It is not often that I am inspired to compose a letter with a focus on complaint, but my exposure to the news
that you issued a Cease and Desist to the developers of Crimson Echoes necessitated that such a letter be
written.
I understand that you are well within legal grounds to demand that they stop work. I understand that you own
this IP. However, any amount of positive outcome from the legal justice you exercised is going to be drowned
out by community backlash.
The developers and community behind Crimson Echoes sleep, breathe and bleed Chrono Trigger. They have
dedicated a substantial portion of their life to the creation of what amounts to amazingly-detailed fan art. It
seems to me that this is entirely the incorrect way to treat near-rabid fans. It is these fans who keep ailing IPs
fresh and at least somewhat in the public eye. Without them, the likes of CT for the DS wouldn't have sold a
fraction of what it did. It seems like they are treating the IP with more respect than you have.
It's a kidney punch and a knife to the heart to have dealt with Crimson Echoes in this fashion. As far as my
understanding goes, there was not even a "thank you for your efforts"; just a request for deletion of any any
all works associated.
Additionally, this is the second fan work in which it appears you've elected to wait until the very last moment
to stop. Surely with all the marketing and word-of-mouth generated for and about this project, you've known
about this work for a considerable amount of time. I wonder why you choose to wait until a work is years into
production to demand its deletion.
It is not so much the act of requesting cessation of work on dedicated fan projects that frustrates me
(although it confuses the dickens out of me as to why you'd ever want to curtail such manifest, unbridled
passion for your creations). Instead, it was the method in which you went about it.
It's going to be very hard for me to consider purchasing product related to Square-Enix in the future. This is an
action I don't take lightly, as I've been a fan since FF1 and Secret of Mana.
I ask you to reconsider your decision, or even to just outright purchase the project and release it as your own.
As the developers said on their site, I sincerely hope this action is a sign that Square Enix cares about the
franchise and intends to produce future titles, and not merely a shortsighted legal exercise that will further
alienate a tired, neglected fan-base.
Thank you for your time.
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As the developers said on their site, I sincerely hope this action is a sign that Square Enix cares about the
franchise and intends to produce future titles, and not merely a shortsighted legal exercise that will further
alienate a tired, neglected fan-base."
That's the part I most agree with.
Nice letter, but honestly, even though I might sound dickish, I don't have a problem with what they did. They JUST released a DS game that is still retailing for $40 for crying out loud. Crimson Echoes had since the SNES days to come out, and now they have to deal with bad timing on THEIR part.
This is the most bullshit statement out of the whole write up:
"Without them, the likes of CT for the DS wouldn't have sold a fraction of what it did."
Get the fuck out. Chrono Trigger was great when I was 9 years old, and its still the same great game. Crimson Echoes/fanservice didn't do shit.
*Long, hard, raspberry sound*
Fuck you,
Square Enix
At least someone's doing something about this, congrats if you send it off.
You do realize that CT came out during a time when RPG's where pretty niche right? It wasn't until Final Fantasy 7 that they REALLY took off.
I played it when I was younger as well but you can't expect everyone to have bought it back then, the kind of sales back then aren't the same now.
Jinky's point is that things like this keep the community for that game alive, there's lots of titles that go under the radar or just fade but there's a dedicated group that wants to see it continue and they contribute to it.
I understand this is Square's property but it was still a MASSIVELY dick move on their part to wait just before the game was about to come out, the game was quite public, they must have known about it for quite awhile and they decide to wait till it days from release to send a C&D? Yea that's just fucked up.
All this does is just alienate fans and piss people off. I don't understand the harm in something like this, it is free after all. Oh well.
I thought it was pretty popular back then. For many, it was the "welcome to RPGs" game, and the original "FF7 icebreaker".
I'm torn between Square dicking them over at the last minute, and CE taking this long to complete...if only they had just finished it sooner. I assume this will be up via torrent though, someday soon.