General question. Excuse the lack of knowledge. I've always wondered especially since comming to this site and learning about the sonic extreme fiasco and various other beta sales. Some blind. Some secret and discreet, is the sale of betas/ dev. Hardware something illegal. In our very own sale section I see members usually block out the serial number to hide the orignal souce of what companies the dev hardware comes from. When I company cancels a game / completes and releases a game /or its unreleased are all materials including different presses / betas / alphas etc supposed to be destroyed? And if not do they keep them in some sort of huge vault (sounds kinda outlandish) for archival purpose? could a company legally sue a seller for selling a beta of a game from a systems that's no longer produced / sold (ex sonic extreme) . All input is welcomed.
No one destroys betas (afaik) except Nintendo. Most companies do not archive their games, there might be a data tape of the game kept for a few years, and a retail copy. Sega did not keep much of their source and had to remake many games from scratch for their retro collections. 1. Devkits belong to the source company 2. Beta leaks can result in jailtime, but not much more. I don't think anyone has been sued for money lost on a beta leak. 3. Most companies frown on betas, but the older the game, the less they frown. Hit a golden point, and they can actually help you out (like in some old c64 games) USE THE RETURN KEY PARAGRAPHS ARE YOUR FRIEND.
Usually in companies old builds scattered around or maybe sit in some room until they are thrown out or someone takes them home. Depends on the company of course, some have more scrutiny over old builds, some have less, etc. When you're a developer in a game studio most of the time you have to sign an Non-Disclosure Agreement which forbids you from leaking anything the company doesn't want leaked (the exact wording varies of course). Mostly this is so nobody leaks the game to a pirate early or so nobody creates a PR stink. Leaking games before they're released is a huge no-no, especially from the bigger studios. They care less about stuff that's released, even less about older stuff. With Sega, they used to keep most old builds, source discs etc. in a room but they threw all of that out around 2001 when the Dreamcast flopped. Unreleased games (including X-treme builds) all gone. Most of what was salvaged from that times (that I know of) belongs to me now
