Don’t get me wrong, the MP Situation is rare.
Basically:
1998, Company Goes Bankrupt,
Closes all studios Except Almeda, CA in preparation for sale to Hasbro Games.
Habro Games had no interest in Falcon 4.0 But Allowed Former Spectrum Holobyte Team to Publish it,Unfinished.
1998, Source code Passes Assets to Escrow Agency.
Hasbro Games not impressed with Sales shuts down the last MP Almeda, CA Studio, Sends Falcon I.P to Escrow Agency. Repo Version 1.06.
2000, Source Code Leak.
A Developer leaked the source code onto a Public FTP Site. Repository v1.076 IIRC.
*Side note, not only was the leaked repo newer, it also fixed many of the unresolved issues w/ Falcon 4.0 prior to the studio being shut down.
2002, Atari Purchased M.P Assets, Among the assets was an older build of Falcon Source Code (Pre 1.07 IIRC), Atari then Gives it to Lead Pursuit, who, changes a few things, and then downloads community mods and integrates them into a new Game. Upsetting a bunch of community mod teams.
2005, Lead Pursuit Releases F4: Allied Force,
Using older Source Code repository and Community mods, again, horrible sales numbers, despite multiple patches. F4AF was used as a revenue influx to supposedly develop “Falcon 5”, having horrible numbers, both projects were shelved.
2007: Atari Sold MicroProse Brand Name (w/ no IP or Licensing to Back Catalog), to I.G.G.
Only the MP Name and Logo was sold, no back catalog or assets belonging to MP in escrow.
2010: I.G.G. Sold Microprose Brand Name to Cybergun
Again, Only the MP Name and Logo.
2011, Lead Pursuit Dissolves, Falcon IP and Licenses were held in escrow, however, the source code repository for v1.0.0.13 (F4:AF) was not given to escrow Agency, and presumed lost, assuming it was mostly community mods, and they were already under investigation for that, they likely “Lost” the source repo to avoid any evidence of further IP Theft from the community.
2014, Retroism Purchased Licensing Rights to Falcon Series, Name and Logos.
Retroism Created Digital Distribution versions of Falcon Series on Steam and GoG,
2018: Cybergun sold Microprose Brand Name to David lagettie.
After Purchasing the MP Brand name, as a FAN of the old games, Lagettie began Purchasing Former MP Games Trademarks, names and Logos. Among those were B-17 and Falcon from Retroism.
Thus allowing the newly formed MP to use the Names/Logo’s to revive long dead product lines, (B-17, Falcon), and transferring digital sales revenue from Retroism to the newly formed MP.
Lagettie had Zero involvement with the old MP, and Falcon IP, so he cannot claim owner ship of it, as it was not part of the assets in the escrow agency. LeadPursuit never sent the assets over, the source code leaked was never submitted to any escrow agency, as it was a repository version that was newer than what MP had at the time of asset forfeiture to the escow agency in 1998.
As far as the “Falcon Comes Home” Marketing Campaign.
Nothing about 2018+ Microprose is the same as the original, outside of the registered Company name.
So, it’s a bunch of marketing hooplah to stir up nostalgic waves (and sales).
The source code repository version BMS has, has zilch to do with any of the I.P. that was passed around escrow, it was distributed by a former developer for Spectrum Holobyte, and was newer than the version initially in escrow.
BMS has already replaced a majority of said source code, so at this point, due to how much has been replaced and it was never even part of escrow, new MP has no leg to stand on, they can Purchase said assets from BMS if they choose, but it does not belong to MP for them to block BMS from continuing to develop.
What MP does own is the Licensing, Name and Logos for Falcon.
So if they were to slap BMS with that, all BMS would have to do is Remove the Name and Logo’s from their build. in which case we’d have BMS Viper or something.
Hypothetically, If they were to do that, and remove all remaining aspects of the unchanged source code, they would no longer require the Falcon 4.0 Legal copy, in which case, MP loses whatever digital revenue they were getting from customers purchasing F4 just to use BMS.
As Arrogant as users think BMS is,
They are not required to put the Falcon 4.0 Legal Copy Check on BMS Falcon,
They chose to do that, to make sure whomever owns falcon IP gets something.
Considering the FTP Source code leak was newer than the repo version sent to escrow, developers likely continued to work on it after their studio closed, and chose to release the repo they had because of Non-Confidence in any company that purchased the IP to fix the problems with the sim, which is pretty much what happened, when the source was given to L.P. they basically made an entirely new source code development branch, and stiffed anyone that already owned F4.