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Odwerki

Jan 11, 2023 @ 8:06am

Development Status

Good morning community. As we close out the holiday season and begin a new year we hope this article finds you all in a positive place.

We have had the honor of working on the development of The Repopulation from very early on. We have seen a number of talented people come and go over the years. Our team would like to thank them for their contributions, and hard work. Their time and contributions were and still are very appreciated. From writers, GMs, and QA members, to public testers, and all those in between they’ve played an important role in development.

That is why today’s article topic comes from a heavy heart. The last couple of years have been hard on everyone, and we are so thankful for all of those who have stood with us. Despite everyone’s valiant efforts, from developers to testers, TGS has concluded that we cannot make The Repopulation viable despite our best efforts. At the end of 2021, we intended to make several updates hoping to fix the problems we have all encountered. Although we planned on rebuilding the game on the updated platform, we were not able to come to terms with IF on various business issues.

As a result, we have decided that our work developing The Repopulation must end. TGS is not the game’s owner. The game’s owner is Idea Fabrik. TGS is only a contractor. TGS does not have the authority or ability to suspend sales or provide refunds. Only Idea Frabik can do these things. Idea Fabrik is aware of the issues but we have not been told what they intend to do. TGS is turning over The Repopulation Facebook and Twitter accounts to Idea Fabrik. All future inquiries should be made to Idea Fabrik on Facebook and Twitter.

IF may attempt to remaster the game with another company, but we have not been informed as to its plans. As a result, the server, website, and discord server will be brought offline on 2023/01/13. Idea Fabrik has also not informed TGS as to whether it intends to continue to sell The Repopulation on the Steam platform.

We are extremely disappointed that we were unable to resolve the problems with The Repopulation. We worked very hard for many years on this game and we were and are invested in its success. We sincerely wish that we could have resolved these issues. We hope you will understand that we did all we could to make this game viable despite the many obstacles we encountered. We also understand that best efforts do not soften the blow of this disappointing news. Thank you all for taking this journey with us.

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Originally posted by Idea Fabrik PLC:

Originally posted by Odwerki:
Good morning community. As we close out the holiday season and begin a new year we hope this article finds you all in a positive place.

We have had the honor of working on the development of The Repopulation from very early on. We have seen a number of talented people come and go over the years. Our team would like to thank them for their contributions, and hard work. Their time and contributions were and still are very appreciated. From writers, GMs, and QA members, to public testers, and all those in between they’ve played an important role in development.

That is why today’s article topic comes from a heavy heart. The last couple of years have been hard on everyone, and we are so thankful for all of those who have stood with us. Despite everyone’s valiant efforts, from developers to testers, TGS has concluded that we cannot make The Repopulation viable despite our best efforts. At the end of 2021, we intended to make several updates hoping to fix the problems we have all encountered. Although we planned on rebuilding the game on the updated platform, we were not able to come to terms with IF on various business issues.

As a result, we have decided that our work developing The Repopulation must end. TGS is not the game’s owner. The game’s owner is Idea Fabrik. TGS is only a contractor. TGS does not have the authority or ability to suspend sales or provide refunds. Only Idea Frabik can do these things. Idea Fabrik is aware of the issues but we have not been told what they intend to do. TGS is turning over The Repopulation Facebook and Twitter accounts to Idea Fabrik. All future inquiries should be made to Idea Fabrik on Facebook and Twitter.

IF may attempt to remaster the game with another company, but we have not been informed as to its plans. As a result, the server, website, and discord server will be brought offline on 2023/01/13. Idea Fabrik has also not informed TGS as to whether it intends to continue to sell The Repopulation on the Steam platform.

We are extremely disappointed that we were unable to resolve the problems with The Repopulation. We worked very hard for many years on this game and we were and are invested in its success. We sincerely wish that we could have resolved these issues. We hope you will understand that we did all we could to make this game viable despite the many obstacles we encountered. We also understand that best efforts do not soften the blow of this disappointing news. Thank you all for taking this journey with us.

Hello everyone,

It is time to answer the above false statements. It seems that IF Studios has been immediately blamed and taken out of the equation in an attempt to escape the situation. Let's take a journey through the dusty pages of history.

The Repopulation is undoubtedly the property of Idea Fabrik; this is absolutely true. However, The Repopulation is not the only thing belonging to Idea Fabrik. The engine on which this game was built—its software, audiovisual content, and intellectual property—belongs to IF. The statement that TGS does not own the game is absolutely correct, but it is incomplete. TGS does not own anything. TGS has hijacked the trademark rights of Idea Fabrik PLC, has not handed over The Repopulation driver, HeroEngineCorporate Perforce and, despite lacking the authority to develop, sell, or sublicense the HeroEngine source code, has seen itself as the I.P owner—similar to the MaxPlay case in 2016...

As they explained above, the claim that The Repopulation was transferred to IF Studios and that the Facebook, Twitter pages were handed over is completely false. Nothing was handed over to us, not even the Steam page, which we had to retrieve from Valve with great difficulty. The woman in charge of TGS is a real scam artist. As Idea Fabrik PLC, we are preparing to sue this woman and everyone in the company. TGS has no rights to any new branding or to continue or maintain anything belonging to Idea Fabrik PLC. This is fraud.

