back to article You say Halo and I say goodbye: Microsoft has a word with unauthorised mod devs

Microsoft has come down hard on ElDewrito, a community-made mod for the cancelled Halo Online, lobbing DMCA takedown notices and sending its legal team to have a "brief conversation" with the modders. Halo Online was originally a free-to-play multiplayer PC game tested in Russia. With Microsoft doubtless preferring gamers …

  1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    Release the game on Russian servers

    And middle-finger Microsoft.

    BTW, anybody know if Putin likes Halo Online ?

    1. Voland's right hand Silver badge

      Re: Release the game on Russian servers

      You may be closer to the truth than you think.

      The Russian proposal for counter-sanctions against USA includes a middle-finger to USA IPR within Russian territory as well as some level of indemnity measures to support companies which will build product based on said IPR if the sanctions are ever rescinded.

      It was returned back to the committee stage in their parliament as not polished sufficiently. It is however, likely to pass within the next 1-2 months.

    2. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Trollface

      Re: Release the game on Russian servers

      Putin can use it to help train the Russian Army. Yeah, that'll fix things!

      1. Claptrap314 Silver badge

        Re: Release the game on Russian servers

        Actually, the US Army has been running a modded version of one of these games for more than a decade for actual training. The games are rerun with the instructors providing commentary.

        Fiction <-> Truth ; Life <-> Art

    3. J__M__M

      Re: Release the game on Russian servers

      Q: anybody know if Putin likes Halo Online ?

      A: yes, as long as the mod lets you play without a shirt.

  2. Dwarf

    Finally

    Microsoft have something that people seem to like and they try to shut it down...

    Try open sourcing Windows and see how much better it will be with 3rd party mods.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Finally

      Yep. They (MS that is) must feel threatened by this small outfit.

      Big Brother speaketh and the small and weak must kneel down and pay hommage to the great god from Redmond.

      Or

      as has been said, give them the finger and release it where the DMCA is irrelevant.

      Not a gamer but MS is nowt but a big bully and needs taking down a few dozen notches.

    2. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Unhappy

      Re: Finally

      "Microsoft have something that people seem to like and they try to shut it down..."

      pushing the legality of DMCA [which is aparently a legit claim in this case] and flexing their legal muscles to set an example of these guys, as opposed to working WITH them and just suing for some back-royalties [then selling what's theirs in order to license it for people who want the mod, for a reasonable fee, making money in the process] shows Micro-shafts motives VERY clearly. It's not about earning money. It's about THE CONTROL. But we knew that, because we read the Win-10-nic EULA.

      "Try open sourcing Windows and see how much better it will be with 3rd party mods."

      I bet it would work. First to be replaced with customer desires: the slurp-ware, track-ware, ad-ware, forced updates, and 2D FLATSO. And then let people license it with Micro-Shaft, so they can continue to earn money for it. WIN-WIN!

      But Micro-shaft does not *WANT* 'Win-Win'. They want WINDOWS-10 UBER ALLES!!!

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Finally

      That's how businesses work. If you think a product won't bring in the expected profits, or could hurt another product of yours, you may think it's better to kill it. It wasn't the first time, and won't be the last.

      And you can't use leaked code or other IPs to "resurrect" them - unluckily, it's illegal.

      And unluckily, all the console players told them where money has to be made...

  3. whitepines
    WTF?

    Maybe they should have implemented the game on UE4 (licenseable to anyone) or something open source (not as good, but free). Yeah, that might mean actually paying people to recreate the art assets, but what they did here was good-intentioned theft, like it or not.

    Imagine if that work had gone toward something that could live on as open source...

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    Evil MSFT

    Nan was really looking forward to playing Halo Online but now wicked MSFT has stopped that!

    1. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Unhappy

      Re: Evil MSFT

      they could've licensed things and let people play the open source stuff with the licensed software, but NOOooo... can't give customers what they WANT, gotta shove what THEY want up our as... down our throats INSTEAD. You know like XBox One... Win-10-nic... Edge... Microsoft Logon... slurping and tracking and ads - Oh My! [and forced updates] [and 2D FLATSO] [the list is longer but I'll stop now]

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Well...I do feel sorry for the devs, but if they were distributing copyrighted materials then this was bound to happen eventually. Nintendo do this, it's not surprising Microsoft feel the same way.

