I also believe they would add the expansions for free if they could. However, the problem is that getting the expansions is not just a matter of time. Due to the apparent legal quagmire it might never happen, just like System Shock and Syndicate might never be released here.

Well, not as much Wing Commander (without Extras and WC3) as I expected, but anyway BIG thanks GOG. You did it well, as usual. Thanks once more!

Total guess but I'd imagine that expansions are not included in EA's original contracts and are dealt with on a release time basis so it's likely they don't actually own the rights to them on anything but 3.5inch disks... oh the joys of not realising the world of distribution was going to change...

Just speaking from my professional experience, it could be a number of reasons why it's more complicated, but it all boils down to GoG and EA not wanting to expose themselves to possible litigation from some party they forgot about if they go ahead and release the expansions. Quite often, stuff like this isn't necessarily done by the same devs and EA or GoG needs to go back and check to make sure that they do indeed have the rights to distribute these games digitally. Another thing to keep in mind is that many of the agreements EA has on file with these devs were signed by people who are probably no longer with the company, so things need to be triple checked to insure nothing was left out when the agreement was originally inked and everyone with rights to the content comes out happy in the end.

EA in all likelihood has/had a boilerplate agreement with their devs who have worked on core games saying that once the game has been released, EA retains the right to sell or distribute it however they choose to. Sometimes, considering the age of these games, those agreements lack any kind of language in regards to whether or not EA can rightfully distribute said works digitally or what EA can do with subsequent expansions, since those are often based upon a whole other agreement. So it becomes a huge gray area and the legal research process on that end can take months. Basically, they want to insure themselves no one will get litigious if they go ahead and release the expansions.

Also keep in mind there might be some kind of agreement EA had in the past with previous devs that amounts to EA retaining all the rights to core games, but will allow devs to have a greater profit share or control of expansions and other content, etc.

Granted, this is all speculation and I'm basing most of this off of my own professional experience in another industry as well as anecdotal accounts I've heard from friends within the industry about matters like this. Take it as you will.

I'm pretty sure the reason why we're not seeing the expansions for WC 1/2 (as well as other EA games) is similar to the reason why we're not going to see System Shock 2 on GOG any time soon; from my understanding EA subcontracted the work to other developers/studios (and who knows how many of these were bought up by other companies) and the issue of rights ownership has been seriously muddied as a result. It's not directly EA's fault (for once) and it's definitely not GOG's fault.

In the meanwhile, I'm really tired of people going on and on saying that these games are "useless", "incomplete", and "castrated" without the expansions. Seriously? They're perfectly playable, with a single player experience just as engaging, enjoyable and entertaining as it was when it was first released. Anything else, including the expansion packs, are a welcome bonus. As I said on the other thread, I wonder if we'd be better off *without* EA's games on the GOG catalogue just to stop the endless complaining.

I'm getting a kick out of people acting like they know what's going on and trying to use legalese to sound smart when they are completely wrong.

Thanks GOG.

While it would be nice to have the expansions, I would rather have the games to play while licensing issues are resolved. The alternative is for these games to be stuck in limbo. GOG has a good record of updating games with additional content (Betrayal at Krondor was update to include Antara, for example), and that's good enough for me to buy now and enjoy some old school gaming.

I would have bought Privateer, if it had the expansion, and I would be buying Wing Commander for SURE if they included the expansions.
Hell, I would bay 20 dollars for it all.
But this is just stupid.
Release the entire series, or don't bother....

You know, I am going to complain about the incompleteness because I played the game to death back in the day, and now getting to play it again would be awesome, but once I was playing I would be pissed off that I would be missing out on over half of it.

You'd be suprised we're probably all pretty much on target, publishing contracts for games aren't as pretty as those for films for example, there is no Game Writers Guild that we are all members of so theres no group that can deal in generalities theres no going "theres a new media format so heres an updated version of the old contract, sign here and you will get paid!". Individuals have to be sought out or in some cases their estate to get permission to rerelease their work.
Consider Elite 2:Frontier who owns it? David Braben? Frontier developments? the original publisher? some unknown coder?
The answer is...
All of the above which is why it's never been open sourced despite Braben and his companies wishes they just don't have the right to

Really simple, i should have checked this before posting, simply run as administrator and they will work.

It seems the timing issues haven't been fixed so when there is a lot going on the game goes into slow motion. Of course you can alter this with the cpu cylcles but it's a bit awkward having to keep constantly changing the cycles when you're dodging asteroids and fighting kilrathi.

Would have been nice to see the Kilrathi Saga versions here as they already work in windows and don't have timing problems. Would simply need the colour problem fixing for Vista & 7.

But you enjoyed the original game by itself before the expansion packs were released, right? What bothers me is that people are saying that these games are effectively worthless on their own, as if a set of additional content that's almost always just a subset of the original game is worth more than the game itself, which is completely silly.

I'm not saying that it's wrong to feel disappointed that they're not there, because it's perfectly reasonable. It's just that a lot of people have taken that disappointment to unnecessary extremes.

Sorry GOG, no expansions, no sale.

Going on the wishlist for now.

Oh? Tell us more about your expertise in licensing matters! Clearly you're aware of something the rest of us aren't.

The Kilrathi Saga originally had all the add-on packs missing also, but EA released them as a free download. These downloads are still available from the EA ftp server in the folder below:-

ftp://ftp.ea.com/pub/origin/patches/kilrathi/

Presumably this mean that EA can legally distribute the Kilrathi Saga versions of the add-ons but not the originals. If this is the case why not release the Kilrathi Saga version instead?