A ‘Discworld’ remake might need permission from The Royal Family
Discworld designer Gregg Barnett and co-founder of Narrativia production company Rhianna Pratchett have spoken about re-releasing the iconic point-and-click adventure game.
Based on the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett, an official video game was released in 1995 after designer Gregg Barnett managed to convince the reluctant Pratchett to grant Teeny Weeny Games and Perfect 10 Productions the licence.
The game was published by Psygnosis with a sequel Discworld 2: Missing Presumed…?! following in 1996 while Discworld:Noir came in 1999. The games were a hit upon their release and have gone on to become cult classics.
Now Barnett and Rhianna Pratchett, the co-founder of the Narrativia production company that was set up in 2012 by Terry Pratchett, have spoken about the difficulties in remaking the games.
According to Barnett, he owns half of the rights to the Discworld games as the creator “because the company Perfect Entertainment had been closed for over 10 years” while the other 50 percent had gone to the British Royal Family.
“Whenever something closes in the UK, intellectual property rights revert 50 percent to the original creator and 50 percent to the crown, which is King Charles. So that’s the two owners of the games,” he explained. “It’s obviously a complicated process when you’re dealing with the crown” but a rerelease “may happen”.
Rhianna Pratchett then responded [via Eurogamer] to say that Narrativia owns the rights to the characters, but not the games.
“If we did have the rights, then this would be a whole lot easier. We’re genuinely not sure who does own the rights because studios have been bought and sold over the years, along with IP. Last time we investigated this, they were thought to be with Sony, but that’s never been fully confirmed,” she added. “Who knows what might happen if [the crown really does own the rights]. Maybe he’s a fan.”
“We’d love to see the old games re-released [but] no one has spoken to us about any rerelease being on the cards,” Pratchett added.
This story has been updated with a few clarifications from me. Additionally no one has spoken to us about any re-release being on the cards. https://t.co/G0YnaMSsez
— Rhianna Pratchett
(@rhipratchett) February 13, 2024
Explaining the lack of new Discworld games, Pratchett said: “No one has come to us with the right ideas and the resources to actually make it happen”.
In other news, Hasbro has already earned over £71million in royalties from Baldur’s Gate 3 after licensing content from Dungeons & Dragons.
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Ali Shutler
NME
