I would love to see this released but I mean come on! Despite a few lousy sequels during the years this is a forgotten property. How much money can the guy want! | |
The issue was probably that they wanted to tie up the characters again for an extended period of time on all consoles (and then ride them into the ground ala sonic). Here's hoping they work something out, because as you said, this shouldn't be a million dollar deal. Sure, I like these guys, but many game players today have both no *idea* who they are, and weren't old enough/alive to get the references this remake would make. | |
I always loved the ToeJam and Earl games. I would love to see one on XBLA. | |
Seriously, this game was a huge part of my life circa 1991. | |
Wow, little disappointed this is tied up right now. Toe Jam and Earl was one of the better series on Genesis. Hope this pans out so I can spend my MS points on it. | |
Come out on ps3 dammit you got me into gaming in the first place also look at my pic | |
Interesting since it's been on the Wii Virtual Console for quite a while already. | |
Maybe he doesn't have a staff capable of porting a game from cartridge to Xboxlive. His staff page shows that they are a pretty small group. | |
I wish ToeJam & Earl came out for XBLA, though again it's been on VC for a while. | |
I was beginning to wonder if anybody else realised this. | |
I feel like a terrible gamer, but I could never get myself to go out and buy a product with the word, "Toejam" in it. | |
I think I may be the only gamer to be born around the PS1 era, never owned a Megadrive at any point in time and still know who ToeJam and Earl are! Also the game is on Virtual Console, so how exactly did it get on VC and yet there's something wrong with releasing on XBLA? | |
Extra Punctuation
MovieBob: Intermission
Experienced Points
First Person
Exploding Barrels
Miracle of Sound: Encore
Loading Time
Special Attack
Backchat
Drinking Games
Escape to the Movies
Escapecraft
Escapist News Wrap - Premium
Escapist Podcast
Feed Dump
GinxTV
Jimquisition
LoadingReadyRun
Mahalo
Meatbag and Co
Media Sandwich
Miracle of Sound
No Right Answer
Pro-Gamer Gauntlet
Reviews
Space Janitors
Tales from the Table
The Big Picture
The Escapist Presents
The Retro Show
Trailers
Unskippable
Zero Punctuation
Max Payne 3 Review
Company of Heroes 2
XCOM Enemy Unknown
Black Ops 2
Diablo 3 Review
TERA Review
Firefall Beta Preview
Starhawk Review
Critical Miss
Name Game
ToeJam & Earl's XBLA Future Uncertain
Sega may have forgotten that it needs to own the rights to videogames it wants to re-release.
Back in summer, Sega held a poll to determine which of its classic Genesis games would be released on Xbox Live Arcade next, with ToeJam & Earl coming out as the victor. Even though the official poll page states that ToeJam & Earl will be released on XBLA soon, there appear to be some rights ownership hurdles in the way.
According to ToeJam & Earl creator Greg Johnson, Sega doesn't currently own the rights needed to release the game. Johnson told Joystiq: "[Sega] sort of got ahead of themselves a little bit and didn't realize that they don't have the rights to the property. It's an easy mistake to make - with every game contract being different, and new versions of contracts for releases always superseding old contracts, and rights' expiration dates, etc."
Sega wanted to get the rights to the funky duo some eight months ago, primarily to use them in Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing, but offered Johnson "very little money, and they wanted to tie up the rights to the characters across all platforms for an extended period." Johnson is evidently waiting for Sega to get back to him with a better offer, saying "the ball is in their court."
This may be disappointing news to ToeJam & Earl fans that were expecting to see the game released on XBLA possibly even by the end of 2009. Johnson, currently running HumaNature Studios, also revealed to Joystiq that he shopped around a ToeJam & Earl multiplayer DS game but didn't receive any interest.
I'm not an expert on rights and trademarks and such, but couldn't Johnson try releasing ToeJam & Earl on XBLA or other platforms himself? If the blinged out alien creations won Sega's poll, it could be worth the investment and time.
Source: Joystiq
Permalink