TitanReach stolen and crowd-funded on kickstarter? Lets investigate the $100k scam
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ต.ค. 2024
- In this video, we'll explore the rumor that TitanReach, an indie MMO, multiplayer online game, was stolen and crowdfunded on Kickstarter without the developer's consent. We'll explore the evidence and try to find out the truth.
If you're curious about this rumor, then this video is for you! We'll explore the evidence and try to find out the truth about whether TitanReach was stolen and crowdfunded on Kickstarter without the developer's consent. We'll look at the game's history and see if there's any indication that this is true. Let us know what you think in the comments!
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This type of stuff is really going to ruin KickStarter as a platform entirely.
Why do you say that like literal years and years of this stuff happening hasn't already turned it into a hive of scum and villainy?
@@Blisterdude123 because it's still has developers trying to create great games that people want to play. I am all for any platform that funds developers dreams when they could otherwise not afford it. It's just a shame it's turned into a cash cow for scammers. It's happened with gofundme and other websites. But I still believe in their overall purpose and goal. It depends on the platform.
Is it not? Many of the creators I support are using backerit now.
Th problem is the platform itself, these sorts of things have been happening for about 10 years and there's no way to stop it
Between this and Kira’s videos on Kickstarter scams… I’ve just stopped trusting the platform. Which sucks, because almost all the new games I play are indie given the current state of AAA gaming.
The scammer's disgusting little attack on the old developer really stood out both because it's a red flag that they'd try that hard to preemptively discredit someone and because it's very reminiscent of a personal experience I had with an indie dev team that I parted with on less than ideal terms. They went to extreme lengths to discourage people talking to or about Unravel because of how easily they can expose this scam.
People need to start putting warning signs up. If Callum keeps falling down all these rabbit holes one day he might not come back out.
It's not gonna be just a rabbit hole anymore... but a network of rabbit tunnels
@@JaxParowFF You sure it's not a cave system by now...?
Callum in wonderland. The new hip series, only on kickstarter
@@HjalleCalibursChannel And many will claim it was just a dream caused by mushrooms.
when you go to pull the mask off the badguy expecting to find old man blockchain underneath but it turns out its just older man basic theft and fraud instead!
what a time to be alive, a somewhat refreshing reveal!
@@CallumUpton "I would of got away with it if it wasnt for those pesky shadow cabal kids"
...for now.
Them using a stock-foto claiming that's their office... no - I have to disagree here with Callum; this IS evidence that the whole thing is a scam. Benefit of the doubt only really makes sense within reasonable boundaries. Someone 'faking' an office to appear more credible is enough to discredit them though - in reality it's actually THAT simple. ;)
Oops, I accidentally bought the licence to the photo, added my studio name to it and sent it to you all by accident.
Promise we are a real studio, give money.
To be honest a photo of some 3 monitor workstation with piles of empty soda bottles all over the place would be more credible since you know someone's been sat at that workstation for hours on end doing something (now if said thing was in any way productive is an entirely different matter).
Literally every company does it so. All the marketing material for smaller companies, also outside of gaming, are stock fotos.
Impressive commitment to asset-flipping though.
True; this is a proof of intention, imho. Can’t play the whole “we didn’t know” after that!
And this is why I rarely support kickstarter programs. They way too often turn out to be scams.
True! i'm making a game and i was going to make a kickstarter myself, but my game is so much wip that i don't know if it will even exist or not considering how much busy my life is, so i will just make a page for it after the development of my game has gone for a good time.
@@RaphielShiraha64 i think a good minimum requirement would be making sure you have a coherent playable game, eg an alpha/beta before making a kickstarter. best of luck to you and your game!
@@RaphielShiraha64 You would have a much better shot if you have a working demo or early build. I am a Kickstarter backer who took great risks to research and keep tabs on progress of games that do not have builds ready at the time.
Only thing I ever backed on Kickstarter was "Yogventures" the Yogscast Minecraft clone game. The studio they hired to make it failed. So they gave everyone that backed it free keys to two games. One was "TUG" (The Unnamed Game) which never got out of early access and was abandoned by the devs. The other? Everquest Landmark. Which was rebranded "Landmark" when the Everquest sequel it was designed to help create was cancelled and then shut down. I got THREE failed games for the price of one!
