Suspecting nobody will sue you is not good enough for a distributor, I assume. It also means nobody is there to give you permission to something that is clearly not yours, which sounds risky. And still, someone with the rights might show up at any point.
And as others mentioned, I’m not even sure if the market is big enough.
I guess no one would stop someone from distributing, but presumably there isn't a huge market for these games and therefore no incentive. I was thinking it had more to do with preventing competition or something like that.
Most abandonware isn't really that cut and dry. During the NES/DOS days you might have seen companies fold and their IP become owned by no one. But even then, in many cases, the IP ended up being sold, and over the years ping-pongs around new owners.
Many times those new owners aren't really concerned with some 30 year old game from an IP they may not even remember having being distributed, but the fact they still could at a moment's notice is a possible threat.
But yeah, if there truly is no existing owner, it's basically free game (literally).
serial_dev|1 year ago
And as others mentioned, I’m not even sure if the market is big enough.
proc0|1 year ago
techjamie|1 year ago
Many times those new owners aren't really concerned with some 30 year old game from an IP they may not even remember having being distributed, but the fact they still could at a moment's notice is a possible threat.
But yeah, if there truly is no existing owner, it's basically free game (literally).