course we will raise less funds, no other platform out there at this moment has the same public pull as Kickstarter.
Why are we telling you this? As our backers, what would you like us to do?
Vogon:
I hate to be a nay sayer but I do think it was pretty reckless of Gamezone to initiate this project without sorting out all the IP issues first.
I�?Tm not any sort of IP Lawyer but even as an average member of the public a few things really stand out to me.
They may hold the rights to the trademark HEROQUEST in Spain but they must know that the rights (and the intellectual property) is not theirs globally despite wanting to sell it globally. To claim otherwise is either naïve or wilfully ignoring the fact. The fact they have not claimed any sort of legitimacy for anything other than the trademark means that the intellectual property is not theirs so I don�?Tt think they�?Td have a leg to stand on if it came to the courts
I would love to see a 25th anniversary HeroQuest game released and would certainly buy a copy but I think that Gamezone have gone about this entirely the wrong way and think that no good can come from this.
I do feel for all the backers so far (I think it was up to half a million Canadian dollars the last time I had a look) but this really comes as no surprise.
Cheers
Vogon
ryanamandaanna:
Just received some new correspondance about this:
"Gamezone Miniatures says:
Kraken says:
Dear Backers
After knowing the KS surprise pause, we made a statement we published on our heroquestclassic.com page, where we transparently reported you about the situation, and we wandered directly to you, our backers, what you wanted us to do.
Most of you requested to wait for KS response. So we did. Today we have that answer. We will publish a statement at heroquestclassic.com tonight, as we did before.
Please stay tunned to our website (heroquestclassic.com) and our twitter account (https://twitter.com/GamezoneMiniatu)."
So looks like we’ll have an answer one way or the other in about 5 hours or so…
cornixt:
I predict they will stop the kickstarter and stick with pre-sales via their website. The don’t have and can’t get authorisation to use the name Heroquest in the US and use Kickstarter (a US company) without someone getting sued. As long as they keep everything business-wise within Spain (where they simply bought the expired trademark name for the game, no other permissions received) then they will probably be okay for a while - not sure if Hasbro could legally touch them there for making a similar game with the same name.
ryanamandaanna:
How right you were, Cornixt:
Gamezone Miniatures says:
Dear Backers
Last Friday we were surprised by the pause placed on our kickstarter Project of HQ25. We wrote a communiqué to you, which was also posted on our site heroquestclassic.com. In our letter we tried to communicate to you in the clearest fashion what was happening and as well to share with you all, our petition to kickstarter to have the project reopened. To do all of this publicly was to us the correct way for you as our backers to be informed of the situation and the most correct and transparent way to communicate with you as well, as our backers you have the right to know what was going on with this project.
We have done what you have ask for, we have waited in silence for KS�?T answer. It has arrived. KS would prefer to keep the project on hold and wait for us to come to an agreement with third part.
The KS answer can be seen at our site.
KS�?T position does not agree with as at all. The situation produced by the pause of the project has been harmful.
We do not feel that our legitimate rights over the Trademark have been protected and above all we do not wish to do business with third part under threats or duress of any sort. As a result we are proceeding to solicit KS to cancel our project on their platform.
Is this the end of HQ25? Of course not! Keep reading!
We accept the all of the respectful critics that has come our way because we learn from these things and if someone thinks differently they are free to express those opinions. What we do not accept is the disinformation y distortions that have been happening during the project’s pause on KS in which we have remained silent and waited.
During these past few days our creative design crew has still been working on the development of various components, the same as always, the idea being to not lose any energy with this controversy.
The thirteen on the gallows, as we have fondly started calling the 13 professionals that are implicated in the creation of the project, have as a priority the development of this commemorative game.
We are truly more worried about you, the backers. We want thank you for the messages of support that have been rolling in. The public reaction to the news of a new edition of this classic provided undeniable and sincere joy to many. We will hold onto this as the rout to follow.
After this communiqué is sent out we will proceed to ask KS to cancel the project on their platform. After this is done we will immediately restart and continue the HQ25 project. More info at heroquestclassic.com tomorrow. Therefore the HQ25 project will return to active status. We will move from victims to survivors and conquer as we go.