10 years ago, I worked in games and even a crappy mobile Skinner-box cost 200 - 300 thousand to develop. And that's for simple FarmVille clone type. No 3D, hardly any gameplay... So $100,000 to develop an MMO? I'm mashing X
I know Unravel isn't all that great, but theft is theft and I hope TR gets its due justice.
Yeah, they are setting themselves up for a lawsuit that will be easily won.
This is so weird, why steal an Ip that has kinda already failed and nobody knows about said IP? the riks of stealing is big enough why to it for some obscure IP?
Im assuming because that IP brought in money and by using it they can reap the positives from it of an already ingrained fanbase and hype while acting like the good guys saving a project that people really wanted.
Basically they can take the IP and slap it on their already made crap and they don't have to actually market it all that much because the consumers already have expectations from the previous devs.
I hate that these are the things that get funded/make money. I know it's highly unlikely, but imagine how much $100k can help people. Or even if it was made into a great game, how much countless hours of entertainment value it could bring. Just saddening, really.
It's not about what helps people, it's about what people are willing to spend their money on. It's nice of people give money to help others, but when enough people get together and say "people should give money to help people." That's a short walk down the road to (cocks gun) "we aren't asking anymore".
The projects that get funded the most, unfortunately promise the most because people are stupid at worst and ignorant at best
@@alexanderrahl7034 i dont think OP was implying people gave money to help someone per say
but just that the ammount could have been put to a better cause such as charity
@@mrroboshadow you haven't had charities ruined for you yet? That's a Christmas miracle! Lol
@@alexanderrahl7034 some charities are scams yes, thats a sad reality
To fall to the nihilistic attitude of "everything is a scam the world sucks" and mocking people who think otherwise is equally sad, pathetic even
Have a nice day and happy holidays
@Mr Roboshadow I'm not in the "everything is a scam and the world sucks" category yet, and please shoot me if I do lol
But I'm distrustful enough to the point where I would trust only charity I dole out myself.
Merry Christmas 🎄
One thing that seems really scummy about this is that it feels like they had a strategy worked out from very early on to basically... exploit people's negative emotions about Unravel and TitanReach originally falling through and just expect people to believe any negative thing said about Unravel to deflect criticism from themselves. That's... a definitive sign of *knowing* that they're doing the wrong thing rather than just being clueless or not understanding :/
*MMO being developed for 100k by one developer*
"I'm going to need to put the kettle on for this one, aren't I?" ~Callum, probably
:D so true
This weirdly reminds me of another much older Kickstarter I heard about. Buncha guys said they were gonna make the next FF Tactics, claimed they actually had a bunch of the Tactics team working on the game, made a bunch of promises, then sold the game off to a licensed game dev and they made a completely different game with no involvement from the original team or any of the big names they CLAIMED worked on the game.
EDIT: Looked it up. Game was called Unsung Story. It's very old news but a weird one.
your kinda exagerating some facts here
yes the original devs sold off the "game" to a small game studio
but you make it seem as if the new studio carried on with the lying and false promises
they DIDNT, by all accounts they were very honest ever since they accuired the property and they still made a tactics game
they just said they would only use the old assets as placeholders cause they felt it best to wipe the slate clean of the old devs and i agree with that sentiment
now is the game perfect? no, by all accounts its fairly mediocre and seemingly stuck in early access purgatory
should we saddle the new devs with the sins of the original scam devs? absolutely not
This sounds like something unravel should talk to a lawyer about. Even if he no longer has plans to capability to work on it doesn't mean that the project can just go rogue.
It's too bad. I was thinking TitanReach might get picked up for real when I first heard about it, it seemed like the ideal situation for a rebirth.
Do a Xsolla video. From what I understand, that's a pretty deep well to mine.
An update to anyone interested on this: the game was renamed in January to World of Titans to avoid all the bad PR caused by the video.
Edit: yes the images still looks like Assets Store The Game
So from what I got out of some of that guys answers, it seems like they're making their own mmo and just slapping the TR IP on top of it. So the 3.5 years in the making thing, I took as they have been making the "mmo" for 3.5 years already and are just stealing the TR name.
The name of the new studio gives it away already.
If you try to let your company sound like a known brand it is fair to assume that they will scam you.
Arch Age, but not Arch Age, is re funding, not refunding, Titan Reach, but not Titan Reach
does steam actually have any staff kicking out all the scam-game makers?
I don't really know, but gladly GrindZones stopped popping up again on the store.
