GOG: Dune 2 re-release held up by five-way licensing split

GOG senior business development and partnerships manager Marcin Paczynski said in an interview that a re-release of Westwood Studios' 1992 real-time strategy game Dune 2: The Building of a Dynasty is complicated by a licensing structure split among multiple rights holders, according to gamesradar.com.

Paczynski described the game as one of the holy grails of GOG's re-release efforts. According to him, Electronic Arts holds the game code, assets and related materials for Dune 2, but does not own the underlying IP.

That IP is divided between the Herbert Foundation, Universal Pictures, the successor to original movie rightsholder Dino De Laurentiis, and Legendary Pictures. Legendary has given Funcom an exclusivity arrangement for making games in the Dune IP, including Dune: Awakening.

Paczynski said it is currently unclear how that exclusivity would affect a re-release of Westwood's old Dune games, which also include Dune 2000 and Emperor: Battle for Dune.

Modest sales expectations

Paczynski estimates that a re-release might sell roughly 50,000 to 100,000 units at $5.99 or $9.99. Westwood released Dune 2: The Building of a Dynasty, also known as Battle for Arrakis, in 1992, and the game laid the foundation for the real-time strategy genre. Westwood Studios was eventually acquired by EA, and the games were based on the 1984 Dune movie produced by Dino De Laurentiis.