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I think people are massively overestimating how much ReMI was even ... noticed financially by Disney honestly. I do not believe in a world where they looked at what happened with ReMI, and gleefully set about seeing how else they can exploit this. I mean, for a start Sea of Thieves already had its mini-MI tribute long before ReMI. I do believe in a world where they saw that ReMI did fine and decided 'sure, we can afford to throw this name around a little more, it seems low risk' i.e. at best the existence of ReMI vaguely greased some wheels. But let's be honest, Monkey Island is not in the same league as a Star Wars and Indy, and never will be. It's not even in the league below. It's a minor game series which was fairly popular in the early 90s and gained a bit of a cult following, and has had a couple of revivals. Heck, even if Disney sticks a Monkey Island series on Disney+ and casts Chris Pratt as Guybrush Threepwood, I promise you it's because some exec went rogue on some passion project and it somehow passed through all the usual filters. No disney exec with dollar signs in their eyes is looking hungrily at Monkey Island.

I see both Return and the Sea of Thieves things as two opportunities that came up, where someone was willing to say yes. Those two points existing out in space don’t mean a line has been formed that we can extrapolate an trajectory out from, let alone a slippery slope. Whether you are excited about the Legend event or wary of it or resent it or anything else, it’s still a one-off thing clearly made by people excited to get to do this work. Maybe one day this will all be craven and horrible but that’s not the vibe I get at all right now.

Eh, nothing 'needs' to exist. Honestly if you offered me a world where no new Monkey Island things were created, or a world where 100 new Monkey Island things were created and 95 of them were terrible and 5 were great, I'd take the world where I get 5 great Monkey Island things and happily moan about the rest. At least it would be something to talk about.

The problem is that with each commercial success this becomes, essentially, inevitable. There's no scenario in which Disney et al could or would have made Star Wars, Indy or anything else with the same care or passion as under Lucasfilm. They bought Lucasfilm because they were pretty sure they could use its stuff to make a lot of money, and they felt--correctly--that people would spend billions for anything released under those labels, regardless of artistry, craftsmanship, or care. That was, from the beginning, the *only* reason new movies were made, and when they were...people spent billions on them. Everything else--all the arguing, the screaming, the dumbass demands to remove things from canon (as if that was a label that had ever meant anything to begin with)--was incidental. All they had to do was make something that was basically watchable and had all the right signifiers to get people into the theater, and the result was billions of dollars. Why would they go out of their way to do anything more than that? I'm glad ReMI got made. I really like it! But I'm pretty sure the only reason Disney's answer to Ron finally went from "no" to "yes" is because post-Thimbleweed they (correctly, again) figured they could outsource the heavy lifting to his team for a pretty low cost, and in return they'd get a test balloon to show them whether something they already owned had the legs to become a long-term exploitable property. They have their answer, and here we are. They're not putting the monkey back in their pocket now. EDIT: left out a key phrase

I don't want something just because it looks like Monkey Island. I don't need an RPG exploring "series lore" because that has less than nothing to do with why I like the games we have--they've always, always made up the rules as they go along. I don't want a comedy series about Stan because there's no reason on Earth you could convince me that needs to exist--that's so far divorced from anything to do with why the games work that at that point, just make something new and have done with it. I don't want more Monkey Island just to have it. I'm grateful for what I have and am more than happy to never get more if the only motivating principle for it was "can we move this merch." None of what you just argued against has anything to do with what I said. Obviously it's not going to be as big as Star Wars or Indy--I brought those up to respond to AGH's point about them. What I said is that I expect MI to be exploited as a marketable property for as long as the people holding the levers know they can get money out of it, which is...demonstrably happening, right now. I'm not worrying about it--I'm observing it. This doesn't mean "we get a fun new game by people with unique creative voices every couple of years." It means "they slap the branding on unrelated corners of the market where they figure it can do some low-cost work for them." The reason Mojo went so hard against the glut of LEC-produced Star Wars titles in the early '00s wasn't that the community hated Star Wars--games like X-Wing and Jedi Knight were as well-beloved here in their day as the graphic adventures. It was that so much of it was being shoveled out the door with little thought behind it except that people would pay for the logo. And the reason that happened is because people *did.* Obviously Monkey Island is a much smaller thing--and if you honestly believe I was arguing otherwise I apologize for apparently giving the impression that I was in the middle of a complete psychotic break--but we're already at "a Monkey Island-branded add-on to an unrelated MMO," and that sure feels more like Super Bombad Racing than TIE Fighter to me.

