S.T.A.L.K.E.R. rights disputed as GSC Game World claims it still has ownership

The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. license was said to have changed hands earlier this week, as German publisher bitComposer issued a press release to state that it had acquired the rights from author Boris Natanovich Strygatsky, who passed away in November. Shadow of Chernobyl developer GSC Game World has stepped in to dispute bitComposer's claim. FIGHT!!

CVG reports that GSC's Eugene Kuchma has told Gamasutra that the rights remain with his company, not bitComposer.

"In view of the rumors appearing in press, we find it necessary to inform that GSC Game World and Sergey Grigorovich [GSC CEO] remain to be the sole owners of all the intellectual property rights to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game series and the brand overall, including all the trademarks, the game universe, the technology etc. This can be easily verified with the trademark services online.

"From time to time news on the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. brand purchase by this or that company appear over the Internet. We relate such a keen interest in the brand to its exceptional popularity. Even the purchase of rights to create a Roadside Picnic book-based game by a small publisher is presented as the continuation of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise.

"We have doubts regarding the mentioned product by BitComposer (the publisher of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat in some territories), since the latter has significant debts in terms of fulfilling the obligations under the existing contract between our companies."

It follows bitComposer's Wolfgang Duhr stating, “Naturally, we’d like to tap into the success of this series, and we see a great deal of potential for the future.”

Will that future exist given today's revelations? What do you think? Let us know below.