My Little Pony: Fighting Is Magic

[Kamil 315]

They would probably get in a lot of legal trouble for doing so. Anyone handling the commodity would then be subject to Hasbro's C&D order.

 

Even though I wasn't on the edge of my seat waiting for Fighting Is Magic to be released, it is a bit of a gut-punch to see a staple project of the fandom shelved. I hope they can resolve this issue, but it's difficult to get projects like this back on track once the horse is out of the barn.

 

I find it curious that two of their devs up and left. It is unclear from the blog post whether their departure is related to the recent legal issues.

The departure dates listed for both are several days before this announcement, though it is possible that Hasbro made the order before then and Mane6 had just been trying to find an alternative without announcing the claim until today.

[Yellow Diamond 7,579]

The departure dates listed for both are several days before this announcement, though it is possible that Hasbro made the order before then and Mane6 had just been trying to find an alternative without announcing the claim until today.

I had the impression that Mane6 received the C&D several days ago but were only recently making it public. That would explain how they had the time to explore legal avenues.

[Kamil 315]

I had the impression that Mane6 received the C&D several days ago but were only recently making it public. That would explain how they had the time to explore legal avenues.

Probably, and to clarify: one of the two listed left in January 2012, more than a year ago. The other one was probably in response to the C&D.

[WillieNelson 8]

It's not outside of Hasbro's rights to do this, nor would it be outside their rights to allow the game to continue unhindered. Thus I started a petition:

https://www.change.org/petitions/hasbro-inc-allow-the-game-fighting-is-magic-to-continue-development-by-mane-6

 

Do with that what you will.

I am going to show that to everyone who can be bothered to listen. I will put it in the signature of every forum I go on, and go on a posting spree.

[Feather Gem 968]

I just died a little on the inside. There was so much hype about the game. If the game was fan made and free then the trademark violation isn't a valid reason for it getting canned. i have a theory, Hasbro is going to steal the idea and sell it as their own. just a theory not the truth. I hope this gets cleared up soon

I do not think they would do that.

Hasbro is a professional company. They are not stupid.

If they did that, whether or not they could be sued (I am not a lawyer so) they would get a large amount of hate and that would be extremely bad for them.

[Scootalove 10,692]

Yeah, I knew Hasbro would do something like this. This is why, game developers are not suppose to rush with making a game or it will fail then they will Seize and Desist.

[khaine21x3 789]

I am going to show that to everyone who can be bothered to listen. I will put it in the signature of every forum I go on, and go on a posting spree.

 

Well you only needed to post it on 4 chan and I think that they should take care of the rest even if the methods might be a little too extreme sometimes.

[Feather Gem 968]

Also, I'm sure this will all clear up sooner or later.

Maybe all Hasbro is doing is reminding us 'Hey, you're supposed to ask first, yeah?'. And they'll let them do it. Especially after they worked so hard on it. They can't be that cruel, I'm sure.

[WillieNelson 8]

Also, I'm sure this will all clear up sooner or later.

Maybe all Hasbro is doing is reminding us 'Hey, you're supposed to ask first, yeah?'. And they'll let them do it. Especially after they worked so hard on it. They can't be that cruel, I'm sure.

Corporations, in general, are infamous for disregarding personal feelings. Even if it'll crush the DevTeam and the fans, the majority of companies out there would take it down without batting an eyelash.

[SBaby 660]

Also, I'm sure this will all clear up sooner or later.

Maybe all Hasbro is doing is reminding us 'Hey, you're supposed to ask first, yeah?'. And they'll let them do it. Especially after they worked so hard on it. They can't be that cruel, I'm sure.

 

I wouldn't count on that.  This is looking like the exact same situation that happened with Chrono Resurrection.  And everyone who was there for that knows exactly how it ended.

 

The problem is the fact that the characters look almost identical to their TV counterparts, and that is what Hasbro's claim will be.

 

Posting the petition on 4chan MAY get Anonymous involved. But aside from that, I don't know what else we can do.

Edited February 9, 2013 by SBaby

[Phoenix237 353]

I don't know what to think.

I wa looking forward to playing this game.

 

Hopefully things will get worked out, but thats just me being optimistic.

In any case all is not lost.

The creators earned experience and will now be able to work on other projects should this game end perminatly.

"There is always a silver lining in a cloud".

[Kamil 315]

Posting the petition on 4chan

4chan... I swore I wouldn't go back there.

 

I also swore I would do what I can to save Fighting is Magic, even if that is just making sure everyone knows about the petition. Wish me luck, I may not return.

[Silver fox 117 49]

We need to do a strike NOW.  We stop watching their show. We stop buying their products until they let the mane6 continue their work.

[Rainbow Dash 1,473]

I do not think they would do that.

Hasbro is a professional company. They are not stupid.

If they did that, whether or not they could be sued (I am not a lawyer so) they would get a large amount of hate and that would be extremely bad for them.

they are considered a corporate 500 company so whatever they can do to make money. Even if that means having thousands of angry fans. I have heard about this sort of thing happening before. Fans come up with a really good idea and a company sees a way to make money while the maker wants to release it for free. So they use the bull crap trademark law and there goes a fan made idea.  I think since this fan made game was getting so popular Hasbro and their partners saw this as an opportunity to make money. If not then why isnt any other fan made things under scrutiny?

[Silver fox 117 49]

Here is the link to the petition to be signed all we need is 50 more signatures and hasbro will get it.