Kickstarter proves that any good idea can be corrupted beyond repair...
Do you smell that watery smell? That's a project sinking
I don't like the music in the background because I can only hear weird noises out of it since I'm listenning the video at a low volume
I thought someone's phone was vibrating
This. It's the most annoying trend on TH-cam right now. It's hard enough to hear people talking as it is, without being distracted by music and the occasional odd sound. (and sometimes not being sure if the sound is coming from the video or from something else)
i'll be honest, im experimenting with a few things. some of it may stay depending on feedback, others may go!
i miss previous real background.
This animation looks great, but it lucks soul ot smth idk.
it used to be much more comfy
my office is being torn apart atm to move in to another new office, trust me... you dont want to see the mess thats behind me atm XD
@@CallumUpton good luck w/ new place!
What is the point of stealing the name and only the name? The name is the least of their issues while working on an mmorpg. Are they just stealing for fun?
It's so weird to say "It had so much potential. So we're not going to use any of the code or assets, or even any of the ideas of the game. We're going to make a completely different game from scratch in a different engine"
If they genuinely wanted to continue the project then there has to be something about the game they liked enough to take it on, but clearly they don't. Even if they don't have the code (because they've stolen the IP, rather than because they turned down the offer), admitting they didn't like the ideas is weird.
@@dakat5131 Haha, they literally said "We like Titan Reach, but we don't like what the game is".
Hi Callum! Hope you're doing well. Love your content.
That's more of a Steve Jobs look. Did you happen to pair that turtleneck with jeans?
nobody does TH-cam in order to wear pants to work.
The floating head look
shh, nobody needs to know...
you’re like the coffeezilla of the gaming industry, i love your content, brilliantly vocalized and edited, good job dude!
Damn money stolen again huh
Another day, another sketchy Kickstarter, another Unreal 4 Marketplace collage, another Discord drama server, another monetization scheme.
It's all so tiresome.
People keep saying stuff like "Obviously! Kickstarter is mostly scams!" That's not true. The delivery rate for funded Kickstarters, is over 85%.
Obviously that's still a lot lower than just buying stuff in a store, but for funding brand new projects from people who can't afford to start a business any other way? That sounds about right, honestly. And don't forget : The actual scams make a small percentage of that remaining 10-15%. Most failures are people who tried their best but got in way over their heads and went bankrupt.
It wasn't enough to kill it? They had to dig up the body too?
I dont know why but its kind of amusing when you see a Scammer go head to head with a Bad faith actor.
When it comes to the people dumping money into this? I have zero sympathy for them. Sorry. Same goes for Crypto/NFT/Blockchain bros when they get Rug pulled, i got Zero sympathy for them.
If you dont got common sense enough to see the signs then maybe you will learn a lesson.
Crowd funding MMOs fully is just such a bad idea, which gets proven time and time again. Frankly, people need to please acknowledge that crowdfunding projects are high risk investments, irrespective of whether the project is serious or not. If you cannot handle the risk associated with this type of investment, then for the love of god, let it be.
On Xsolla, might be good to remember that you’re not the customer, you’re the product. They don’t try to make you happy but their partners like Twitch, Roblox etc. FinTech in general is complex and sometimes kinda dodgy with how transactions get handled, particularly internationally.
I dunno why but I laughed when they had that fake office with their logo plastered on it lol
Yeah, no, I'm filing this in the "DAFAQ" category. Please follow up on this.
Some of those discord messages by the "team" that took over are really strange... like they were written by an AI. Real people aren't usually wordy in that specific way (rewording the question, sort of roundabout repeating themselves) unless they're middle schoolers trying to fill out the word count of an essay or something.
Or they have nothing of value to say and need to make it look like they do
Hum...yeah...so... I hereby suggest Crowdfunding being reworded into Crowdscamming. Thanks.
Wow, though after learning more about what happened to LoA and Britaria i am not overly surprised. It's a bummer though as titanreach looked great. I am working on my own morpg but if the IP and system is up for sale....
Kickstarter red flag tags:
1. Open world
2. Survival
3. MMO/rpg
4. P2Earn
5. ...
Kickstarter already took the campaign down.
None of the original devs work on this, probably for good reason.
All they have to show is a "map preview trailer"
Their 3 years of development are probably just figuring out UE, nothing more.
Even Callum is on a trend of doing horrible thumbnails that have purely only cheaply photoshopped tweets?
