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Star Control 2 becomes Free Stars: The Ur-Quan Masters on Steam next weekA free re-release minus the trademark
A free re-release minus the trademark
Free Stars: The Ur-Quan Masterswill make its way to Steam on February 19th. It’s a version of 1992 strategy classicStar Control2 that takes advantage of updates from its long-runningopen source project, and it’ll be completely free.
Why is this release called Free Stars and not “Star Control 2”? Aren’t Star Control 2 and its predecessoralready on Steamfor a small fee? The rights over the series have been much contested between Reiche and Ford, who seem to own the copyright, and strategy game publisher Stardock, who bought the rights to the Star Control trademark. Stardock developed a Star Control 2 sequel of their own,Star Control: Origins, back in 2018.
Part of the settlement was that both parties would continue to make their games, with Reiche and Ford offering writing support to Stardock Star Control games, and Stardock offering technology support to Reiche and Ford. Reiche and Ford are seemingly unable to continue using the Star Control trademark, but can use everything else.
To coincide with the release, Pistol Shrimp are launching a podcast in which they’ll discuss The Ur-Quan Masters' legacy with other developers, with episodes announced which will featureFallout’s Tim Cain,BioShock’s Ken Levine, Firewatch’s Chris Remo, and more. There’ll be anaudio versionandYouTube uploads.
If all of this still seems faintly baffling to you, then as always Richard Cobbett hasthe goods on why The Ur-Quan Masters matters.
