If there is something that has great importance in the gaming world, it is licenses. Fables creator Bill Willingam has had enough of this after conflicts with DC.
The Wolf Among Us is based on Bill Willingham’s Fables universe and after many years with DC, he has apparently had enough and made the brand public property.
“As of today, September 15, 2023, the comic book property known as Fables, including all associated Fables spin-offs and characters, is now in the public domain,” Willingham wrote on his Substack. “What once belonged entirely to Bill Willingham now belongs to everyone, for all time. It is done, and as most experts will tell you, it cannot be undone. There is no possibility or possibility of taking it back.”
The reasons he cites are the findings from his long-term contract with DC Comics, but also trademark and copyright rights in general. The Fables brand was once in good hands, but the situation has changed to the opposite over the years. “Throughout my years of doing business with DC, with Fables and with other intellectual properties, DC has consistently violated its agreements with me,” he claimed in his statement.
Interestingly, Willingham also specifically mentioned Telltale’s first Fables game, The Wolf Among Us, suggesting that DC allowed the developers to radically alter its “characters, settings, story and story premise” and claiming that DC “tried to “to hide the script from him” and to withhold “any money for licensing the Fables rights to third parties.”
To ensure that something like this doesn’t happen again, he has decided to hand over the Fables brand to the general public. “If I couldn’t prevent Fables from falling into bad hands, I can at least ensure that it also falls into many good hands. Since I firmly believe that there are still more good people than bad people in the world , I consider that a kind of victory.”
However, this should have very little impact on the upcoming The Wolf Among Us 2, which is due to be released next year after a bumpy development including the studio closing and reopening with a new owner.
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