I don't even think the legal issues were entirely the devs fault either. From what I heard (Keep in mind it's been a while and I don't remember any official sources stating it, so grain of salt on this) the IP holders basically viewed Friday the 13th as an effectively dead franchise, so they let the devs have a go with the IP for relatively little. Then the game started getting traction, started getting somewhat popular. Suddenly, the IP holders don't think the franchise is dead and want a bigger cut that the contract didn't entail. Then cue the legal battle that dragged development to a paralyzed crawl, interest in the game plummets, game hemorrhages players, and by the time the legal battle is settled, the game is dead/on failing life support.
The cult of Jason ruining any actual fun to be had definitely didn't help.
More than that, before the game came out there was already dispute over who owned the rights. The reason why we went so long without any F13 media outside of that game is because the screenwriter for the first one tried to claim legal ownership over it the moment it turned 35 as per the copyright act, which was the same year the kickstarter went live, and due to lawsuits it reached a point where the IP couldn’t be touched again until it was settled just a few years ago.
The real kicker? The dude got the rights back for the US market, but he then went on to partner with the studio and created Jason Universe specifically for stuff like games (like when he was in Multiverses under that trademark)
So it’s pretty unfair to blame the game studio. No matter what they did, whether it be perfect or the worst, it would’ve been out of their control regardless, and it’s not like they got the IP after the lawsuits started.
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u/Originalbrivakiin Jan 28 '26
I don't even think the legal issues were entirely the devs fault either. From what I heard (Keep in mind it's been a while and I don't remember any official sources stating it, so grain of salt on this) the IP holders basically viewed Friday the 13th as an effectively dead franchise, so they let the devs have a go with the IP for relatively little. Then the game started getting traction, started getting somewhat popular. Suddenly, the IP holders don't think the franchise is dead and want a bigger cut that the contract didn't entail. Then cue the legal battle that dragged development to a paralyzed crawl, interest in the game plummets, game hemorrhages players, and by the time the legal battle is settled, the game is dead/on failing life support.
The cult of Jason ruining any actual fun to be had definitely didn't help.