alt Hacker NewsThis should work for video game developers right? Can they reclaim ownership of the games they created in the 80s/90s that have been abandoned?
Replies
monkeywork • today at 6:26 AM
If the developer was a work for hire and never owned the copyright then no.
If the developer licensed the game to a publisher then maybe.
crooked-v • today at 7:40 AM
Video game copyrights were rarely ever held by a single person, even in the early days of the industry.
Not exactly the same, but in Japan (where obviously many of the great games of the 80s and 90s were authored) there's a mechanism to acquire a license from the government to publish abandonware. The government collects a royalty from the new distributor that it holds in case a valid copyright holder comes forward.
Little Samson, a late-era NES game that because of its rarity can sell for thousands, was developed by a now-defunct company and is getting a re-release next year using this process.
https://www.timeextension.com/news/2025/10/daunting-limited-...