Magna Mundi - The Game

[garbon]

B. I'm pretty sure the contract was very much in Paradox's favour. 

If it was anything like the one that I signed then yes, it was very much in P'dox's favor.

[sbr]

The Magna Mundi dev team make a final, joint statement

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?616220-A-joint-statement-concerning-Magna-Mundi

We know that many of you have been wondering about the MM developers and there have been few statements. Some of us have thought long and hard about what we want to say and have decided to issue a joint statement.

A lot has happened behind the scenes, but none of it matters now. We have each terminated our contracts with Universo Virtual since we were only ever interested in the fate of Magna Mundi. While we wish Universo Virtual the best of luck in its future endeavors in spite of all has transpired, we do not in any way endorse legal action, nor expect it to accomplish much.

This has been an emotional and exhausting couple of weeks so far for all involved. We have said some unfortunate things that we now regret and for which we beg pardon. We also would like to thank all of our fans who have taken the time to show support for us. Unfortunately, it seems we did not quite make it to the finish line in time.

It has been a true honor and a privilege to work with many of the bright and talented people on the Magna Mundi team. Our team was a revolving door of faces and names, but we would like to take the time to acknowledge the many contributions of our former colleagues and pay tribute to their achievements.

• Andres created a realistic map by combining many data sources with complex algorithms. 
  
• Anton maintained the MMDT history tools.
  
• Brittany wrote a fantastic manual and the text of a truly innovative tutorial.. 
  
• Carlos G. was a creative and ambitious guy without whom this project would never have started.
  
• Carlos S. brought us a great new system of combat with an AI to match. 
  
• Daniel B. was an unsung hero who managed the server and kept things running. 
  
• Fernando M. gave us the unit models. 
  
• Hernan was an awesome beta tester and contributed to the Spanish translation.
  
• Jacques gave us a shiny new naval system. 
  
• Jan contributed to work on the renderer and improving the look of the game..
  
• Jorge G. did the large part of the UI engine work for the game . 
  
• Jorge M. contributed on many fronts, including Transferables.
  
• Juan gave us factions, the engine work for the tutorial, counters, and was instrumental on the new renderer.
  
• Miguel implemented rank, a new system of piracy, and animations, among other things. 
  
• Nick provided us with an excellent save game editing tool.
  
• Rui did fantastic work on QA and provided support in many areas, including localization and balance.
  
• Stefan gave us our attractive non-unit models.
  
• Zaki gave us the implementations of the Tribal and Merchant Marine mechanics.
  
• Others, such as Brent, Joseph, Alex L., Alex W., Julien, and the many other betas and contributors to the project also made important contributions to the project.
  
• All of the Paradox betas who tried to help us test our game, with a special mention to Seelensturm, who singlehandedly reported around 100 bugs. In truth, most of the versions you saw were more like alpha versions, and we thank you for your commitment, good will, and patience in the face of everything.
  

We do not know what the future holds. We feel that it takes honesty, openness, and trust to ever build anything worth doing like Magna Mundi. Should Paradox see fit to continue the game in any form, we would gladly offer our services. That is, after all, what we wanted, and still want: to see the fruits of our collective labor. Whatever comes to pass, all we know is that at least some of us may work together again.

Yours,

James Coe (Vishaing, Former Scripter, Magna Mundi)
Daniel Danborg (RevoltingFriend, Former Artist, Magna Mundi)
Merse Kovácsházi (k_merse, Former Database Editor, Magna Mundi)
Jun-Hee Lee (Ese Khan, Former Scripter, Magna Mundi)
Lars Maischak (Helius, Former Scripting Lead, Magna Mundi)
Michael Myers (MichaelM, Former Engine Developer, Magna Mundi)
Anuraag Pakanati (Zeitgeist, Former Engine Lead, Magna Mundi)
Ignacio Sagüés Serrano (LoK-y-Yo, Former Spanish Translator, Magna Mundi)
Maxim Yudin (Ignatich, Former Engine Developer, Magna Mundi)

[Phillip V]

[Maladict]

I never cared for the game, but I'm completely fascinated by what's happening 

[Maladict]

Unsurprisingly, it's been leaked.
Even more unsurprisingly, it appears to be a piece of shit.

[Solmyr]

Heh, ubik is apparently going to contact EA and offer them something "interesting".

[Tamas]

What a disaster. I feel sorry for the dev team (not ubik). All their work ending up in this disgrace, making a big noise while circling down the toilet.
Sad.

[Faeelin]

Unsurprisingly, it's been leaked.
Even more unsurprisingly, it appears to be a piece of shit.

Oh? Do tell.

[Maladict]

Unsurprisingly, it's been leaked.
Even more unsurprisingly, it appears to be a piece of shit.

Oh? Do tell.

Just what I'm reading on Pdox.

[garbon]

Looks like ubik really is taken legal action given that the P'dox spokesperson was talking about court or settling.

[sbr]

The key part is at the end of ubik's open letter to Fredrik Wester (Paradox CEO):

In my book, cancelling a game at this stage and in these conditions while demanding back the money used for funding its development for two and a half years, demanding also the engine of the game, continuing to enjoy the ownership of the brand and retaining the possibility of releasing Magna Mundi for you, has a far uglier name than "cancellation".

Not only is he losing all of the work done, he is losing Magna Mundi as a brand and going to have to repay at least some of the money Paradox gave him.

[garbon]

Don't see why that shouldn't be the case. Looks like he effectively hoodwinked them / presumably all of that was in the contract that he signed...

[DGuller]

The key part is at the end of ubik's open letter to Fredrik Wester (Paradox CEO):

In my book, cancelling a game at this stage and in these conditions while demanding back the money used for funding its development for two and a half years, demanding also the engine of the game, continuing to enjoy the ownership of the brand and retaining the possibility of releasing Magna Mundi for you, has a far uglier name than "cancellation".

Not only is he losing all of the work done, he is losing Magna Mundi as a brand and going to have to repay at least some of the money Paradox gave him.

At that rate, Paradox is going to ask ubik to dig into his ass and return their semen.

[sbr]

Don't see why that shouldn't be the case. Looks like he effectively hoodwinked them / presumably all of that was in the contract that he signed...

Oh I agree, it just makes the legal action look a little more reasonable on ubik's part.  Losing the game is bad enough, I can't imagine he has all that Paradox cash just lying around somewhere to return.

Though it would still likely make it impossible to find another publisher for the next big UV release.

[szmik]

Don't see why that shouldn't be the case. Looks like he effectively hoodwinked them / presumably all of that was in the contract that he signed...

so did Paradox pay for FTG development upfront too?