Despite every good faith attempt and cease and desist notice by IF to TGS, they continue to persist in this scam. Let us state very clearly and unequivocally that Idea Fabrik PLC, the real intellectual property owner of the final and official version of the game engine: HeroEngine 2.6.7 and no sublicense or commercial license has been granted. This corporate derivative organism, which makes itself look innocent (with documented and proven evidence), is very skilled in trademark theft, deleting/corrupting customers' database backups, intellectual property theft, etc., and both they and their lawyers are very skilled, will be duly responded to.

TheRepopulation game is now back up and running with the latest recovery backup, along with a few more of Idea Fabrik PLC's official games, and the HeroEngine/HeroCloud build has been reinstalled. We will update the public with details and backed evidence in the near future.

Thank you for your attention.
Sincerely,

< >

Showing 1-15 of 16 comments

KOOLLAYDTAC has The Repopulation

Jan 11, 2023 @ 10:48am

Sorry to hear that mates. I was rooting for you all.

Last edited by KOOLLAYDTAC; Jan 11, 2023 @ 11:37am

Mister Vertigo has The Repopulation

Jan 11, 2023 @ 2:12pm

Disappointing, but not surprising. Was really rooting for this game to launch! Best of luck to all of you at TGS.

I will be curious if another developer will take over, or if they will offer any kind of refund.

FRIENDLY MAN has The Repopulation

Jan 11, 2023 @ 6:59pm

Originally posted by Mister Vertigo:
I will be curious if another developer will take over, or if they will offer any kind of refund.

No refunds!

But don't worry! Next week you can back The Repopulation 2 on IndieGoGo, where they promise to release the fabled "locker" update in a decade.

Oldbolt

Jan 12, 2023 @ 9:58am

Shame this announcement didn't come before the holiday period/steam sales.

Horace Pinker has The Repopulation

Jan 12, 2023 @ 1:13pm

Originally posted by Oldbolt:
Shame this announcement didn't come before the holiday period/steam sales.

I guess it's already closed, never played it much as i was always waiting on lag to be fixed and the game to be close to finished first, wanted to log in one last time to make a toon and walk around a bit lol. There is some sort of galaxies emu. Too bad I gave my copy to my bro's friend in the 2000s because it was a couple or few years at least before it would let my pc run it iirc lol.

Last edited by Horace Pinker; Jan 12, 2023 @ 1:25pm

Xash

Jan 16, 2023 @ 11:17am

As expected.

No real progress for years.
Updates you had to look hard to see any changes.
Never ending talk about "fixing the foundation" yet still a pita to play.
Outdated everything, even when it started back in the days. Even more so nowadays!

Should've gone with Unreal Engine as many suggested a while back but then again, you wouldn't have been able to promote this gorgeous engine. Oh wait...

Yeah well. But hey, at least you were the guys that tought me one lesson: Never preorder! Especially from smaller studios! It's just a gamble.

AlecWoldt (TTV) has The Repopulation

Feb 24, 2023 @ 3:20am

hope everyone gets a refund played 2 hours most of the time trying to fix lag never released what a scam

Tal Maru

Feb 25, 2023 @ 6:13pm

Go figure, the game that had me "work" as a game master for almost a year with out pay while always promising that I would get paid "next quarter" has shut down.

The game who's lore is a thinly veiled "lets take over the natives planet colonial simulator with cloned slave labor" being the GOOD GUYS is getting shut down.

Thanks for firing me because I did not want to clock in because you were not paying me.
Watching this dumpster fire for the last couple years has been very amusing.

FRIENDLY MAN has The Repopulation

Feb 25, 2023 @ 8:48pm

Originally posted by Tal Maru:
Go figure, the game that had me "work" as a game master for almost a year with out pay while always promising that I would get paid "next quarter" has shut down.

The game who's lore is a thinly veiled "lets take over the natives planet colonial simulator with cloned slave labor" being the GOOD GUYS is getting shut down.

Thanks for firing me because I did not want to clock in because you were not paying me.
Watching this dumpster fire for the last couple years has been very amusing.

Tbh if we took over Mars, and discovered little green humanoids were native to the craters, we'd probably view ourselves in a positive light as we colonised their planet for our gain.

Bob Ross Mar 23, 2023 @ 9:08am

Oooooof, feel bad for all the people that paid for this game.

#10

Joe

Apr 16, 2023 @ 8:21pm

You (devs) need a good beating.

#11

SEAN

May 9, 2023 @ 9:11pm

f

they should have just let it die years ago, for all involved parties' sakes

#12

Jimbo

May 12, 2023 @ 12:56pm

The game had a great concept. I have been dieing for a sci-fi mmo with deep character development for ages.

Way to drop the ball. Give that dev post some clowns.

Last edited by Jimbo; May 12, 2023 @ 12:57pm

#13

Calowen

Jul 19, 2023 @ 9:08am

So, I just found out about this game shutting down. Its a shame really, it had potential. Just finding out because my main toon was locked out of his bank since 2022 or so....kinda killed my enthusiasm for the parts of the game I could still play. Hence, my long hiatus until I could stomach the will to try again.
I try logging in, it doesnt work...lol, my first thoughts were 'this is broken now?'...can you blame the followers for assuming this?
Well, at least I can free up hard drive space....but I was really hoping they could pull this together and release someday. Such an ambitious project with good ideas...going to the grave.

Bummer.

#14