Activision sues Viacom/Paramount

[Dark Psion]

From Trek Today

Video game publisher Activision announced today it is pulling out of its contract with Viacom to produce Star Trek games, and is suing the entertainment company for damages caused by the declining value of the Trek franchise.

In a complaint filed in Californian court yesterday, Activision accused Viacom of not exploiting the Star Trek franchise in the way it did in 1998, when Activision obtained a ten-year licence to develop Trek games. "Through its actions and inactions, Viacom has let the once proud Star Trek franchise stagnate and decay," the company said in a statement. "Viacom has released only one Star Trek movie since entering into agreement with Activision and has recently informed Activision it has no current plans for further Star Trek films."

The latter statement comes as the first official confirmation that the box office failure of Star Trek: Nemesis has put an end to the Trek movie franchise for the near future.

Other grievances from Activision include the fact the television branch of the audience has dwindled since 1998, when both Deep Space Nine and Voyager were still in production. "Viacom also has allowed two Star Trek television series to go off the air and the remaining series suffers from weak ratings. Viacom also frustrated Activision's efforts to coordinate the development and marketing of its games with Viacom's development and marketing of its new movies and television series."

After Activision obtained the Star Trek game licence in 1998, it embarked on a mission to develop several Trek games per year, quickly announcing titles such as Armada, Hidden Evil and Elite Force. However, most of the Trek games the company released for the PC failed to deliver large sales numbers. Only two games were even released for the consoles: Star Trek: Invasion and Voyager: Elite Force, for the PlayStation and the PlayStation 2, respectively.

The most recent Trek game released by Activision was Elite Force 2, and it seems this will be the last for a while. "As a result of the breaches by Viacom," the company's press release continued, "Activision has terminated the agreement and filed a complaint seeking to recover the damages it has suffered and will suffer as a result of Viacom's failure to abide by its agreement, and its stated intention to continue to breach its agreement."

Besides Elite Force 2, Activision was last reported to have at least one further Trek game in development, the action game Shattered Universe game for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. It is not known how these latest events will affect the development of this game, which was to have featured the voice of George Takei (Hikaru Sulu).


Here is the link to Activision:
http://www.activision.com/en_US/news_article_cc/a2d66498-9dde-49c0-ade0-fde70b0caab9.html

 

[Mark]

I've loved ST since I was a kid (now 40) but have never played a ST game; video, computer, RPG, CCG, Pin Ball, or otherwise. I would think that the over-exposure was hurting the franchise rather than helping at this point, though. Ya know what? They have three shows full of casts they could kill off now. Why don't they make a movie and make no promises who is going to survive and just start offing them? They could film multiple scenes to throw off the spies that sneak onto the sets, then quiet edit a few versions, but only end up releasing one. Kinda make it like a lottery...

 

[2d6]

The 25th aniversery star trek game was a great game, but Elite Force just rocked. Though not as deep as ST:25th it was big fun and the demo for EF2 looks to be just as good.


2d6

 

[myrdden]

The 25th aniversery star trek game was a great game, but Elite Force just rocked. Though not as deep as ST:25th it was big fun and the demo for EF2 looks to be just as good.


2d6

I agree. Elite Force was a great first person shooter even if it was set in the Voyager era. The game could have stood on its own even without the Star Trek connection I would suggest.

Myrdden

 

[Villano]

I've loved ST since I was a kid (now 40) but have never played a ST game; video, computer, RPG, CCG, Pin Ball, or otherwise. I would think that the over-exposure was hurting the franchise rather than helping at this point, though. Ya know what? They have three shows full of casts they could kill off now. Why don't they make a movie and make no promises who is going to survive and just start offing them? They could film multiple scenes to throw off the spies that sneak onto the sets, then quiet edit a few versions, but only end up releasing one. Kinda make it like a lottery...

Kill all the crew members off one-by-one, eh?

Y'know, Jason is still floating around in the future since Jason X.

SPOCK: Captain, we seem to have discovered some sort of...cyborg.

PICARD: Is it a Borg?

DAX: No, sir, it looks half-decomposed and it seems to be holding something.

PICARD: What is it?

CHECKOV: I don't know. Let me take a closer look. It appears to be some sort of large sword or knife.

WORF: What should we do, captain?

PICARD: Beam it aboard.

Ki, ki, ki, ma, ma, ma...

No, I'd better not give Paramount any ideas. Knowing them, not only wouldn't Janeway get killed, but she would end up the hero. Probably by reversing the polarity and firing something out of the deflector array.

 

[fba827]

I've loved ST since I was a kid (now 40) but have never played a ST game; video, computer, RPG, CCG, Pin Ball, or otherwise. I would think that the over-exposure was hurting the franchise rather than helping at this point, though. Ya know what? They have three shows full of casts they could kill off now. Why don't they make a movie and make no promises who is going to survive and just start offing them? They could film multiple scenes to throw off the spies that sneak onto the sets, then quiet edit a few versions, but only end up releasing one. Kinda make it like a lottery...

And in the end, only the new person in the red shirt will be left alive?

 

[Mark]

Maybe better to make a television series out of it called Star Fleet and run it for just one year. Include all primary and secondary characters from TNG, DS9 and Voy. They could have a poll on the internet asking who should die next. Each week they would take the undisclosed results and kill off the character with the most votes. At the end of the season the surviving characters would be featured in a full-length movie and possibly go on to be the regulars for any other franchise movies down the line.

 

[Wolf72]

Lovely Idea Mark!!!!

I'd be glued to the TV for every episode!

 

[Chun-tzu]

Kill all the crew members off one-by-one, eh?

Y'know, Jason is still floating around in the future since Jason X.

Star Trek vs. Aliens would be cooler!

 

[2d6]

I agree. Elite Force was a great first person shooter even if it was set in the Voyager era. The game could have stood on its own even without the Star Trek connection I would suggest.

Myrdden

It's ashame that we may not see anymore ST games for awhile, tho the general feelings on the various forums regarding the state of trekwould seem to support Activision's position.

(this was the ultimate message I was trying to convay above while medicated )


2d6