Lunar Threads

And Sega CD Lunar at that?

http://www.gamesarefun.com/news.php?newsid=6148

Rich just pointed it out to me. The news in itself is awesome (TG and Sega Genesis games on the Revolution confirmed) but if Sega CD support is also confirmed in some way, that would almost certainly mean Lunar is a possibility, considering it was one of the best selling games on the system.

I'm waiting on response as to whether or not Sega CD will be supported. The article will be updated when/if I get a response.

I will be a happy person if this happens.

Actually, I'm pretty happy about this news in general. However, it truly serves as a reminder that the old era of Nintendo and Sega is over.

I was at a GameStop today talking with the Employees there, Apparently according to them, Ubisoft now owns the US liscence to the Lunar name, so technically, Sega wouldn't have a say on whether or not Lunar appears on the Revo or not.

The subject came up when I was discussing the PS3's digital download service (I think it was PS3) about getting old PS2 and PS1 games, and I said that if that was the case, I'd get Lunars that way

Siazair wrote:I was at a GameStop today talking with the Employees there, Apparently according to them, Ubisoft now owns the US liscence to the Lunar name, so technically, Sega wouldn't have a say on whether or not Lunar appears on the Revo or not.

The subject came up when I was discussing the PS3's digital download service (I think it was PS3) about getting old PS2 and PS1 games, and I said that if that was the case, I'd get Lunars that way

Well, I'm not an expert in copyright law, but I think that would only apply to future Lunar games. I just can't think of any logical reason UBI Soft would be able to prevent this. The license agreement wouldn't give them ownership of what WD already made.

The only known fact on that is that UbiSoft owns the rights to Lunar Legend and Lunar Dragon Song. In terms of the Sega CD games, that's likely not true at all. And if my understanding is correct on all of it, GameArts would have the final say. Really though, if Sega CD games end up in the mix, Lunar is almost sure-fire in there. It was in the top 5 or so selling games for the system (might even have been in the top 3, not sure). Both here and in Japan. In fact, in Japan, I think it <i>was</i> the top selling game. So if they do Sega CD support, Lunar TSS, at the very least, would have to be one of the games. And if TSS is one, I don't see why EB wouldn't be.

This is all assuming SCD is included in this at all, which there is a decent possibility that it won't be, considering it wasn't the most successful console.

Siazair wrote:I was at a GameStop today talking with the Employees there, Apparently according to them, Ubisoft now owns the US liscence to the Lunar name, so technically, Sega wouldn't have a say on whether or not Lunar appears on the Revo or not.

As a general rule, I'd take anything a game store employee tells you with a grain of salt.

Honestly, I'm not exactly sure exactly what the legal situation is regarding who owns the rights to the US versions of the Sega CD Lunar games, but I doubt that it's UbiSoft. They licensed Legend and Dragon Song, but that doesn't imply that they've licensed the entire series or the name or anything like that. My understanding is that while Working Designs did have the rights to the Lunar trademark, it was a very unusual arrangement and not the kind of thing that anyone does any more. At any rate, I checked and the US Lunar trademark is now held by GameArts, though I'm not sure what implications, if any, that has for the rights to the Sega CD games.

IIRC, Nintendo said that they would be willing to negotiate with third parties to have their games available for download, so I'd figure the same applies to third party Sega and Turbografx games.

It would be neat if the Sega CD Lunar games were available for download, seeing as I've never had the opportunity to play them.

The big thing would be figuring out how to emulate them. They worked well because they were on CD, especially with TSS's music. And speaking of that, wasn't the reason SSS got a new soundtrack because GameArts and Iwadare didn't have the right to use TSS's soundtrack in it due to a liscensing issue? That was my understanding. So that would also have implications on putting it on the Revolution likely.

I didn't take them seriously, but really, emulation is the biggest hurdle...why would Ubisoft deny using TSS and EB...all they have to do is emulate it..and boom, done, easy money...

Yeah, even if UbiSoft does have a hand in it, I really see no reason why they would stop it.

Speaking of digital downloads, appearantly, although maybe just a rumor, sony is making a PSOne emulator for the PSP. If true, does this also mean we can play SSSC and EBC on a portable finally? If all this stuff comes true, I'll have no choice BUT to buy a revolution and PSP (was going to get a PSP eventually, but was against the revolution for retardedness reasons beyond insanity.)

http://psp.ign.com/articles/697/697642p1.html

It's true.

Do you think that they will make SSSC and EBC available for DL? Considering WD is out of business and the relatively low popularity of Lunar....

Lunar had good popularity when SSSC was released. EBC didn't do bad either. It probably all depends on how the system works though. I didn't even read the article. I just heard about it and saw a link so I posted it here when you brought it up.

Imperial Knight wrote:Honestly, I'm not exactly sure exactly what the legal situation is regarding who owns the rights to the US versions of the Sega CD Lunar games, but I doubt that it's UbiSoft. They licensed Legend and Dragon Song, but that doesn't imply that they've licensed the entire series or the name or anything like that. My understanding is that while Working Designs did have the rights to the Lunar trademark, it was a very unusual arrangement and not the kind of thing that anyone does any more. At any rate, I checked and the US Lunar trademark is now held by GameArts, though I'm not sure what implications, if any, that has for the rights to the Sega CD games.

The unusual situation with WD is that they had overlapping/consecutive licenses for so long, with the SCD, Saturn, and PSX. Their last license ended only about a year after EBC came out, which is why the merchandise and games stopped being sold. They did still retain something, though, because they sold some rights back to GA around the time Legend came out. It may even have been the rights to the translation, because that affected whether Ubisoft could use WD-specific names like Quark. (Remember when Laike was named Luc?)

And yeah, I'm pretty sure there was some licensing issue with TSS's music. None of it is used at all in the Japanese SSS; the bits of it that are quoted in SSSC were added by WD.

I have to say I'm not that excited about the games being downloaded. Maybe just because they wouldn't have pretty packaging and stuff, or that it will cheapen having the actual media. Just my reaction, probably not a rational one.

SSSC sold very well, got some award for it. 500K? I forget.

Well, when I say low popularity, I mean if you go up to someone and ask if they ever heard of Lunar, you get three reactions.

1. Lunar? Never heard of it.
2. Lunar? Yeah, I have it/played it, awesome game
3. Lunar? ARHEREREJKLWHERKHWER! DIE! LUNAR IZ TEH SUCKZORZ! FFVII FOREVARZ! ARGSAERKWE

Alunissage wrote:SSSC sold very well, got some award for it. 500K? I forget.

I believe the actual figure is closer to 250K, which is still very impressive, especially given WD's size.

The big feat was that it preordered over 100k. I remember Vic mentioning that.

Imperial Knight wrote:

Alunissage wrote:SSSC sold very well, got some award for it. 500K? I forget.

I believe the actual figure is closer to 250K, which is still very impressive, especially given WD's size.

Probably. I remember it was some big, round number, which unfortunately describes quite a lot of numbers. I am certain about the award, though, as I've seen it in person. I just don't remember exactly what it was for.

http://www.the-magicbox.com/Chart-USPlatinum.shtml

SSSC - 223k
EBC - 170k

For as much as SSSC, EBC deserves a great deal of credit. Sequels rarely outsell the first game, and considering it was released much later in the PSOne's life, that's a good figure. Both held their own quite well.