How can you figure who owns the rights of old games?

[fireflame]

I have been wondering if there was a public website where you could seek names of games to see who currently owns the rights.I suppose when the rights of a game are bought there is a track somewhere but if you don't live in the country where the game was bought it might be hard to figure, even more, when it is about old games.

I often contact directly developers of said games to ask them, but it is not always easy.

 

[Komo]

I have been wondering if there was a public website where you could seek names of games to see who currently owns the rights.I suppose when the rights of a game are bought there is a track somewhere but if you don't live in the country where the game was bought it might be hard to figure, even more, when it is about old games.

I often contact directly developers of said games to ask them, but it is not always easy.

Click to shrink...

Just check the name in the copyright registry.

 

[MarioW]

I have been wondering if there was a public website where you could seek names of games to see who currently owns the rights.I suppose when the rights of a game are bought there is a track somewhere but if you don't live in the country where the game was bought it might be hard to figure, even more, when it is about old games.

I often contact directly developers of said games to ask them, but it is not always easy.

Click to shrink...

Unless developers push that information out, there is no easy way to discern that from the outside (unlike, say, trademark registrations or company ownership). Ownership of individual game rights might be vested in individual employees, publishers, acquiring entities, IP purchasers, IP holding companies, investors, debtors - it really depends on what deals were done and the fate of the original company.

On top of that complexity, there may be split rights between for a game where one entity owns the IP and the other owns the underlying tech. And also there are instances where multiple companies share the rights, participate in derived revenues, or need to provide approval for anything that happens to it.

I've tried tracking down the rights to a couple of games from the 80s that I was interested to remake, and it was a mission that ultimately ended up being "too hard".

 

[Wulfric]

It depends. One entity can own the code, another can own the artwork, and a composer could have negotiated rights to the music. It's a mess basically.

 

[gagewood]

As the saying goes, start selling the game (or a remake, or something using the game's likenesses, etc.) and observe who sues you. :p

Kidding aside it seems that there was some lack of foresight in the 80s with properly documenting this kind of information and transferring it to newer (digital) archives. Plus with all the mergers, acquisitions, etc. over the years some things just got lost in the shuffle which is unfortunate.

 

[Phediuk]

With a lot of old stuff, no one knows who owns the rights anymore, as the companies involved have long since gone defunct and the creators have moved onto other things. The documentation has not been preserved and no one is keeping track of it.

Figuring out who owns the stuff is not worth your time as no one really knows or cares.

 

[Pyro]

Battle Royale