Some are saying that the Stargate franchise is cursed when it comes to video games.  First the promising third-person shooter, Stargate: SG-1: The Alliance for last generation's consoles and PC, was shelved due to legal disagreements and financial issues.  Now the unreleased PC MMO Stargate Worlds is off the table and the barely released Stargate Resistance online shooter for PC is ending due to, yes, legal disagreements and financial issues.  Stargate owner MGM is pulling the license from troubled Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment and the resistant Dark Comet.  As for Resistance, its online-only time comes to an end in January 2011.  GateWorld has the news.

When reached by GateWorld, MGM had no comment on the matter of the license expiration or the possibility of its restoration at some point in the future — should, for example, Cheyenne emerge from bankruptcy solvent and ready to resume production on the game.

Dark Comet was formed by former employees and shareholders of CME when that company — several years into the development of its flagship game title Stargate Worlds, as well as Resistance — ran out of money and closed up shop last year.  Both companies and their principals have since been embroiled in a series of legal battles over just who is the rightful head of Cheyenne, and who owns all the Resistance game assets and hardware.

Dark Comet kept the game’s development going, and managed to get it finished and released earlier this year.  But some CME shareholders objected to the fact that the company had acquired the Resistance assets for pennies on the dollar, leaving them with the bill and a bankrupt studio.

I can end the Stargate gaming curse right now.  Here's all MGM has to do: stop licensing the property to developers that are incapable of bringing a successful product to market, give up on entering the crowded MMO marketplace, and ease off on the greed.  The Stargate franchise is very valuable and I understand why MGM wants to wring as much revenue from it as possible, but the company has to accept that it cannot count on a little studio to make a blockbuster game that can compete with the major players in the industry.  License Stargate to a proven publisher/developer with an affinity for third-person sci-fi shooters and let the magic happen.  MGM would have to share the revenue with the major publisher and developer, but at least then there would be revenue to share.