A couple people sent in notes about the new Escapist article on the space sim genre. The piece hop-scotches around the history of space shooters and touches on Wing Commander here and there. Without going into great detail, there's quite a few inaccuracies. A companion timeline was also created to go along with the story. Its info graphics get some dates wrong and take time to rag on the WC Movie and Arena, but forget to mention significant games like Wing Commander IV or the Star/Freelancers.
Wing Commander Prophecy [mistakenly uses a picture from Star Giants and cites an incorrect release date]: The new Vision Engine empowered what was intended to be the first of a trilogy. Despite critical acclaim, poor sales and the financial situation of Origin Systems allowed only an expansion (Secret Ops) to be distributed online in 1998.
The trilogy is an oft-repeated, but debunked, story that still commonly makes the rounds. The game sold better than Wing Commander 4 on a fraction of the budget, and Origin's success with Ultima Online put the company in great financial shape. So good, in fact, that Wing Commander fans got an entirely free 50-mission follow-up game released during an exciting online event the following year...
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