The Name Game – Operation Flashpoint
Operation Flashpoint is the name of the original release of Arma: Cold War Assault. It is also the name of Operation Flashpoint: Elite, the Xbox version of Operation Flashpoint.
Bohemia Interactive and Codemasters
Bohemia Interactive was contacted by Codemasters after seeing their demo of Operation Flashpoint reaching the million downloads and both agreed to work together; Codemasters would publish Operation Flashpoint. Doing so, Codemasters would hold the rights to the "Operation Flashpoint" name, while Bohemia Interactive would keep rights to their engine, assets and narrative.
Bohemia Interactive and Codemasters parted ways after Bohemia encountered issues in porting Operation Flashpoint on the Xbox, and delays in a very ambitious Game 2 project. Those delays and issues increased Codemasters' pressure on Bohemia to create and release a sequel to Operation Flashpoint; in order to leave these restrictions, Bohemia Interactive started a new franchise with the game called Armed Assault (ArmA: Combat Operations in the USA) and terminated Codemasters' partnership circa 2005.
Usage by Codemasters
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2001-06-21 | Operation Flashpoint release |
| 2002-02-01 | Operation Flashpoint: Red Hammer release (dev. by Codemasters) |
| 2002-06-28 | Operation Flashpoint: Resistance release |
| 2005-11-08 | Operation Flashpoint: Elite release |
| ca. 2005 | Bohemia Interactive/Codemasters split-up |
| 2006-09-10 | Armed Assault release |
| 2009-02-20 | Clive Lindop is presented as "a veteran of the original OFP team" |
| 2009-02-26 | Bohemia Interactive Press Release |
| 2009-06-17 | Arma 2 release |
| 2009-10-06 | Codemasters' Dragon Rising release |
| ca. 2010 | Codemasters' "Operation Arrowhead" cease and desist letter |
| 2010-06-29 | Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead release |
| 2011-04-21 | Codemasters' Red River release |
| 2011-07-13 | "Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis" becomes "Arma: Cold War Assault" |
| 2011-09-14 | Dragon Rising and Red River studio is closed down by Codemasters |
| 2013-09-12 | Arma 3 release |
Codemasters does own the rights to "Operation Flashpoint" but there is an exclusivity clause stating a sequel can only be done by Bohemia Interactive.
Codemasters, wanting to use the good aura of the license, decided to create a new game (technically not a sequel) with the same name and announced Dragon Rising in 2007, revealing it in 2008 at the E3 convention.
Developers
According to Eurogamer, Clive Lindop was introduced to them as a "veteran of the Operation Flashpoint team"[1] before being rebuked by Bohemia Interactive and corrected.[2]
Bohemia Interactive Press Release
On 2009-02-26, a press release was published[3] by Marek Španěl, CEO of Bohemia Interactive, to clarify the situation and put an end to Codemasters' voluntarily ambiguous statements - the praised, GOTY game is Operation Flashpoint, and Dragon Rising is -not- its sequel.
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.”
Prague, Czech Republic, February 26, 2009 - In a letter from its attorneys to the English company The Codemasters Software Company Ltd, Bohemia Interactive Studio s.r.o., the leading Czech-based independent games developer, is protesting Codemasters’ marketing tactics which tout Codemasters’ upcoming game Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising as the “return of” or “official sequel to” the genre-defining game Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis.
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” trade mark and plans to release its new game under that title, Bohemia Interactive has always owned 100% of the original OFP game. Bohemia also provided gaming community complete set of editing tools and on-going 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.
“In the license agreement, Bohemia Interactive expressly reserved the exclusive right to develop sequels to the original OFP game,” says Leora Herrmann of Kluger, Peretz, Kaplan & Berlin, PL in Miami, attorneys for Bohemia Interactive. “Codemasters also acknowledged that Bohemia owns all the intellectual property in the game – except the words ‘Operation Flashpoint’,” adds Herrmann.
“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’?” asks Bohemia Interactive CEO Marek Španěl.
Because Codemasters owns the trade mark “Operation Flashpoint,” Bohemia Interactive cannot use the name for its own sequels. Instead, ArmA, released in 2007 and already adopted by the modding community, is powered by the second generation of the Bohemia game engine. Bohemia Interactive is currently working on its latest revolutionary re-creation of modern military conflict – ArmA II, due out later this year– which will be powered by the third generation of its engine and is based on the same original designconcepts and artistic style of Bohemia Interactive’s legendary releases OFP: Cold War Crisis and OFP: Resistance.
In fact, the ground-breaking game engine that Bohemia Interactive launched initially in OFP: Cold War Crisis has spawned not only ArmA and the upcoming state-of-the-art ArmA II, but in its most sophisticated incarnation to date also powers Bohemia Interactive’s VBS combat training simulators used by armed forces around the world, including the recently announced Game After Ambush training program for the US Army.
“We can’t stop Codemasters from releasing a game using the words ‘Operation Flashpoint,’” acknowledged Španěl. “But it is not right to promote this game as the ‘official sequel to the multi-award winning Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis’ or the ‘return’ of Bohemia Interactive’s ‘genre-defining military conflict simulator.’ The awards were given for the game created by Bohemia Interactive - not to a name.”
Operation Arrowhead
Codemasters sent a cease and desist letter to Bohemia Interactive before Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead's release, as they felt the expansion/standalone name was too close to "Operation Flashpoint". Bohemia Interactive did not comply and released the game with this name on 2010-06-29.
Guildford Studio Closure
On 2011-09-14, Codemasters is closing the studio responsible for Dragon Rising and Red River[4] and announces it will be focusing on racing games from now on.
See Also
- Original press release (Web Archive) - Marek Španěl's public statement on BI Forums
- Operation Flashpoint - The Name Game, a Bohemia Interactive blog post about the issue
- Rock Paper Shotgun interview
- Eurogamer paper about the BI/CM "war"
- Eurogamer paper about Bohemia's press release
- The Rise and Fall of Operation Flashpoint, a GVMERS video explaining the situation.
- ↑ "Clive Lindop is (not) a veteran of the Operation Flashpoint team" 2009-02-20 Eurogamer's article (corrected on 2009-10-21)
- ↑ "Bohemia Interactive slams Dragon Rising marketing" 2009-03-02 Eurogamer's article
- ↑ Bohemia Interactive Press Release on the forums
- ↑ "Codemasters to close Guildford studio" 2011-09-14 GamesIndustry.biz's article