chances of future wing commander game(s)

It all depends have EA got the "bottle" ie are they brave enough to in some respects take that risk and re-launch Wing commander as if it was 1990 all over again? They've seen the success of Mass Effect and would be mad not to follow it's footsteps for the "non-combat" sections... As I have mentioned and Galbro has as well, Ace Combat could be used as a "model" to provide a robust flight action sections then they could be onto a winner...with Chris roberts as executive producer, just like Hideo Kojima has been for Metal gear and although not in the same genre of the WC games, it also has a massive fanbase and has been going strong even now since 1987.....

But of all this is just pipe dreams, I would love to just ask an EA rep and say hey, there's a BIG BIG space franchise you've got waiting in the wings, ready for re-launch make it happen? Or will the fans have to generate enough "clamour" to get the EA Execs notice?....
 
I prefer the Kilrathi saga, and I would enjoy playing a game taking place before the breakout of the Kilrathi war and leading into the war (like a prequel, maybe flying as a young Tolwyn).

A game based on a sector other than Blair's would be nice too, or a game on the Kilrathi side similar to TIE Fighter. I'd also like to learn more about other species like the Firekkans, or maybe something about the Landreich or Border Worlds during the time period. It might cause a lot of retconning though.
 
More good examples of what I meant with retro-style WC: The relaunches of the Monkey Island games. If Ron Gilbert (for example) was helming those projects, there's techically or budget-wise no reason they could have been new games instead of remakes.

I think that if any site on the Internet has any influence on generating fan clamour and that way possibly increasing the chances of new games, it's this one. That's why I'm contributing to this thread at least.
 
Come on everyone lets launch an online petition see how many people we can get to bolster the chances of Wing Commander re-launched!!! If Star Wars can do it, then why not Wing Commander! I'd certainly put my name forward straight-away for this project to take place! Anyone else?
 
While an admirable thought, is there any indication of online petitions ever achieving anything? I'm skeptical.
 
Maybe especially if EA are not checking this site out, or are aware of it...its a matter of bringing all the fans together in some sort of way to get the request heard!...but I reckon its gonna take the fans for it to happen, I don't think EA has the franchise on their "TO-DO" list do you?
 
Petitions have been done before. Also, you cannot realistically compare the enormous fan-base of Star Wars across all its various incarnations to Wing Commander's, as great as this little community is.
 
Star Wars? When what where? Is there a new Star Wars space sim that I haven't heard of?

Oh right, you meant that if Lucasarts isn't going to exploit their X-Wing heritage with a new space sim, chances are slim for Wing Commander. Sadness.
 
Come on everyone lets launch an online petition see how many people we can get to bolster the chances of Wing Commander re-launched!!! If Star Wars can do it, then why not Wing Commander! I'd certainly put my name forward straight-away for this project to take place! Anyone else?

Maybe especially if EA are not checking this site out, or are aware of it...its a matter of bringing all the fans together in some sort of way to get the request heard!

While an admirable thought, is there any indication of online petitions ever achieving anything? I'm skeptical.

Right, anyone can put their name down on an internet petition. That doesn't really say much. EA is well aware that this website exists, and the biggest indicator that there's a market for more Wing Commander games is the activity level here. They can see how many daily hits the front page gets or how many posts appear at Crius.net Those kinds of metrics are better indicators of what kind of response there would be to a new Wing Commander game.
 
Oh right, you meant that if Lucasarts isn't going to exploit their X-Wing heritage with a new space sim, chances are slim for Wing Commander.

Thats like saying the success of the last Star Trek movie was based on people liking the Star Wars prequels. One has nothing to do with the other, they're totally different animals.
 
Indeed, I don't necessarily agree with that thought myself, it was just me trying to understand what was meant above with

"Also, you cannot realistically compare the enormous fan-base of Star Wars across all its various incarnations to Wing Commander's, as great as this little community is."
 
I see two eventualities.

1) In the near future we can see any number of 'small' games similar to Wing Commander Arena or Lord of Ultima.

The development process for these titles works very differently from what you assume: the impetus for these games is not to revive a franchise but to fill a particular niche. The call from above is for a type of game: an XBLA dance game, a browser-based FarmVille competitor, etc. Particular producers then have control over the project... and those that remember Wing Commander often try to involve the IP on their own. This is what happened with Arena--EA wanted a Japanese-style spaceship shooter and their producer pitched the idea of using the Wing Commander world.

These projects are sort of like fish eggs--for every zillion that are launched, one or two grow into released games. They try to involve Wing Commander *constantly*... in fact, I've been involved in maybe half a dozen in the past two years. I was even designer on a browser-based version of Privateer. I had an amazing time putting together the lore and figuring out how to do a game with absolutely no resources. The project died over contract issues, which is probably for the best since everyone would have *hated* it. That's what people don't understand, though--it's not some attempt to ruin Wing Commander by making it a different type of game, it's an attempt to salute the series when no one else is.

2) In the next several years we should see a major Wing Commander 'relaunch' on the part of Electronic Arts. This is the big deal we want, in the same manner as C&C or Dead Space. The one where they care as a company about Wing Commander as a brand. Think lots of money being spent on a core game and lots of licensing creating novels and DVDs and mobile phone games and so on.

