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[Momo]

On this point. Has any company every bought an IP from another company? (I mean while both companies are still alive and healthy, not buying up a dead company for their IP). The only thing that pops into my mind is the creator of the Nekketsu series buying the IP back and putting out some DS games (my memory on this is foggy though)

Wouldn't count. Technos Japan was already long dead by the time Million (made up of a number of ex-Technos staffers and founder) bought up the Kunio-kun brand and released River City Ransom EX and other such games years ago.

Anyway, if somebody actually had such an example to list, that'd be interesting to read...

So we were over in the Bayonetta II rumor thread, one thing led to another and Kamiya's previous IPs were brought up. The question I pose to you GAF : Has any company every bought an IP from another company while both were alive and healthy? If so I'd be terribly interested in having your examples and the circumstances surrounding said purchase if you have it.

I'm talking sales of IP only not entire companies being bought.

 

[benny_a]

Rockstar bought the Max Payne IP from Remedy in 2001.

Remedy is still alive.

 

[Fl1pp13]

I guess EA and Activision bought some IP's when they bought their entire studio with it. Doesn't count though if you ask me..

 

[twinturbo2]

Ubisoft bought the Driver IP from Atari, no?

 

[Momo]

Rockstar bought the Max Payne IP from Remedy in 2001.

Remedy is still alive.

Was Remedy in any financial difficulties? Do you know why they sold it perhaps?

I guess EA and Activision bought some IP's when they bought their entire studio with it. Doesn't count though if you ask me..

Yeah maybe I should add that I mean IP only and not wholesale company sales

 

[JaseC]

Was Remedy in financial difficulties? Do you know why they sold it perhaps?

Most likely. They did spend all of their own money on Alan Wake.

Edit: Sorry, I misread your post. I wouldn't say they were in financial trouble at the time but chances are they did sell off the Max Payne IP to create a nest egg for the development of Alan Wake.

 

[Ooccoo]

Gearbox bought the Duke Nukem IP, no?

I remember Turok was also up for grabs a couple years ago.

 

[JaseC]

Gearbox bought the Duke Nukem IP, no?

I remember Turok was also up for grabs a couple years ago.

Take-Two did, but 3D Realms ceased to be "alive and healthy" years ago.

 

[benny_a]

Was Remedy in any financial difficulties? Do you know why they sold it perhaps?

I don't know. Rockstar made the console ports, so maybe it was easier legally if they bought the IP for that.

 

[fernoca]

Warner Bros. bought Mortal Kombat (and a few other games) from Midway, for $33 million. (were also the only bidder, which surprised them as they bid earlier thinking others would jump-in)

Less than a month of sales of MK in April, and already WB was making profits of that purchase. XD

Mortal Kombat as a franchise was alive and healthy, but Midway as a publisher faced bankruptcy, so not even the money from MK was enough to recoup the costs and money they lost.

 

[StuBurns]

Rockstar bought LA Noire from Sony.

Platinum aren't a publisher anyway, buying those game IPs would be pretty useless.

 

[manueldelalas]

Didn't Nintendo buy Fatal Frame from Tecmo?

 

[Catshade]

Speaking of Rockstar, did they buy the Red Dead IP from Capcom?

 

[JaseC]

Warner Bros. bought Mortal Kombat (and a few other games) from Midway, for $33 million. (were also the only bidder, which surprised them as they bid earlier thinking others would jump-in)

Less than a month of sales of MK in April, and already WB was making profits of that purchase. XD

Midway may have been alive but they certainly weren't healthy.

 

[fernoca]

Midway may have been alive but they certainly weren't healthy.

Added more in the edit:

Mortal Kombat as a franchise was alive and healthy, but Midway as a publisher faced bankruptcy, so not even the money from MK was enough to recoup the costs and money they lost.

 

[Fl1pp13]

Didn't Atari buy the RollerCoaster Tycoon? It was first released by Hasbro, then by Inforgrames, and finally a third game by Atari.

