Is this the real reason FFO was cancelled?

[LHookins]

Have a look at this article. It's not our FFO, it's an earlier one made by someone else.

https://venturebeat.com/2012/01/12/what-happened-to-multiverse/

Exerpted from that article:

On Firefly, Bridges says “That game was such a labor of love for me and the rest of the Multiverse team. Working on the Firefly game was one of the best experiences in my career.” He explains that “for both the Firefly and Buffy games, we had created design docs and budgets, and built functioning prototypes.” However, in the case of Firefly at least, work was halted due to external circumstances.

While the reasons for the cancellation of the Firefly MMO are not entirely clear, Bridges is adamant that “Fox were wonderfully supportive partners. They were thrilled that we were making a Firefly game. Related to that, I can further say that none of the partners involved were unhappy with what we were building.” The cancellation apparently came as the result of “an unexpected legal issue from a completely unexpected quarter. It was arcane and odd and tragic.”

Here, read that last part again:

The cancellation apparently came as the result of “an unexpected legal issue from a completely unexpected quarter.

The FFO gag order never did make much sense. Who benefited by it? Who imposed it?

While the reasons for the cancellation of the Firefly MMO are not entirely clear

Another gag order?

Well, with two cancelled Firefly games, with only FOX and Joss in common, I think we know what happened now. If Joss shut it down he would certainly benefit from a gag order or two.

It must have been pretty strongly worded if they can't even say the game was cancelled.

And the final piece falls into place. I may be wrong, but I'm not uncertain.

Anyone making a Firefly game will need to make a non-Firefly game that can have a fan-made Firefly total conversion.

Hook

[LHookins]

The question comes up, why was a second attempt made to create a Firefly game if the first was shut down in this manner?

I don't have a great answer, but I have a possible one. Joss probably had final veto if he didn't like the looks of the game.

If this has happened twice, there won't be a third time.

[RattsSSV]

Such a shame.

[Agent_Zer0]

Again, this is why I play Warframe, haha...

Great post Hook, as always. Stay Shiny y'all!

[LHookins]

Thanks, Justin. We've all moved on to other games. And I know I'm not the only one who is soured on Firefly because of all this. It's too bad because the series and movie were very good.

[Lynx Baron of Noodles]

Your forgetting about QMX (https://qmxonline.com/) they have a huge stake in FireFly and have been known to be litgious

[Eric_Kei]

Interesting. This makes three distinct FFO projects I've heard of now (Multiverse, Dark Cryo, QMx/SPG). Thanks!

The second one was the one by Dark Cryo; it was shut down because they never had permission to do it, and got a C&D from Fox as a result. Their original response to legal threats from Fox was to rename their project "Firefly Universe Online" -- which kinda ignored the fact that it was the "Firefly" part Fox had an issue with.

Lynx is correct -- QMx does indeed have a big stake in FF. IIRC, they're the primary (if not necessarily only) merchandise licensee.

As for Whedon -- To the best of my knowledge, he wasn't involved with any FFO project, save for perhaps tangentially. Keep in mind that he has openly expressed his utter lack of interest in doing *anything* Firefly on more than one occasion in the last several years, whether it be books or games or shows or movies. While he may have interfered in some way, it is perhaps unlikely.