Level 5 proposes, MagicBox.com discloses

[cthellis42]

Akihiro Hino, the president of Level 5, mentioned that the development of the MMORPG True Fantasy Live Online may revive again, after the entire project was canceled by Microsoft in June 2004. However, he cannot confirm which platform the game will move to.

Funky news--let's hope they can go through with it. ^_^ Though without Microsoft backing them on it, I would assume they're aiming for PC in general (quicker engine shift) or--if they're feeling up to it--PS2 as well (or instead) as it would probably have the broader audience in Japan to appeal to for that style of game.

They may well just one-market it at this point, and save the prospects of localizing it for Europe or North America for after they've pulled in some profit and know the game will be a reasonable success in the marketplace.

 

[Farid]

TFLO is a MS's trademark, and the whole development has been financed by MS too, if i recall correctly, meaning that the code and the art assets must belong to MGS as well.

Therefore, to revive the project, for any other platform but the Xbox, Level 5 has, either bought the rights off of MGS, which is not impossible, that or the project would be revived as a Xenon game, which is also a possibility.

 

[cthellis42]

I didn't think the whole development was, but rather that Microsoft gave them extra cash to fund an operation they already had in development that they thought would be of note and help their marketability in Japan. The TFLO trademark makes sense, since they did add "Live" to the name to synch with Xbox Live that it would be a major promotional tool for, but did it necessarily follow that all funding, art assets, engine design, and everything else would belong to MS?

 

[arhra]

i suspect (read: hope) that the 'cancellation' was in fact a quiet shift to development for xenon, since an MMORPG is a fairly long-term endeavour, so releasing it close to the end of the xbox's lifecycle wouldn't be a very sensible idea. Having it available for xenon at or near launch, especially in japan, since it was one of the few xbox games that had garnered significant attention there (aside from DOA, of course), would be an excellent move, since MMOs don't require huge numbers to do well, so it could probably attract a pretty decently sized userbase by MMO standards pretty quickly, despite the low total userbase of the system to start with.

 

[Farid]

I didn't think the whole development was, but rather that Microsoft gave them extra cash to fund an operation they already had in development that they thought would be of note and help their marketability in Japan. The TFLO trademark makes sense, since they did add "Live" to the name to synch with Xbox Live that it would be a major promotional tool for, but did it necessarily follow that all funding, art assets, engine design, and everything else would belong to MS?

So, are you insunuating that Level 5 could had eventually funded a Xbox only game...? In Japan...?

Seriously, i'm almost 100% sure that the game was totally financed by MS, i just don't remember the source, where i heard/read about that.
And, to answer your question, if it was indeed financially, completely handled by MGS, then yes, all the artwork, the game code and sounds would belongs to MGS.

But as i said, i won't be surprised to hear, after all the recent news, that MGS sold the rights back to Level 5 (For very little money, seeing that IPs are on sale lately at MGS).
A Xenon version is also likely, nonetheless.

 

[Evil_Cloud]

I didn't think the whole development was, but rather that Microsoft gave them extra cash to fund an operation they already had in development that they thought would be of note and help their marketability in Japan. The TFLO trademark makes sense, since they did add "Live" to the name to synch with Xbox Live that it would be a major promotional tool for, but did it necessarily follow that all funding, art assets, engine design, and everything else would belong to MS?

So, are you insunuating that Level 5 could had eventually funded a Xbox only game...? In Japan...?

Seriously, i'm almost 100% sure that the game was totally financed by MS, i just don't remember the source, where i heard/read about that.
And, to answer your question, if it was indeed financially, completely handled by MGS, then yes, all the artwork, the game code and sounds would belongs to MGS.

But as i said, i won't be surprised to hear, after all the recent news, that MGS sold the rights back to Level 5 (For very little money, seeing that IPs are on sale lately at MGS).
A Xenon version is also likely, nonetheless.

I believe the funds that were put into TFLO were given to Level 5 as some sort of a compensation, perhaps on the condition that Level 5 bought the IP back. I believe some TFLO resources were put into the development of Dragon Quest VIII.

But IMHO, a free MMORPG without an extra subscription could have a succes. Remember PSO on Dreamcast?