 

[TreIII]

Warner Bros. bought Mortal Kombat (and a few other games) from Midway, for $33 million. (were also the only bidder, which surprised them as they bid earlier thinking others would jump-in)

Less than a month of sales of MK in April, and already WB was making profits of that purchase. XD

Yeah, I remember reading and LOL-ing about that. Even during its darkest days, MK always sold quite well, which makes one wonder why nobody else even thought it worth the time to try and fight for.

 

[[Nintex]]

I recall that Microsoft bought the rights for It's Mr. Pants from or for Rare before the buy out. Smith & Tinker bought the MechWarrior IP from Microsoft I believe. The Stampers tried to do the same with Sabreman but apparently failed. The rights for PGR were also sold to Microsoft they never bought Bizarre.

 

[Drkirby]

Guilty Gear comes to mind. Originally, Sammy owned the IP, while Arc System Works made the game. Sammy and Sega merged obviously, which caused some issues with the IP. For a while, this wasn't an issue, but eventually Sega Sammy didn't want Arc to work on the series any more. This is what initally got them to start making Blazblue, but Arc System Works has ether renegotiated the terms, or flat out bought the rights from Sega Sammy.


Oh, a much better one, Rockstar Bought the Red Dead IP from Capcom.

Didn't Nintendo buy Fatal Frame from Tecmo?

No, they just funded the development for #4. And they also coincided the rights to publish it over seas, so they are not the soul reason the game never came out in officially in English, the fact that no one else wanted to publish the game is the main problem.

 

[JaseC]

Speaking of Rockstar, did they buy the Red Dead IP from Capcom?

They did indeed.

 

[ram]

So we were over in the Bayonetta II rumor thread, one thing led to another and Kamiya's previous IPs were brought up. The question I pose to you GAF : Has any company every bought an IP from another company while both were alive and healthy? If so I'd be terribly interested in having your examples and the circumstances surrounding said purchase if you have it.

I'm talking sales of IP only not entire companies being bought.

brütal legend -> vivendi/activision ->>>> ea

driver -> atari (i believe they wanted to sell this ip) ->>>> ubisoft

true crime (okay its the game not the ip) -> activision ->>>> square enix

 

[StuBurns]

Didn't someone buy the Fear IP or something? Something happened there.

I think the Brutal Legend IP is owned by the studio, and I don't think SE bought the IP to True Crime, just the game which they will rebrand.

EDIT: Oh that one I missed the parentheses on.

 

[snoopeasystreet]

TellTale bought Sam and Max

 

[Ezalc]

Didn't Insomniac sell the Spyro IP? I remember them saying that they sold it because they didn't know what else to do with it... and then whoever bought it ran it into the ground.

 

[JaseC]

Didn't Insomniac sell the Spyro IP? I remember them saying that they sold it because they didn't know what else to do with it... and then whoever bought it ran it into the ground.

Nah, they were in a similar situation as Naughty Dog in that despite developing the IP for a single platform, the IP itself was owned by Universal.

 

[Drkirby]

TellTale bought Sam and Max

No, they did not. Sam and Max still belongs to Steve Purcell. Telltale simply purchased thea Licnese to produce Video Games for the series after LucusArts decided they were no longer going to make Adventure games. They didn't even have to buy out the License, the LucasArts License expired at the end of 2005, and they simply didn't renew it.

 

[fernoca]

Didn't someone buy the Fear IP or something? Something happened there.

Kinda:

It's a bit funny how the corporate world works. In 2005, Sierra and Monolith put out an acclaimed first-person shooter called F.E.A.R. that blended elements of Japanese-style horror with kinetic gunplay. But prior to that, in 2004, Monolith was acquired by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, which meant that things would get complicated for any follow-up. Sierra owned the name F.E.A.R., but Monolith was the company responsible for actually making it. So what happened next was a bit comical. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced Project Origin, a game that would effectively be the spiritual successor to F.E.A.R., while Sierra would make F.E.A.R. 2 with another developer.

