ArmA 2: for PC and Xbox 360.

Bohemia Interactive has instructed lawyers to protest directly to Codemasters about its "marketing tactics" for Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising.

In an extraordinary press release, the Czech-based developer of the original Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis slammed Codemasters for referring to its game as the "official sequel" when it says it owns the rights to the original game's content and Codemasters only owns the name.

"Is the upcoming Codemasters game really 'the much anticipated return of the genre-defining military conflict simulator' Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis? Is it really 'the official sequel to the multi-award winning Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis'? Bohemia Interactive says: 'No! What matters is the game, not the name,'" the developer insisted.

"The award-winning Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis was created by Bohemia Interactive in 1997-2001. Bohemia Interactive licensed its creation to Codemasters to publish and distribute. Although Codemasters owns the 'Operation Flashpoint' trademark and plans to release its new game under that title, Bohemia Interactive has always owned 100 per cent of the original OFP game," it said.

"Bohemia also provided [the] gaming community [with a] complete set of editing tools and ongoing support that turned the original OFP into one of the most modded PC games ever. Codemasters owns only the name - and Bohemia Interactive wants fans to understand that Codemasters' new game is not from the same development team that brought them the classic original."

The release goes on to quote Leora Herrmann of Kluger, Peretz, Kaplan & Berlin, Bohemia's lawyers. "In the license agreement, Bohemia Interactive expressly reserved the exclusive right to develop sequels to the original OFP game," Herrmann said (their emphasis). "Codemasters also acknowledged that Bohemia owns all the intellectual property in the game - except the words 'Operation Flashpoint'."

"Since Codemasters has no right to use the Bohemia Interactive game engine or any other component of the Bohemia-developed game, how can it rightfully claim to produce a 'sequel'?" Bohemia CEO Marek Spanel added in summary.

Meanwhile, in an interview with various friends-of-Eurogamer at Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Spanel indicated that our recent preview of Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising may have been the straw that broke the camel's back.

"One old Czech proverb says 'a lie repeated a hundred times becomes the truth' and there is some point in it that could be applied to the gaming industry and media these days. Maybe from Codemasters it was just a series of unfortunate misunderstandings, but something is seriously wrong when in a preview on a major gaming site, one of the developers of the new game, who was never even remotely involved in the development of the original, is credited as a 'veteran of the original Flashpoint team'," Spanel said.

That's how Clive Lindop, Dragon Rising's senior designer, was originally introduced to Eurogamer when we visited the studio to see the game in development. After Bohemia protested and we took it up with Codemasters, we were told Lindop was a prominent member of the original Flashpoint "community", and published a correction.

"If you add up all such little misunderstandings, like Codemasters reps saying what 'we did when we made the original Operation Flashpoint' etc. you may end up with seriously distracted image of the entire situation created in minds of journalists and gamers," Spanel remarked to RPS.

Codemasters has yet to comment on the situation.

To see what else Bohemia gets up to these days, check out our recent ArmA II hands-on preview.

Codemasters on Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising

* April 2003: "a true sequel to the million-selling military simulator". But back then, Bohemia was still the developer.
* April 2007: OpFlash 2 is reannounced as a Codies-developed game: "the biggest name in modern military simulation gaming will return", "Operation Flashpoint 2 will mark the long-awaited return of the total conflict simulator, which won international acclaim" and "Building on the original game's heritage".
* August 2007 (Leipzig Games Convention): "the return of the leading name in modern military simulation gaming".
* July 2008 (E3): "the return of the genre-defining military series", "the much anticipated return of the genre-defining military conflict simulator".
* September 2008: "the much anticipated sequel to the genre-defining military conflict simulator game released in 2001" (in an Image Metrics press release with quotes - and therefore, one can safely assume, approval from Codies).
* February 2009: "the much-anticipated military shooter that marks the return of the genre-defining conflict series".
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:LOL:
 
Nick Cave said:
Hmmm so they will have an all new engine then for OFDR...
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The new engine looks like it seems to give it an arcade feel to it, not that gritty hardcore realism and vulnerability like in ArmA. Remember, looking pretty doesn't make for a good game. Keep in mind that Codemasters didn't make the first OFP, and has low experience. So I'm keeping a close eye on them in case they screw up.
 
Why is it all storyline clips and no actual gameplay?

are they hiding the fact that it may be pants?

I hope not
 
Ah i'm not interested in all that i just skipped though to see some action

we want action!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :))
 
i just catched a glimps of this game and it sounds very good. cant believe i missed out and never heard of the 1st arma game!

this sounds like what battlefiled 2 should have been.

how many players can play online? the 1st one managed over 100 players as said on the official website but i cant get much detail in the official website of the sequal. it just has a lot of media files there.

this game sounds like project reality a bf2 mod
 
quality. is it really coming out on the consoles? if so, do you have any info if its possible for pc users to play againts console users?

I heard this game was suppose to come out end of last year but now seems to be pencilled in for a summer 09 release?

Does this game contain monthly fee's like in mmorpg games? i ask this because in the official website, it mentioned the word PVP which is a popular term used for player vs player in a MMO game.

Thanks in advance
 
I can't comment on which console, when or whatever, I know TBD is a pain in the ane but to quote Ondrej Spanel lead programmer:

To provide some more "insider info" about console development. The obligatory rule with titles published on consoles is that until you can announce exact details about the title, including a publisher, you cannot publicly confirm anything about the console title, not even the fact you are developing the title on the console.

Hence we cannot confirm anything and the status of the console versions stays TBD.
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That said, for a small studio creating a PC game the most likely scenario for a console version would be 360 only, the resources needed to create a PS3 version, at least at the same time as a 360 version would be significantly high and that's why a lot of the Eastern European devs only make 360 versions of their PC games (White Gold being a prime example).
 
And because the architecture of the 360 is identical to windows pc games ie they use DX9 if im not mistaken. Placebo, can you put a word in to the devs and suggest that if the game is indeed being made for 360 and/or ps3, can they look into the possibilities of cross platform MP online against pc users?
 
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I don't believe that's a possibility due to a number of factors, not least the way that the memory issues need to be addressed (IE PCs have loads and the 360 has none) ;)
 
yea thats true. the pc version will have to be heavily stripped down to the level that is accepted by the consoles and we dont want that do we :)

im really looking forward to this game. do you yourself have a decent pc to run it on? i imagine this game will be best played on a pc?
 
Well heavily stripped down is not really true, it'll have to have a locked view distance which will be shorter than the maximum view distance allowed on the PC version for example, but the view distance will still be far, far higher than any other 360 "shooter".

My PC is:
cpuqkv.jpg


+ Ati 4870 512mb Vram
 
Well the CPU is probably a bit older than what's available, but considering 99% of the time the PC is only for playing HD TV Shows - the TV and some ArmA2 playing it does the job :)
 
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