The story around the new “Corsairs” has taken an unexpected turn. Director Mail.Ru Games Ventures Ilya Karpinsky said in his Facebook post that his fund is ready to invest $ 1 million in the development of the game. However, to do this, developers will need to create a prototype of the game.
The proposal is addressed both to Black Sun Game Publishing and to the side in the conflict represented by Dmitry Arkhipov.
Karpinsky suggested that both teams create a prototype. After receiving them, the foundation will show the games to 100 players and journalists. They will choose the winner who Mail Ru Games Ventures will provide funding and help with both marketing and publishing (including access to Kickstarter).
The team that loses will have to give up their claims to the project.
Recall that on February 20, the Russian developer Black Sun Game Publishing announced a campaign to raise funds for the creation of the game “Corsairs: Black Mark” (“Corsairs 4”). The next day, Dmitry Arkhipov, co-founder of Akella, the developer and publisher of the first three parts, said that the creators of the new game do not have rights to the trademark of the series.
Black Sun Game Publishing commented on the charges, noting that it won the court regarding the rights to use the Corsairs brand and since November 17, 2017, this trademark in relation to digital games no longer belongs to either Akella or the last copyright holder of the brand, the STATUS STM company.
After that, Arkhipov announced that the litigation has not yet been completed. Moreover, if there is serious interest from investors, he is ready to start cooperating with them to complete work on the original “Corsairs 4”, which were created together with Seaward. The project was frozen in 2008.
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