    And yes, copyrighted material can include things as small as the name of the game and the logo.

    The only way they could have stood a chance would be to totally re-implement the game and use NOTHING from the original - not even the name.

    It CAN be done. The likes of ScummVM manage...it can be used to run games that have been "abandoned" for decades and are downright impossible to purchase legally. How you source the assets to play the game is not their problem, and they actively stop people from discussing such activities on the forums. So far, this hardline approach seems to work for them, mostly because nothing included in the project comes from the original IP.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "copyrighted material can include things as small as the name of the game"

      No, that would likely be a trademark. I doubt you could copyright a phrase as simple as "Halo Online", but you could certainly trademark it.

  6. veti Silver badge

    Whenever there's a lot of people who think that a company has decided against exploiting its digital assets, some of them will take matters into their own hands. Always happens, and usually nothing happens to stop it. That's what "abandonware" is - and by using the word in their own official statement, 343 Industries acknowledges that legally murky fact.

    So at the very least, they should have seen it coming. It would be nice if they'd made a statement on the subject earlier.

  7. DiViDeD

    Very different approach

    This is very different from Valve's attitude to the release of the HL2: Episode 3 fan made mod. I understand the need to protect your IP rights but, if there's a horde of gamers crying out for something (whether that be HL3 or Halo Online or Gauntlet with 3d graphics), and the IP holder's response is 'it's not going to happen', you are going to get a bunch of modders putting something together.

    Valve chose to see that as a celebration of their game story and world. MSFT see it as an infringement on their rights to do something they have no intention of doing.

    1. JassMan

      Re: Very different approach

      Yep! Microshaft could have improved their reputation if they had offered to pay the developers the money have payed the lawyers, in return for them to continue developing, as long as MS got some credit. Anything that encourages people to use Windows has got to be good for MS'es bottom line.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Anything acquired by Microsoft inevitably turns to turd

    In this case: Bungie (developer of Halo).

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bungie#Halo_and_buyout

    Oh sure, Microsoft shills insist, Bungie has been an independent company since 2007. Until you read the details in the above link and find out that Halo is still an intellectual property of Microsoft. Quite like the vampire draining the lifeblood and then discarding the corpse, eh?

    I guarantee you that no such problem would have happened had Bungie not been acquired by Microsoft in 2000. In fact, I doubt even the likes of EA or Ubisoft would be so litigious.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Anything acquired by Microsoft inevitably turns to turd

      BEUSED

      Buy Em Up Shut Em Down

  9. Hans 1
    WTF?

    Hm

    These guyz offer a mod which patches a free-to-play game that has been discontinued... the mod itself, it appears, does not include any MS code. To use it, you need the free to play game that has been censured on the net.

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: Hm

      Taking a leaf out of Nintendo's book.

      If that's a valid legal argument then emulators are next.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Let's see how this went

    A long long time ago, Microsoft released a game that became very popular. Halo. It was played by many people, and they liked it a lot. It ended with a kind of a cliffhanger.

    After a long wait, Microsoft released a sequel. However, they also released a new version of their operating system, called Vista. In order to gather as many unwilling users for their new OS, the majority of which preferred XP, Microsoft twisted their arm and made Halo run on Vista only. If you chose to remain with XP, you got royally shafted.

    Then Microsoft released the X-Box. Again, in order for it to gain some traction, they released the final installment -which by then had become a multi billion dollar franchise- on their new games machine only.

    So if you'd first invested in the game, then got suckered because you wanted to play the sequel and bought not only another game, but also another OS (and probably new hardware (because Vista turned out to bez a real dog), you were now rewarded by a firm middle finger in your eye : get an x-box or you're not finding out how it ends.

    And even if you caved in on the promise of an MP universe, they pulled that finger out of your eye and poked it straight in the other one. NO MP universe.

    If you want any kind of customer appreciation, stay away from Microsoft, Electronic Arts and the like. You'll always end up blind.

  11. Dodgy Geezer Silver badge

    Lots of people are suggesting...

    ... releasing the code in a jurisdictiion where DCMA doesn't apply.

    The Bean-Counters are prepared to wait. A World Government will solve that issue - and many others besides....

  12. Wade Burchette
  13. Mike 16

    So I should stock up

    on Halo 2600 carts to feed the addictions of my guests?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_2600

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