Star Control developers Fred Ford and Paul Reiche have turned to GoFundMe to help finance their legal defense against Stardock.

Stardock became embroiled in a legal dispute with Ford and Reiche last December, after the pair announced their own follow-up to the series, Ghosts Of The Precursors. Having purchased the rights to Star Control in an Atari clearance sale in 2013, Stardock filed a lawsuit against the pair in 2017.

The studio claims that Ford and Reiche have no control over the property and casts doubt over their contributions to Star Control and it’s sequel. The pair counter-sued, claiming that Stardock’s rights to the franchise gave them very little control over it.

In March, Ford and Reiche revealed that a proposed settlement offer proposed they surrender all rights, pay $225,000 to Stardock, and prohibit them from making a similar game for five years.

With the case likely headed to court, Ford and Reiche are now funding a legal defence through crowdfunding site GoFundMe. Since launching the campaign on June 22nd, the two have raised almost $11,000 of their $2 million goal.

Speaking on the campaign page, they said: “We (Fred and Paul) have worked together for 30 years and have seen almost everything the game industry has to offer, but have never seen or experienced a predatory legal attack like this -- an established, corporate publisher attempting to bully two lone developers into surrendering their most treasured game, characters and unique universe.”

“Stardock wants to strip us of our creative rights, property and even our history as creators of the game”