So I guess we can summarize the forum's attitude to this as...... SeMI-excited

It just makes sense. It’s Semi-Monkey Island and all. SeMI. This is a hill I’m willing to die on. >:

I think I had not finished my coffee and was grumpy. I didn't see the repeating plaid at first, and then when I did see it, I realized that it didn't really change how I felt. Which means it wasn't really about the plaid. I guess it also seemed like his arms weren't moving fast enough. But that's not the point either. Really, what I reacted against was seeing something that I strongly associate with a context that I have a lot of nostalgia for (pixels and dialogue trees) adapted into a context that I'm ambivalent about (open world RPGs). It was also just once scene in a trailer, and I probably reacted too quickly. I'm prepared to find this more interesting once I wrap my head around what it is, rather than focusing on what it is not. The part that I liked the most was like was the scene with Guybrush, since it seemed like an attempt at a new story. It was cool that they got Dom back to do the voice, and I actually thought he did a really good reading of the scene.

👀 @Dmnkly is in it apparently. And it looks REALLY good to me. Maybe I'll buy Sea of Thieves finally?

Disney is on its fourth, I believe, attempt at a Haunted Mansion film. That’s partly because none have quite hit the PotC smash, but it’s also because Disney’s park IP is reliable and has decades of history that seems perennial. It’s world recognized IP with attractions on almost every continent. PotC will get rebooted in five/ten years without Johnny Depp as soon as their is a hip new director or action star wanting to take a stab at it. Monkey Island is a niche of a niche of IP that counts the original PotC attraction as upstream inspiration. Why would Disney ever make a Monkey Island film? Everybody already knows PotC, the brand, the attraction, etc. Lack of Johnny Depp isn’t going stop Disney. They might realize that Depp was a lightning in a bottle casting choice that they are unlikely to repeat, but the attraction existed decades before the Johnny Depp movies and will likely survive decades after them too. I’d love to see a Monkey Island film or a Disney+ show. Those are “take my money” grabhands ideas. I’ve even joked for several years now that I’d happily consult on a Disney+ show because I figured you could run Sea of Thieves directly in Disney’s “The Volume” space and do it as Live Action cartoonish realism on the relatively cheap. (The Volume uses Unreal engine primarily and SoT is Unreal as well and I think even the islands that aren’t specifically built for Monkey Island references look fitting for Monkey Island side tales.) I don’t see Disney actually doing anything like that at all though because they own PotC and that is IP with history and weight. Monkey Island is just a silly little thing to Disney they happen to own only by accident of buying Star Wars.

Only just noticed this. It's not happening. Double Fine have been super clear in a lot of interviews in the months and years up to and post release that whatever they work on next, they're excited on exploring new ideas before returning to old ones again. Every time Psychonauts 3 comes up in conversation on the Double Fine Discord, we make a point of saying that this is not a thing that is likely to happen any time in the foreseeable future. This is not because they're hiding something, but because they're working on other things and Tim probably would like to know what it's like to do one of his ideas without worrying where the money is coming from.

