First off, let’s introduce you to the Revive team. They revive old classic games for fans to download and then play online. When Gamespy closed down in 2014, a system that prevented many pc games from being played in multiplayer online, Revive took it upon themselves to make these classics available again.
And Electronic Arts won’t have it. According to Revive on their site, the EA Legal team contacted them to remove their intellectual property from the Revive servers. Here’s a redaction on the letter:
Dear [REDACTED],
I write on behalf of Electronic Arts Inc. and its development studio DICE or, in other words, ‘those guys that make Battlefield’.
We’ve noticed that Revive Network has several projects and websites devoted to being a Medic by reviving older Battlefield games, including Battlefield Heroes, Battlefield 2, and Battlefield 2142. It’s great to see your enthusiasm for these titles. Not to brag, but we too get the nostalgia chills when booting up these classic entries in the Battlefield franchise.
We need a favor though: we must ask that you stop throwing down Ammo Crates. In other, more legal-styled terms, please stop distributing copies of our game clients and using our trademarks, logos, and artwork on your sites. Thing is, your websites may easily mislead visitors to believe that you are associated or affiliated with EA and we’re the only ones that get to wear the Official EA dog tag. Since you’re Battlefield community members, we know that you are smart and helpful, and will respect that we must protect our intellectual property rights in the franchise.
Please drop us a line to let us know you’re on board with this. Should you have any questions regarding all this, please do not hesitate to contact me via e-mail at [REDACTED]@ea.com.
Thanks,
[REDACTED]
IP Counsel
Electronic Arts Inc.
And here is Revive’s statement to players on the matter:
We will get right to the point: Electronic Arts Inc.’ legal team has contacted us and nicely asked us to stop distributing and using their intellectual property. As diehard fans of the franchise, we will respect these stipulations.
Over the past 3 and a half years, Revive Network has filled a void in nearly 1 million players’ hearts by bringing favorite titles back to life after online services were closed after the GameSpy shutdown. Only a few months ago, we took on the task of bringing multiplayer services online for a fan-favorite, Battlefield Heroes. The public reception for our efforts on this title were massive, and we never expected it to become as big as it was.
At this time, file downloads will be disabled.
This is probably the part where we have to say good bye. Before we leave the battlefield, we would like to thank all of the developers, artists, moderators, and last but not least every single player that helped make all of this a reality. Without you, it would not have become such a great time.
Signing off,
– The Revive Network Team
So I’m left wondering… why did it take so long for Electronic Arts to take action? Surely they couldn’t have only discovered this only now? Or maybe they did. Who knows? All we do know is, EA can surely expect some hate mail from players who have been playing the old Battlefield classics on the Revive servers.
In any event, hosting these games without the publisher’s permission was a bad move to start off with. What do you think? Were you one of the players of these classic games on their servers. Let us know… or maybe, rather don’t…. (EA may be watching)
Source: KOTAKU
Author, Poet, Screenwriter, Gamewriter, Journalist,
….and Elemental Mage Supreme in his spare time
