The Curse of Monkey Island, Escape from Monkey IslandAnd Monkey Island Storiesall were developed without Gilbert at the helm, but were created with his insider knowledge. This isn’t the first time the Monkey Island series has left port without its captain. While the lack of communication on Disney’s part is disappointing, according to one Eurogamer report, Sea of thieves developer Terrible Toybox has stated that “Disney let him know about the project as a courtesy, but the game was well into development at the time and he wasn’t given a chance to be meaningfully involved.” It happened behind my back.”Īlthough Gilbert is credited as the creator of the classic adventure game series, it is owned by the Monkey Island franchise technically belongs to Lucasfilm and Disney, who are not required to ask Gilbert’s permission.

According to a Mastodon thread, Gilbert was not notified of the development of this upcoming story, stating, “It hasn’t even been told. When we interviewed Gilbert in April 2022, he said that he had 'lengthy conversations' with Disney about his and Grossman's pitch for a new game and was happy the corporation allowed him extensive creative freedom.The last Sea of thieves extension of the story, The Legend of Monkey Island, departs on June 20, but it seems someone forgot to mention this to Ron Gilbert, lead developer and writer of the Monkey Island series.

When Gilbert teamed up with original Monkey Island programmer and writer Dave Grossman to start on Return to Monkey Island, they had to approach Disney, which acquired the series' original developer and publisher, LucasArts, in 2012. Terrible Toybox, the firm with which Gilbert has recently worked to release games like Thimbleweed Park and Return to Monkey Island, attempted to clarify Gilbert's statement on Monday, telling Eurogamer that Disney 'did give a heads-up on the project as a courtesy, but the game was well into development at that point, and he wasn't given the opportunity to be meaningfully involved.' In a Mastodon thread responding to a fan's question on Sunday, Gilbert wrote that, 'nope,' he wasn't involved with Sea of Thieves: The Legend of Monkey Island, an expansion to Rare Limited's multiplayer open-world pirate game themed around the iconic Monkey Island point-and-click adventure series.

If Microsoft's Rare studio and Disney's Lucasfilm Games (formerly LucasArts) want to make a Monkey Island crossover DLC for Sea of Thieves, they do not, in fact, have to ask the original game's creator, Ron Gilbert. Rare/LucasFilm Games reader comments 79 with

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