We understand that KS has a larger public base than any other crowed funding platform today; we understand that moving the project to another site will mean that out backer support will decrease. However we are ready and willing to continue this campaign in a place that will offer us the correct guaranties for our trademark. We would prefer to raise fewer funds and still move forward with and produce it in time for the 25th anniversary.
We await your support and enthusiasm in this renewed crowed funding campaign.
Again, we would like to thank our backers from the bottom of our hearts, please do not regret supporting us. Let us all together get this back on track and make this dream a reality.
Gamezone
Bloodbeard:
Just wanted to bring this post back to life. There’s been a lot of problems with all those crowdfunding campaigns. But a couple of days ago the project launched on a spanish crowdfunding site.
Allready there’s more money into it than on kickstarter, so new stretch goals are unlucking. Also the shipping price has been listed. Rather high 29 euro for europe shipping and 31 for international.
Crowdfunding - HeroQuest 25 Aniversario - Varios - Lanzanos
cornixt:
Most Heroquest fans are avoiding this. It is unlicensed, but they still think they can get away with it if they deal only with Spanish companies, since they have bought the trademark for the name in Spain (but nothing else; like rules, gameplay, etc). There is still the chance of legal action from Hasbro, so your money may end up in a black hole before it can be produced even if such legal action is not valid (I don’t know either way).
I’ve managed to download the rules, quests, print my own board and use my own models, for less than a few dollars if you count printer ink. It’s as far as I need to go.
Xander:
Down to the last few days to back this project:
Crowdfunding - HeroQuest 25 Aniversario - Varios - Lanzanos
I have to say that this reimagining looks really awesome. I definitely hope it gets made and distributed. The miniatures look really well designed, and it looks liek they put a lot of heart and soul into this project already.
That said, I am still a bit weary about the legal mess in which they could potentially find themselves. Decisions, decisions.
Bloodbeard:
I backed the project right away. They just closed down for further unlocks - because it can’t work financially.
Still one secret to come though.
I think the stuff lpoks awesome and I’m gonna get a lot of cool different miniatures.
Don’t think there’ll be more legal trouble.
ryanamandaanna:
Side one of the game board mimicks the original board, so if you get the Green Pack and Bone Pack add-ons, you can actually replicate all of the missions from the original game and the first two expansions (Kellars Keep and Return of the Witch Lord) by using the printable resourses located at http://www.yeoldeinn.com/
Essentially, you’re getting the original game, the first two expansions (re-imagined models and game mechanics, of course), plus two new expansions that they explain as being a “choose your own adventure” scenario, with mission outcomes/decisions pointing towards other scenarios that are tailored to those outcomes.
I’m pretty excited about this one (obviously). :hat off
Xander:
Ugh, I am so torn! I love HeroQuest…
I’m not sure if I should wait until I can just buy it regularly or not…
Bloodbeard:
Ugh, I am so torn! I love HeroQuest...But all the extra stuff properly won't be available to you.
I'm not sure if I should wait until I can just buy it regularly or not...
Xander
Xander:
That is a possibility, yes. But it’s also possible they’ll sell it separately at some point.
The extra stuff is definitely alluring, but with no knowing what legal troubles they might encounter before the Christmas launch date, it might be prudent to wait?
I also don’t know if I will have a playgroup to enjoy the game with at the time of release. It’s a bit pricey for not knowing if I’ll even get to play it properly…
cornixt:
The board is different enough that you’d have to be a little creative if you want to reproduce the original quests on it.
I’ve been following the legal argument, and I expect Hasbro Spain to begin legal action a few months before it becomes available, sucking away everyone’s money and leaving Gamezone without the cash to give the backers anything substantial.
They should have just produced a compatible dungeon quest game and sidestepped all the legal issues until it had at least been made, but they had to go and use the HeroQuest trademarks and now they have a legal mire that many people are going to lose their money in.
Xander:
Yeah, that’s definitely my worry.
Sad face.
ryanamandaanna:
ugh. Aren’t they obligated to give the money back if they can’t deliver?