PBWU and mixed news

[Morgan Vening]

So, the latest PBWU is out, and.... it's not great.

Looks like the most recent "months of behind the scenes working on quotes" has all been for naught. They'll know in 6 weeks or so. Or not. PB and timeliness, not something they're familiar with.

I know PB are going to get a lot of crap thrown at them for this announcement, but I do want to say, I'm glad they're saying something, even if it's bad news.

I fully expect PB to use that anger as an excuse to retreat again, but I hope they don't. It's their failure to engage that is the problem more than the news. Other campaigns have earnt some leeway in the past, and while I think for some, we're beyond that point, going silent isn't going to do them any favors, and just drive people who haven't completely given up yet, further into that category.

And that's just the PBWU. If this information doesn't go in a KSU, that's really pushing the bounds of "consistent communication" that was promised. It's literally been 3 months (Sept 10th) since the last Update. Thats 91 days. The second longest period of silence in the campaign's running. And that Update started with the following line. "Hey, guys. It’s Wayne. Sorry for the long silence.". Don't be sorry. Just stop being silent.

Again, I'm not sure PB CAN turn it around, even if everything goes well. But shutting down because they're getting slammed for shutting down, all but guarantees failure.

[jaymz]

I can only shake my head and just sigh in disgust.

[jcfiala]

Again, I'm not sure PB CAN turn it around, even if everything goes well. But shutting down because they're getting slammed for shutting down, all but guarantees failure.

It's more that they're at failure now, and they need to seriously work themselves towards success - especially if they want that Rifts board game to succeed. I wouldn't have backed the Savage Worlds Rifts if I didn't already know that Pinnacle had a history of hitting kickstarters out of the park. I'm not a backer for the game, but it'd be good to see Palladium pulling this off.

[wilycoyote]

Biggest standout from this weeks PBWU, is that this news (albeit not the best) should have been posted as a Kickstarter update.

By hiding it halfway through the WU, after the sales pitch for xmas packages, you could be forgiven for thinking that PB were trying to hide this rather than being open and communicative

[Drachnien]

They are already silent. there's been no update since September 9th and no new information since January.

[Spinachcat]

I suspect THIS is the important news.

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?t ... oogle.com/

If the Robotech movie happens, I can see RTT getting a huge boost from both collectors, gamers and new fans who right now are 10 years old and never heard of Robotech.

[Seto Kaiba]

I suspect THIS is the important news.

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?t ... oogle.com/

No, almost certainly not.

Those who've been following the project will find the "news" rather familiar... after all, it's the same thing they've been telling us for over nine years now. Next summer will mark a full decade of the movie allegedly being fast-tracked and maybe ready to go into production. It's a kind of non-answer that means "we haven't actually committed to make anything, but the rights don't expire for a while yet".

If the Robotech movie happens, I can see RTT getting a huge boost from both collectors, gamers and new fans who right now are 10 years old and never heard of Robotech.

Actually, the opposite should happen... because the proposed Robotech live action movie is, for legal reasons, a ground-up reboot of Robotech rather than an adaptation. It's the safest of bets that, should the movie actually be made and achieve success, Harmony Gold and Sony would jettison the existing Robotech materials and merchandise lines based on Japanese-owned material in favor of pursuing commercial exploitation of the new Robotech that they own free and clear. However, the limitations on Harmony Gold's license make it unlikely the film will get made... Japan is a major market, and they can't market Robotech there.

If Palladium were fantastically lucky they might be able to get a license to adapt RRT to the new Robotech... but the much more likely outcome is that the Palladium's RRT would die on the wire while a new tabletop license went to one of the bigger fish in the industry (e.g. GW or Fantasy Flight) that are more experienced and better-equipped to handle a high-profile licensed property.

[Morgan Vening]

Pretty much what Sebo said. Until I see a news article clearly stating that the movie studio has come to terms with both Harmony Gold, AND the Japanese claimants, I will remain skeptical of any "news" on the subject. Because if this does come to fruition, and one side is NOT on board, they're essentially conceding the franchise to the other. So I'd anticipate lawsuits, and that's when it starts to get messy for the studio.

And the expectation that the studio would keep, or even want to keep, the existing universe, would suggest an unfamiliarity with the way Hollywood appears to work. Nearly every franchise that gets rebooted gets completely retooled. Transformers is barely comparable to the source material beyond base concepts. It's unlikely to be Robotech in anything but name.

And again, as Seto mentioned, the studio is probably going to want to control merchandising, and shut down any brand-diluting products, as a condition of the license. And if gaming WERE to be an option, it'd either go to a bigger company, as Seto mentioned, or to a smaller company with a good track record. That would likely exclude Palladium Books. Their public track record on producing to anything resembling a schedule is pretty awful. Studio isn't going to want to hear why they missed the movie premiere, then the DVD release, then the Special Extended Release, then the FTA TV premiere, then the sequel.

EDIT: And it's not like that article is new news. It's almost three months old (ie, almost as long ago as PB's last Kickstarter Update, ie, a long time ago). Sure, things move slowly, but we've heard all this "it's almost ready to go!" several times already.

EDIT 2, ELECTRIC BOOGALOO: Here's a link to the breakdown on the timeframe and various "news items" about the movie deal stuck in hell since 2007. Multiple studios, multiple directors/screenwriters/actors. Note the varying dates, and that is why any excitement about imminence is probably a bit premature.

[Forar]

And 2007 is just the most recent movie deal. There's been murmurs in fan magazines (oh god, so old) dating back into the 90's, and of course people have been dreaming of it happening longer than that.

But it was getting nods from information sources that predate the internet (for widespread civilian use of course, don't be pedantic here). That's pretty damned far back.

[Seto Kaiba]

So I'd anticipate lawsuits, and that's when it starts to get messy for the studio.

The almost-overwhelming potential for litigious consequences is just one of many reasons that film industry insiders and even a former Harmony Gold staffers maintain the film will never be made. The biggest is that, due to the rise of the streaming services, Hollywood profits are shrinking as the home video market deteriorates and they're much less willing to gamble on risky or unproven properties. With its... colorful... track record and mountain of legal baggage in tow, Robotech is an incredible risk for very little possible reward.

Harmony Gold reps have actually credited the movie license for the abrupt halt in the development of anything new for Robotech, as well as the campaign to shut down fan films.

Mind you, from where I'm sitting it doesn't look like they need to wait for the remote possibility of a live action movie to kill Robotech RPG Tactics. If Robotech's obscurity and unpopularity didn't make it a foregone conclusion, the lack of foresight in development (e.g. scale) and Kickstarter's problems certainly did. I don't really see a way to save it, and I expect a similar trajectory to GW's specialty games... a long period of silence and nothing followed by a very quiet admission that the game is discontinued.