"we didn't like their style" was where I was thinking "then why the fuck would you develope a game that you want nothing with it's past development?"
It's like a reboot to a series that has nothing to do with the original. Just using the name and established audience to make money from a project that wouldn't get even 10% of what it will without the brand recognition.
IDK why anybody is crowd-funding video games at this point. This isn't even the largest scam and it just keeps happening.
The problem is there ARE success stories, Undertale, Darkest Dungeon, Path of Exile, Divinity Original Sin 1 & 2, Hollow Knight, Shovel Knight
Just a thought but if TitanReach is never going to release couldnt unravel open source the project to let the community work on it, Idk how it would work long term with hosting/money side but just a thought
EDIT: I just like the idea of failed projects or cancelled games becoming open source for the people that was hype for it to work on themselves
Callum for Overlord of the Glorious Dystopian future!
Steve Jobs if he would have had long hair
Since you said you want feedback on audio and editing on Discord, here's a few thoughts.
You always do a good job with putting up visuals when they relate to what you're saying and the only real change with that from what I can tell is there's a nice background that lets you have nothing up for when there doesn't need to be anything up.
The problems with your camdidn't bother me much, but they're still criticisms worth sharing. Your hand gets cut off a few times, (like around 7:30) the background is showing through the chair where strands of hair are sticking out which is way more noticeable with white webpages behind you, (Easy/lazy solution idea: put black box behind the chair in editing) and I don't think the black and white filter worked too well with the zoom in for this video. (I feel like it was too much, but I think was super for the last video though. WhAt AbOuT YoU?)
I can't tell a difference in audio unless there's an extreme change. It sounded good to me before and still sounds good to me now. Not sure if that's helpful feedback though.
Unhelpful joke advice: Keep making good videos! :P
according to a google neither Archage Studio nor Unravel have the IP, but Good Square Studios, as they are named the developping studio in all the info you find online.
Unravel might be the owner of the studio, but the IP is prob. in the hands of the studio not in the hands of the owner of that studio. They are legally 2 different entities.
DIng DIng.
100k wouldn't fund a single player indie game...
As of now, it looks like it's no longer on Kickstarter.
You should invite your friend WickedWiz to talk with you about this sort of subject!
So, they really sent to you "we actually don't have the rights but decided to still do it"
Seen the game website, the 'Lifetime' subscription, and a few screenshots of the ingame concept and knew right away it was a early access scam. the business model alone was grounds for that game failing. early access closed alpha.. (but only backers and subscribers could participate) etc.
imagine the pure delusion of thinking you can just TAKE someone elses name & ideas for your own when they were established IPs by another studio. the disrespect is crazy
Can a competent developer get the rights to this game? It has so much potential, and it needs to be fulfilled.
Halfway through the video, I was already thinking the project turned into a nft.
Later, Callum also said the same, so I guess my thought was right.
Kickstarter allows this kind of thing to happen, and there's a good chance that someone who works there is doing ot. This happened to a comic book Creator and KS wouldn't do anything about it until a Fraud Investigator reached out to them.
A summary search for US trademarks does not return any results for TitanReach or Titan Reach. So neither the previous "developers" nor the current ones seem to care enough about this project to file for a a trademark (costs a couple hundred bucks). That should tell you everything about how serious they are about this.
Black Turtleneck?
Should have gone with "Archer Sterling" appreciation instead!
I don't think it's that crazy to say they have been "working on something" for three years. It's possible to work on technology without really having a theme in mind for the game or world. That said, I don't trust Archage at all in this instance and "working on something" is a pretty broad phrase.
They only want the name of the project; they literally say they just want the name and nothing to do with the game people were excited about...
They have a fake photo of their office...
They have that payment stuff set up already and no game...
The responses also seem like they were written by either an ai or a non-native English speaker...
This all reeks of a scam...
Heey, any new dev logs for nightmare world? Early access Q2 2023 confirmed? 😇✌
another original content!
As a modder i don't think it's wrong to take up dormant ip, without overt permission, however not if its explicitly forbidden, and it shouldn't be monetized as heavily
I really wanted this game. I keep looking it up here and there. Luckily I'm poor and couldn't buy any of the packs
Sounds like a cash grab
you have been categorically told? i don't think that makes any sense. what do you think categorically means?
i mean, intellectual property rights r extremely flimsy when theres no actual, reference-able product. and the only thing from the original these guys r using is the title, and thats generic enough that it could definitely be fair use as long as its relevant to the game/story/setting in some way. the only thing that the new guys would need to do, if they dont get the blessing of the original project, is redesign the logo to make it clear that it is a different game.