And then came 2008. Vivendi Universal Games, the parent organization of Sierra, merged with Activision to become the largest third-party publisher in the world. VUG's crown jewel, of course, is Blizzard, the studio responsible for World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, and Diablo. Sierra's lineup was examined, and most of its games were recently dropped. Indeed, Sierra's future is in doubt.

Senseing an opportunity, Warner Bros. and Monolith struck, and they are announcing today that they have acuired the F.E.A.R. name, meaning that the creator of F.E.A.R. once again has access to the name. To that effect, Project Origin is being renamed to F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin.

Why not drop the Project Origin name altogether? Well, for one, there has already been quite a bit of branding associated with that name, but more importantly, when Monolith lost the F.E.A.R. name it asked its community for suggestions to replace it. In a contest, Project Origin was chosen, and thus, the name has ties to the F.E.A.R. community.​

 

[Momo]

Thanks for the examples and explanations guys :3

Warner Bros. bought Mortal Kombat (and a few other games) from Midway, for $33 million.

Is this the only one we ever got a monetary value on? Seems like a total steal for MK + other IPs.

 

[JaseC]

Added more in the edit:

Mortal Kombat as a franchise was alive and healthy, but Midway as a publisher faced bankruptcy, so not even the money from MK was enough to recoup the costs and money they lost.

True, but the OP seems to be after examples of companies selling off IPs despite their financial situation not requiring such an act.

 

[Nirolak]

Rebellion bought a lot of Activision IPs like Evil Genius.

Relic bought Homeworld and never did anything with it.

 

[JaseC]

Relic bought Homeworld and never did anything with it.

This is worse than EA sitting on the System Shock IP.

 

[snoopeasystreet]

No, they did not. Sam and Max still belongs to Steve Purcell. Telltale simply purchased thea Licnese to produce Video Games for the series after LucusArts decided they were no longer going to make Adventure games. They didn't even have to buy out the License, the LucasArts License expired at the end of 2005, and they simply didn't renew it.

My bad. I always assumed they bought it outright.

 

[AbsoluteZero]

I think Schafer/Double Fine bought back the rights to Psychonauts from Majesco, but that might just be the case of the license expiring or something.

 

[fernoca]

Thanks for the examples and explanations guys :3

Is this the only one we ever got a monetary value on? Seems like a total steal for MK + other IPs.

Yeah, it was a steal. Plus WB was already making money (though New Line Cinema); because of the DVD sales, and broadcast-rights of the first 2 movies. Which was also another reason they jumped fast on it, they had ties to it, so they knew there was a lot of money liying there if they took care of it.

Now, guess we'll know in a few years if they continue taking care of it, or decide to release one every year..and throw a few crappy movies too.

 

[Takao]

Didn't Atari buy the RollerCoaster Tycoon? It was first released by Hasbro, then by Inforgrames, and finally a third game by Atari.

One in the same. Hasbro bought the company acting as Atari in the late 90s, and changed them to Hasbro Interactive. Hasbro later sold Hasbro Interactive and its related properties to French Publisher Infrogrames. Infrogrames later changed their name to Atari.

Ubisoft bought the Driver IP from Atari, no?

Atari's not a healthy publisher.

 

[SMT]

The biggest blow was NAUGHTY DOG selling Crash Bandicoot to ValueSoft, like wtf?

Spyro being sold to value-soft as well, they met in racing game lol

 

[Momo]

True, but the OP seems to be after examples of companies selling off IPs despite their financial situation not requiring such an act.

I'm wondering what it takes for a company to sell to another without being in impending financial doom. I'm also interested in older IP being sold off after being dormant for a while and the motivations behind it.