I guess... a couple of things. Firstly I do really get the sense that the Rare folks are genuinely trying something different with Sea of Thieves and this is probably something they had to fight quite hard to make as big as it is, especially with the lukewarm initial reception. If it felt to me like Monkey Island was going to be absorbed by a real undisputed big hitter I might feel weirder about it, but honestly Sea of Thieves feels like it has succeeded against the odds, and from that perspective this more feels like it is paying respect to one of its inspirations than just eating the smaller fish. And, well, my relationship to copyright is a bit complicated as someone who has worked in the field of IP rights for some time, my ideas about it have evolved over time. It's a sad fact of not just this industry but a lot of creative industries that a lot of creative work needs financial backing to happen and so a lot of ideas end up just being owned by companies who then control what to do with them. That's been true for a long time, but yeah, it is true. On the other hand, I do feel like my ideal version of copyright is the one that existed at the start of copyright. It was originally intended as a way that a creator could protect how their work was used, and protect their ability to make an income for it, for a limited time, before it was released into the public domain for the betterment of the arts and culture as a whole. And that initial copyright term was short. None of this life plus x years nonsense. None of this zombie copyright stuff we get now where if something big is about to expire then whoops the term of copyright magically gets extended. The whole point is 'you can make money from it for a bit then it belongs to the world'. I think I like that idea. What it would mean is that right now Rare could just do Monkey Island in Sea of Thieves if they wanted, and Disney doesn't make money from that, but... neither does Ron. Nor would he need to give permission. But also, as a counterbalancing thing, since Disney would no longer own it, Ron could just choose to make and sell a new Monkey Island if he wanted. But so would anyone else. And yes, a lot of that stuff would be horrible, but that's how it goes for stuff in the Public Domain, right? Okay, sure. I don't know why you wouldn't want some cool Monkey Island stuff every couple of years, but fair enough. What I find weirder though is why you're spending any time worrying about it. It isn't happening. Won't happen. Monkey Island is tiny. It's not even as big as it was in 1997, which was... big enough to support a sequel after 6 years (which was an age at the time), which had some nice animated cutscenes but didn't even have the budget to do the ending cutscene they wanted and didn't produce another sequel in the same decade. Even if they release 5 well-received spinoffs in the next 5 years (which they won't) that won't even worry the needle of a Disney Exec's 'thing-i-need-to-pay-attention-to' meter. So there's no need to invent these scenarios.

Yes. This is something I actively do not want.

Well, the Melee Island™ joke would become less funny if the trademark actually had significant value... I don't think there's a risk of that happening with Monkey Island -- it's not like they're making LeChuck Happy Meal toys here -- but it does feel like a 'brand extension' that mines what was special about the original games. I probably wouldn't feel as annoyed if it was like, a tie-in novel, or a orchestral recording of the soundtrack. I guess it's the idea of subsuming the world of Monkey Island into a larger and more commercially successful game that bothers me... and I'm generally depressed when the people who created the value of the IP aren't at all compensated when it's licensed or exploited. That's the world we live in, but it still seems deeply unfair.

Actually I think I'd go further than what I said before and say that even if Monkey Island somehow impossibly did become a Star Wars, is this a nightmare proposition? Sure, that brand has produced some real stinkers in the past 30 years. But it's also produced some gems, even recently, and will continue to do so for as long as there are people that care about Star Wars and want to create Star Wars. As cynical and greedy as your hollywood execs can get, in the end, for now at least, they still have to work with people who are passionate about what they create, and have dreams and visions for what it could be. Are we really sat here worried about a future where we'd see endless cereal box tie ins and bad TV spinnoffs and mixed-bag movies, but then every couple of years we'd get an awesome comedy series about Stan's latest ventures, or an amazing RPG which explores the weirder parts of MI lore with real style and understanding?

Here's hoping this at the very least brings about some "new" Monkey Island music (or at least some new takes on old tunes).