Yeah, just like dvd cd, you bought it but you need permission to distribute
I'd be curious to see if this video will get you more info, or contacts... for instance if anyone has actually tried to get a job at Archage after seeing the job postings. Because at some point the gig must be up when you can't even see applicants at said office, no ? They themselves state on their website (see 2:00) that there's an in-person job interview, what do they think happens the minute it turns out the office is fake XD
A crafty person would meet potential employees for an 'informal chat' in a cafe, or hire an office suite. Then I would put them onto remote working and use a P.O address for the company. You might get away with it with young or desperate people.
You're dressed like Sterling Archer. That's a tactical turtleneck.
You guys gotta give SOME credit to the asset flipping scammers, as they have leveled up from Unity to Unreal.
Good video as always, thank you for your work. Also, it's weird how your head moves but the white headphones don't. 😂
Shane Isaacs proprietary headphone technology specifically designed for Earth 2's PVP. Only given to super backers who preorder the "Metaverse Dev Bathwater" TM
I really liked your dreamworld playlist and your nightmare world Devlogs as the first videos I watch from you I have hope that I will really like this channel I thank you for all you've done.
Was trying to find the tweets and the kickstarter links to see for myself, seems like its been cleaned from his twitter.
Dressed like Jobs be better? xD
I just looked on KS and it says 0% funded. So it looks like people are wiser now
Has anyone, from the original team, contacted a Copyright lawyer? Cause this sounds like prison time.
No prison time from copyright infringiment, might get some for fraud though.
Yah, i think if someone lies about small details or insignificant stuff, then its probably a sign they have done that with A LOT more things.
This angry Windows screensaver makes some good points here.
Need for Speed? Oh right that racer series that was once awesome
a lawsuit for IP would only make sense if the doorknobs "remaking" the game have more than $5 dollars US. Kickstarter funding a game-dev being sued seems kinda dumb.
this was a nice rabbit hole, hope they can take it down
TitanWhat?..
MMO players are hella abused by the 'industry'
The title of "Unreal Asset Store: The Game" is already taken by Dream World tho
There are definitely more than one "Unreal Asset Store: The Game", Dream World wasn't the first but maybe the biggest.. maybe...
What is the track in the back? I can smell the funk comin off it my brotha and I dig it.
Edit: Now that I've finished the video I'm about 80% sure I can take the concept I have now and people will give me money. The only question is if I should make it look like a scam? People seem to give more blindly to them, as a whole not specifically to TR.
Man, i'd love it if Callum can investigate City of Titans. After watching all these Kickstarter scams, I wonder if Missing Worlds Media might be one of them.
This is what makes me never want to go kickstarter, ive been solo developing an open world survival with self funding...i dont care if it takes me 10 years i refuse to go kickstarter for reason like this and other scams that gives the website a bad name
I want access to the files. I'll develop it. :/
Oh my goodness! Great dig, Callum!
Thanks! i had a lot of fun looking in to this mess
Does he flip a coin each day to decide which direction every hair on his head will go?
damn, you got me... honestly though, my hair is wild, some days it wants to go one way, some days the other XD
"IP" is a generic term. If they aren't using any of the assets from the original game, and as long as they don't copy artwork, then it seems they are only using the name -- which is a trademark issue. You can lose your trademark by not actively using it in products. Since the game seems abandoned, there's a good case to be made the new developer is within their legal rights to go forward with the project. Of course, that says nothing about their ability to do so or any other shady business practices.
they are using the original logo
@@Disatiere A logo is part of trademark.
@@chrimony While yes it is also imagery that is protected by copyright
So basically when it comes down to it, if they launch this game and it makes money, the very person they hate and have stolen the IP of will be legally entitled to all the profit. They are essentially breaking the law to try and make the person hates game for them and then hand over the keys if works, while if doesn't they get left with the blame/bill. What idiots
I think the mad scientist is quite literally delusional.
Cant find any evidence to prove titanreach was copyrighted or trademarked? Is it really stolen?
Is the cartoon man at the end supposed to be you?
I would really like to see this xsolla video. A very large legit game ai play used it for mtx.