 

[Takao]

While Atari's not healthy, this is an IP that accounted for 50% of their revenue - Dragon Ball. Atari's license to Dragon Ball was set to expire January 2010. However, in 2009 Bandai Namco began publishing Dragon Ball video games worldwide, starting with the PSP tie-in to Evolution (the first of 4 DB video games that year published by Scamco). It's likely Scamco bought out the remaining year on Atari's contract.

The biggest blow was NAUGHTY DOG selling Crash Bandicoot to ValueSoft, like wtf?

Spyro being sold to value-soft as well, they met in racing game lol

As mentioned above, the developers, and Sony never owned those IPs in the first place. They were owned by Universal, who are now a part of Activision.

 

[JaseC]

The biggest blow was NAUGHTY DOG selling Crash Bandicoot to ValueSoft, like wtf?

Spyro being sold to value-soft as well, they met in racing game lol

ND never owned the Crash IP and Insomniac never owned the Spyro IP. Universal owned both. Ownership has changed hands here and there over the years due to buyouts/mergers and both currently rest in the hands of Activision.

I'm wondering what it takes for a company to sell to another without being in impending financial doom. I'm also interested in older IP being sold off after being dormant for a while and the motivations behind it.

Ah.

 

[Alrus]

The biggest blow was NAUGHTY DOG selling Crash Bandicoot to ValueSoft, like wtf?

Spyro being sold to value-soft as well, they met in racing game lol

Those IPs weren't owned by ND in the first place as far as I remember.

 

[Momo]

Speaking of Rockstar, did they buy the Red Dead IP from Capcom?

Reading up on this I see they bought the IP from Capcom midway through the dev process of Red Dead Revolver before anything was published. I can see why Capcom would sell in this case as it would really not hold any value for them as yet and they probably recouped a nice chunk of the costs the put into it. This would allow them to focus on other (more promising in their eyes) projects. Good on Rockstar for running with this and making it what it is.

Still not what I'm looking for but I'm reading up on everything mentioned in this thread post by post

 

[Heart Attack]

great thread.

I believe EA bought criterion and the burnout IP from AKKLAIM when they went bankrupt. Disney bought the TUROK IP from them as well, but now its dead . Ghostbusters: the videogame was also sold by ATARI, and bought from ACTIVISION.

 

[Momo]

Rockstar bought the Max Payne IP from Remedy in 2001.

Remedy is still alive.

In 2002, Remedy sold all rights to Max Payne to Take-Two Interactive for US$10 million and 969,932 shares of stock

What in the hell happened here? After Max Payne 2 there is a seven year gap till their next game Alan Wake. Im guessing they needed the $10 mill to keep afloat till someone could come in and fund Alan Wake for them.

The more I read about them the more I see they are probably a company that lives one flop away from studio closure sadly.

Ubisoft bought the Driver IP from Atari, no?

What a total clusterfuck.

In the fiscal year of 2002 IESA had a net loss of $67 million on revenues of $650 million, and in 2003 the net losses increased to $89 million. In 2006 IESA reported a net loss of $201 million on revenues of $525 million, and debts of around $290 million.From 1999 to 2006 IESA accumulated losses totaling €500 million.

In 2004 Infogrames sold the rights to the Civilization franchise to Take-Two Interactive for $22.3 million and closed down Legend Entertainment studios. Also that year Infogrames lost the right to publish games of the phenomenally popular Unreal franchise when the game's developer Epic games signed with Midway Games. In June 2005, Infogrames sold back to Hasbro the digital rights to most Hasbro properties including Transformers, My Little Pony and Connect Four, but not Dungeons and Dragons, for $65 million.

On April 2007 Infogrames' founding chairman Bruno Bonnell left the company after 24 years; on the day of the announcement of his departure IESA's shares jumped 24%. After his resignation, Infogrames through the remainder of 2006 sold intellectual properties and some studios in order to raise cash and stave off the threat of bankruptcy.