It's a good thing I do the Mojole before reading the forum! I even vaguely recalled yesterday's answer, plus I'd just been reading the front page. 👕 I beat #MojoleXtreme #448 and all I got was this stupid t-shirt. 3/6 🖤💛🖤🖤🖤💛 💚🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤 💚💚💚💚💚💚 https://funzone.mixnmojo.com/Mojole/ And even then I don't get it right in one

@Remi Referring to this game with the acronym of "SeMI" is pretty perfect. Bravo.

To be fair, expectations were monumentally high when Ron was involved. We wanted everything to be perfect after a 30-year hiatus. While I think most of us recognize this as a fun, anomalous, one-off idea in an existing pirate game IP that was already heavily influenced by Monkey Island, so our expectations are sufficiently managed. Also, I feel like I'm in the minority on this, but I really want this to be canon with the rest of the games, especially if it takes place smack dab in the middle of Curse and Escape, where Ron wasn't involved at all. Particularly with the original (has it been confirmed yet?) voice cast involved, I'd love for this to fit in and expand the existing lore of the series (which doesn't retcon Return at all).

I'm not sure I'd have it any other way than this being a lovingly reference laden nostalgia-fest. I mean the alternative would be for it to be a serious attempt at expanding the MI universe and I think Rare would be first to admit that they haven't really earned that. Sure, I think ReMI opens up the possibility of lots of different kinds of stories being told by lots of different people but LOOK, we literally just got a new Monkey Island game last year, one we never expected, so I'm not going to begrudge if Rare don't set their storytelling ambitions any higher than 'a fun romp through some familiar locations and characters'. To me that almost feels like the MORE respectful way to do something like this. edit: possibly the rudest thing they've done is forever taken the name The Legend of Monkey Island out of commission for this.

For whatever it’s worth, Escape and Tales both had 3D characters and used the same basic effect as Sea of Thieves for Stan’s coat.

That's at least decent, though the wording of this and other posts would suggest that they were more or less done making it before they looped him in. But I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume it's because they intended it as a licensed equivalent of a fan tribute and not necessarily a True Monkey Island Game that would necessitate Ron's input Yeah, it's just wrong enough that I'd almost prefer he be recast for this incarnation, or at least I would have directed Dom to deliver the lines differently. Feels like he should have a more grizzly gravely voice compared to Dom's perpetually youthful performance. Regardless, it should indeed be fun to walk around these islands in 3D. Since Tales opted to avoid recurring locales and Return returned to 2D, the only "3D" takes we've seen for Monkey and Melee islands were in Escape, which wasn't especially aiming for nostalgic immersion or authenticity the way this is.

Yes, the whole stuff surrounding Ron Gilbert is annoying. I mean my take away from Return is that it was an acknowledgement from Ron that Monkey Island never was and never will be fully his, and that in that spirit all ways of telling the story are valid. So were they really that afraid of letting him know they were doing a side thing? On the other hand, this is exactly in the spirit of the sort of thing that it should be possible to do with Monkey Island post-return. Could not care less if or how it fits in the timeline since Also fine with how Guybrush looks here, it's completely in keeping with the character style of Sea of Thieves and it looks in some shots of the trailer it's an attempt to be closer to the hair colour depicted in the first two games, which I'm into. Part of me wants to say, look, it's not very deep and we don't need to overanalyse it. People in Rare were clearly into the Monkey Island games having already inserted a homage, someone at LucasFilm said 'hey do you want to make a thing' knowing that Return would make Monkey Island a bit more relevant again and the Rare folks were into it. Sea of Thieves is good, Monkey Island is good, this crossover event will probably be a nice time for people who like both those things. As much disdain as I have for brands and corporate culture... I do think it's possible to just enjoy that a thing exists and someone cared enough to make it happen. Because I find it hard to believe that this was done cynically, and it wasn't just some people's passion project. No matter how well Return did, nobody was looking it and thinking 'right, now time to find new ways to exploit that Monkey Island cash cow.' I think as fans we probably overestimate how much currency Monkey Island really has in this day and age. This exists, and it'll probably be made with love. There are worse fates for a series.