 

Please Bronies fight fight fight till we all die. For MANE 6

 

https://www.change.org/petitions/hasbro-inc-allow-the-game-fighting-is-magic-to-continue-development-by-mane-6#share

[Kamil 315]

We need to do a strike NOW.  We stop watching their show. We stop buying their products until they let the mane6 continue their work.

Unless you watch the show on the Hub through your TV, or using one of the official paid distribution options, Hasbro gets no money. I'm personally going to watch the episodes on the streams, but Hasbro products (including their subsidiary Wizards of the Coast) will no longer get my money.

 

Here is the link to the petition to be signed all we need is 50 more signatures and hasbro will get it.

 

Please Bronies fight fight fight till we all die. For MANE 6

 

https://www.change.org/petitions/hasbro-inc-allow-the-game-fighting-is-magic-to-continue-development-by-mane-6#share

Actually, I'm not entirely sure what the "50 more" part means. When I started the petition it said it only needed 100, but now it's up to 500. Reaching milestones is good though.

[Just some guy 1,070]

Also, I'm sure this will all clear up sooner or later.

Maybe all Hasbro is doing is reminding us 'Hey, you're supposed to ask first, yeah?'. And they'll let them do it. Especially after they worked so hard on it. They can't be that cruel, I'm sure.

You ever heard of Morroblivion?If you haven't,it was a mod for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion that was a copy-and-paste of the previous game,The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.This basically allowed Morrowind to be played on Oblivion's engine,and fans were stoked for it.Hell,Bethesda,the developer for The Elder Scrolls games,could potentionally make money off Morrowind again with this mod.Bethesda even endorses the community modding their games for any sort of reason and does acknowledge the fanbase quite a bit,so it should be all good,right?

 

Bethesda forced the guys making the Morroblivion mod to shut down their project.Immediately.

 

So if Bethesda,of all companies,forces a cease-and-desist on a mod that could potentionally help with more sales on one of their older games,I highly doubt Hasbro will allow a fan-made game to exist.Doesn't matter how much blood and sweat the fans put in,which is highly unfortunate because projects like these are basically free publicity for them.

[Puddlejumper 1,649]

I personally see no reason to boycott them over this. I'm not going to stop enjoying something I like because of this. Yes I was very much looking forward to the true release of the game, but since it was never released in the end nothing has changed other than Mane6 wasted a lot of time and there will be a lot of disappointed fans. Hopefully something gets worked out since Hasbro has not replied as of yet.

 

The Morrowind clone mod is kind of different though since it was basically just Morrowind running on Oblivion's engine. They took a fully released game and copied it. That would be like me taking a Marvel comic from their early days, scanning all the pages into digital vector formats, and then releasing through the internet. Non-profit or not I just completely stepped outside the bounds of "fair use". Fighting is Magic was sort of a parody and work of art, non-profit as well to boot, so it should fall within those lines. That kind of stuff though is determined case by case and I'm sure they would just rather not deal with court.

[Wubsie 1,123]

Aw man that's some bullshit.

I waited and rejected the leak and everything just to wait for Hasbro to shut it down just like that.

Well....time to go hunt down the leak.

[Wingnut 7,052]

Like most others, I too am dismayed at the Cease and Desist order.  A fighting game, it goes without saying, doesn't jibe with traditionally held views of the MLP franchise.  Those views are already evolving and there is no longer anything Hasbro can do to stop it.  They opened a real Pandora's box with the launch of MLP:FiM and still haven't figured out how to capitalize on the unexpected number of older fans it has. 

 

Even though Fighting Is Magic is an unsanctioned, unlicensed, endeavor, I was hoping Hasbro would be open minded enough to allow it to be.  Why not ask for a reasonable royalty payment for the use of MLP:FiM likenesses?  Instead, pulling the plug on the game altogether says Hasbro is still trying to live in the past when MLP truly was just a girls' toy. 

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,828]

Hasbro is pulling off a bunch of stupid fallacies so they can continue their "girl's toy line and other stuff". The reason why I say this is that My Little Pony was originally for girls. 

 

This is one of the reasons why this happened. Also their narrow-mindedness.

[Goose 181]

Hasbro probably didn't want a popular pony game floating about if it wasn't going to make any money from it. I guess they could argue it would take away some of their potential customers if they ever decided to release a game themselves. Total BS though.

[NavelColt 22,884]

https://twitter.com/Fyre_flye/status/300098640150687744

 

It would appear Lauren is in full support of helping Mane6 alter their game around, so that they don't have to scrap it. Not surprised in the least by this. Lauren was a big fan of Fighting is Magic, she stated so in one of the con panels ^^

[Aaramus 450]

Just woke up to this bad news, now I'm sad! 

 

Hasbro are really shooting themselves in the foot there, from what I've seen they've let the community do what it wants and so far that's worked well for them. It doesn't make any sense to me what they're doing. It's not like the actual targeted audience will even be playing this game, mainly because they probably don't have access to a PC in the first place!

 

This is so silly, just plain silly. I'm phoning them on Monday and I shall see if I can get the UK lot to shed some more light on this, although I highly doubt that will work at all.

Edited February 9, 2013 by Aaramus

[Java Jive 440]

They also couldn't have picked a worse time for this cease and desist. It's one thing to deny them this kind of project but at this stage of development after years of hard work and publicity is what really stings. No matter how you look at this, it really is a suckerpunch. I was really looking forward to this, such a shame.