Future of Wing Commander

Bladewhirler

Spaceman
Hi all

Yesterday I watched the Wing Commander movie, and boy was I dissapointed. Price of Freedom was actualy a better movie. Ah, those were the days....

Who holds the rights for Wing Commander these days? And are there any plans to continue the saga?

I mean, WC5 was a Cliffhanger, so there should be a sequel, no? Shouldn't there be a Privateer 3, now that the Steltek are the big bad evil guys?
 
Firstly welcome to the Forum

Secondly, I take it that it was first time watching the movie?

As far as I know EA own the rights to WC

The only recent WC Game was Prophecy for the GameBoy Advanced
 
EA hasn't announced anything about when they plan to make a follow up to secret ops. They still have the game rights, where as I think Roberts still has some movie / TV rights (but not for prophecy material). although I don't know if they have an expiry date. As far as I know, they havent abandones the series but are waiting for the right market conditions.

I think the consensus is that the nephilim are not the steltek, nor the mantu. But you'll have to ask Loaf or chris or someone.

IMO there is a lot to like about the WCM. Especialy the music. I may not think it's perfect but I appreciate things about it differently the more I see it. It's really rewarding to think in terms of how the characters evolve from there into the ones we see in the games, rather than to trash them as being "different".
 
I hope that one day EA will wake up and realise how much they are losing out by just sitting on the rights to wing commander and not doing anything with it. If they make a new game and get it right, there is such a big fan base that they will make so much money (which is what they want isn't it) and open up the way for further sequels (and even more money for them). Besides, how many years was it after Doom 2 that Doom 3 was made? Maybe wing commander will get a similar resurrection soon enough.
 
As long as nobody from EA comes to me and tells me that I have to stop making WCU, because if they do, I'm going to throw angry cats at them multiple times. The fact of being thrown tends to make a cat angry by default, especially at the target for some reason, so I'm not too worried about running out of ammo. (Also, in case of crossfire, a cat is usually able to shred a lawsuit or a C&D letter, whereas the opposite isn't generally true. Lawyers are only as scary as you let them be. Crazy cat ladies are scary period.)
 
AD said:
EA hasn't announced anything about when they plan to make a follow up to secret ops. They still have the game rights, where as I think Roberts still has some movie / TV rights (but not for prophecy material). although I don't know if they have an expiry date.

As I recall, Chris Roberts has the TV and movie rights to WC material up to and including WC4. I wouldn't swear to it, but I don't believe there's an expiration date on those rights.
 
spiritplumber said:
As long as nobody from EA comes to me and tells me that I have to stop making WCU, because if they do, I'm going to throw angry cats at them multiple times. Lawyers are only as scary as you let them be. Crazy cat ladies are scary period.)

If that happens you get in touch with me, I happen to know EA general counsel (I provide her professional liability insurance) and I'd be more than willing to talk through with her the situation. But, I don't think that will happen not unless you try to sell the remake. :)
 
I would be a little afraid of EA making a Wing Commander sequel. They seem to make extremely commercialized action games that don't have much depth. I'd be concerned that they'd make a cheesy commercialized version of Wing Commander that would make Wingnuts sick to our stomachs. That being said, I suppose a bad game COULD be better than no game. I imagine it would turn out alot like Starlancer, but worse if EA was behind it. As far as a future for Wing Commander, it would be interesting if 10 or maybe even 20 years from now people are still making mods. Since the game engines are getting better and better, I suppose the mods would keep a certain freshness to Wing Commander.
 
spiritplumber said:
As long as nobody from EA comes to me and tells me that I have to stop making WCU

I must be a little out of the loop. So, what is this WCU? Are you remaking the WC games with a new engine? I have played the Privateer remake.
 
Bladewhirler said:
I mean, WC5 was a Cliffhanger, so there should be a sequel, no? Shouldn't there be a Privateer 3,

The sequel to Prophecy was Secret Ops. Both the sequels to Privateer and Secret Ops were cancelled however. It's not necessarily likely that the next new Wing Commander game would return to either of those points.

A certain portion of EA's games are extremely forumlaic, but they don't often throw crap together and toss it out the door. When we finally get a new WC game, I expect it to be quite an undertaking.
 
TopGun said:
Chris, do you reckon a new WC game would be more interactive than the previous ones?

No, not really. Interactive movie stuff really just turned out to be a mid 90s fad. Wing Commander did it exceptionally well, but it's no longer really something that excites game players enough to build into games. Branching storylines that Wing Commander 1 pioneered are very much alive and well in certain games today though, and that's definitely possible.
 
Mjr. Whoopass said:
They seem to make extremely commercialized action games that don't have much depth.
Yeah but they are getting alot better. I'll admit it's hard to make a *decent* story driven action game. I mean yes they are out there but if you look at the action genre as a whole there do not seem to be alot out there. The good news if EA's Medal of Honor Pacific Assault does have actual characters and dialouge. But other than that there is no overall plot. If I were worried about this I would look out for a bad BF1942 ripoff that was WC.
 
Considering the recent space sim games that have come out have done pretty well, I'm surprised another WC game hasn't already been announced.
 
dextorboot said:
Considering the recent space sim games that have come out have done pretty well, I'm surprised another WC game hasn't already been announced.

Wow, what planet are you from? The average space sim that's come out in the last five years has done about ten times worse than the last Wing Commander game.
 
ChrisReid said:
Wow, what planet are you from?

There was no need for that.

ChrisReid said:
The average space sim that's come out in the last five years has done about ten times worse than the last Wing Commander game.

I neither compared them to the last WC game nor did I give a time frame. Simply stated that they are doing better recently, perhaps not as good as they once were but they seemed to be on an up swing. And someone thinks it's a good idea to make them because they keep coming out and are being reviewed fairly well.
 
ChrisReid said:
No, not really. Interactive movie stuff really just turned out to be a mid 90s fad. Wing Commander did it exceptionally well, but it's no longer really something that excites game players enough to build into games.


Personally, I would be very excited about another interactive Wing Commander. I know FMV is a thing of the past, but you're right Chris...Wing Commander did it so well. Chris Roberts created such a compelling story behind the gameplay. Wing 3 was great, but Wing 4 was the pinnacle, I think. When he left Origin and someone else picked up Wing Commander Prophecy, the interactive movie portion of the game sucked. Now that DVD-ROM has become standard equipment on computers, I would truly love to see the next generation of interactive Wing Commander games. That would be sweet.
 
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