[After a brisk nap]

If you wanted to make the game in the public domain, you shouldn't have used characters, names, etc. that are owned by Vivendi. As long as Vivendi owns SQ, you can't make a SQ sequel and put it in the public domain. I would have thought that was self-evident. It seems like the best you could have hoped for was to complete and release the game before Vivendi got around to shutting you down, but the lack of a deal with the company would not have made the game public domain.

And I agree it would suck if Vivendi took the finished game, stripped your names from the credits and sold it for profit. But do you actually think that's a real risk? There are all sorts of reasons (which it seems redundant to list) why that wouldn't make sense for them.