In May 2006 IESA sold the rights to the games Stuntman to THQ and Timeshift to Saber Interactive. The sales generated $13 million in revenue. THQ also bought developer Paradigm Entertainment from IESA. In July 2006 IESA sold the game developer Reflections Interactive and the rights to the Driver franchise for $21.6 million to Ubisoft. In October, Shiny Entertainment was acquired by Foundation 9 Entertainment for $1.6 million. In November of the same year Atari Melbourne House was sold to Krome Studios and renamed to Krome Studios Melbourne.

In 2007 Infogrames fired the majority of Atari's directors and laid off 20% of its workforce. For the 2006-2007 fiscal year Atari posted a net loss of $70 million

 

[Rad-]

What in the hell happened here? After Max Payne 2 there is a seven year gap till their next game Alan Wake. Im guessing they needed the $10 mill to keep afloat till someone could come in and fund Alan Wake for them.

The more I read about them the more I see they are probably a company that lives one flop away from studio closure sadly.

They used that money to fund AW till 2007 or so. They are a small studio so they aren't that costly.

I recall that Microsoft bought the rights for It's Mr. Pants from or for Rare before the buy out. Smith & Tinker bought the MechWarrior IP from Microsoft I believe. The Stampers tried to do the same with Sabreman but apparently failed. The rights for PGR were also sold to Microsoft they never bought Bizarre.

They only licensed the IP. MS still owns it I think.

 

[Momo]

They used that money to fund AW till 2007 or so. They are a small studio so they aren't that costly.

It still seems like such a long time for a studio to survive without any product :I

Rockstar bought LA Noire from Sony.

Platinum aren't a publisher anyway, buying those game IPs would be pretty useless.

I disagree, there is value in owning your own IPs. Not saying Platinum would be smart to try and buy those from Capcom though.

In February 2004, Brendan McNamara, Team Bondi's president, responded to an interview with Kristen Reed that "the project is wholly funded by Sony Computer Entertainment America. We have a long-term exclusive arrangement with SCEA." On 11 June 2007, Take-Two Interactive, the sole publisher of Rockstar Games, re-confirmed the release of the PlayStation 3 version by listing it amongst its "announced to date" titles for "fiscal 2008" in a press release regarding the company's second quarter financial results. However, during the shareholders conference-call, a spokesperson for Take Two implied that both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 releases were likely and that "L.A. Noire is being developed for next-generation systems." At that point, however, L.A. Noire had only been officially announced for the PlayStation 3.

Not a lot on this, doesn't quite fit the criteria I was looking for though. I imagine Sony grew impatient and decided to cut their losses. I'm hoping to find examples of post published IPs being sold with no financial need to.

Guilty Gear comes to mind. Originally, Sammy owned the IP, while Arc System Works made the game. Sammy and Sega merged obviously, which caused some issues with the IP. For a while, this wasn't an issue, but eventually Sega Sammy didn't want Arc to work on the series any more. This is what initally got them to start making Blazblue, but Arc System Works has ether renegotiated the terms, or flat out bought the rights from Sega Sammy

This is a great example. I wonder why segasammy decided to sell it back? I wonder if they were just decent people and did the right thing here.

Rebellion bought a lot of Activision IPs like Evil Genius.

Relic bought Homeworld and never did anything with it.

Interesting, so Rebellion basically bought these IP to republish old content and not because they had immediate plans for them?

Homeworld

 

[lupinko]

Didn't Atari buy the RollerCoaster Tycoon? It was first released by Hasbro, then by Inforgrames, and finally a third game by Atari.

Atari IS Infogrames, Infogrames bought the Atari name and just used it.

 

[Hyuga]

They did indeed.

lmao Oh man.....

 

[akilshohen]

This is a great example. I wonder why segasammy decided to sell it back? I wonder if they were just decent people and did the right thing here.

They had no use for it without Arc.

Would the SNK/Playmore sage be considered legit case of this?

 

[DJ Crimson]

Yea

 

[Atolm]

ctrl+f "Fallout"...