I'll offer you several absolute certanties that you probably won't like, though:

- It will not be a FMV game. I'm sorry, it just isn't going to happen, not in a million years. Yes, Command and Conquer brought back FMV for intentionally cheesy cutscenes (and lost a boatload of money doing so) but that's as far as it will ever get. We will not see anything like Wing Commander 3 or 4's use of live action again. Folks will grouse but I don't think they'll cry over the end result: familiar actors voicing fancy (likely younger) CGI versions of themselves.

- It will be a console game with a possible PC port. But The Sims sold a majillion copies on PC! That proves it's a viable platform! The night nurse is taking my loose change! Wah! Sorry. In order for a game as expensive as a Wing Commander relaunch to sell and in order for it to hope to enter the public consciousness and be a big deal (think Halo or Gears of War) in 2010 it has to be an Xbox/PlayStation game first and a PC game maybe third (or 99th, after cell phones, Windows Phones, Blackberries, Palm Pilots, iPhones, iPads, iTouches, Zunes, BluRay Players, GameBoys, 3D GameBoys, Playstation Portables and those Playstation Portables that don't actually play games because they forgot to include a disk drive).

- It's not going to be steeped in Wing Commander lore like you want. But what happens to the Nephilim? Lets play as a Firekkan! Will Jason Bondarevsky ever find love? What was the deal with that super armor from the Victory Streak manual? Sorry. I care about all that shit, too. I care so hard. When I'm involved in a project I stick it everywhere I can... but only because the people playing Arena or Privateer-in-a-Browser are supposed to be you guys. The three million warm bodies you need to buy Wing Commander Redux don't. Expect the series to be boiled down to the *recognizable* elements -- Tiger's Claw, Chris Blair, Kilrathi. That might mean a remake of Wing Commander I, it might mean a prequel of some sort... but it won't be a sequel to Prophecy, it won't be a midquel that answers lost questions, it won't be anything that isn't part of the Kilrathi War.

ALSO... you likely aren't going to see many more 'cheap' Wing Commander re-releases. There may be a few special instances, like the WC4 PSX release... but in most cases the source material and the desire doesn't exist to shore up the games... and they aren't stable enough to put out through modern services in a presentable manner. EA is being very cautious about going with Steam or developing their own Steam-like service... and even when that happens, as we learned with that subscription game download service, stuff like Privateer just isn't in a state that can be sold. (Remember: you will happily put up with those few-hourly EMS crashes... Joe Modern Gamer will not.)

What can you do? No internet petitions, please. But we live in the age of social networks and EA producers are watching them. It can't hurt to post to their Facebook group or @ them on Twitter whenever the topic comes up. Advocate on your own rather than through some entirely visible organized structure--remind them that Wing Commander is out there.

Oh right, you meant that if Lucasarts isn't going to exploit their X-Wing heritage with a new space sim, chances are slim for Wing Commander. Sadness.

I know this wasn't your particular opinion, but it's worth noting that X-Wing is a weird, weird outlier in terms of "space sim" development. It is not in any way the game LucasArts particularly wanted... they would have liked a cinematic Wing Commander-style arcade-derived game, which they have since developed for the Star Wars IP (in bulk).

The story goes that LucasArts' reps saw Wing Commander's first demo at Comdex and immediately went back to their hotel room, printed up an X-WING COMING SOON sign and got on the phone to beg Larry Holland (then developing succesful World War II air combat games for them as an independant) the moon and complete creative control over the project. What they got was a strangely serious almost slow-paced space game that became a surprise hit and lead to sequels... but in 2010 with a million other succesful Star Wars lines and a newfound desire not to oversaturate the IP (hah-hah), there's very little impetus to bring back Totally Games at some really high price point to build a new X-Wing.

(It's also possible that Bridge Commander was a nail in the coffin for Star Wars space sims from Holland. Mr. Lucas is known for holding grudges when it comes to his licensors working on 'competing' franchises. I can tell you from personal experience that he was FURIOUS at FOX for trying to attach the Phantom Menace trailer to Wing Commander... it's also been a long standing claim that he doesn't let major Star Wars licensors bid on Star Trek properties (no Star Trek toys from Kenner, no Star Trek books from Random House).)

I'm sure we're all hoping that Arena was EA's way to test the waters...

Sadly, it was... to an extent. That was the hope of the game's producer and pre-release buzz was so positive that he was authorized to start prototyping a "classic Wing Commander" followup. Sales were bad and that project died.
 
Sadly, it was... to an extent. That was the hope of the game's producer and pre-release buzz was so positive that he was authorized to start prototyping a "classic Wing Commander" followup. Sales were bad and that project died.

Pre-release buzz was positive? All I heard was the clamor and crying of the mindless masses, many of them ex-Wing Commanders (which just goes out to prove you that even old fans of this great series are not necessarily a "cut above the rest", as much as we'd like to think so...) thinking exactly what you said - that it was an attempt to "change the series". I really couldn't understand this logic, but my mistake was assuming baying masses having logic.

Anyway, that is indeed a bit of sad news.

As for the rest of your post, I think that's what most of us on these forums hope for and expect, but it's good to clarify it for everyone.

It's nice to see that those small projects are out there, too bad they don't just materialize...I still haven't, for the life of me, heard why "genre" games couldn't be developed and marketed conservatively with a budget of less than ten million (for digital distribution)... I guess it's simply because a game costing 5 million for a niche audience can't generate a tenth of the sales that a 50 million dollar can (of course, except when it won't, like in 90% of the cases).
 
Pre-release buzz was positive? All I heard was the clamor and crying of the mindless masses, many of them ex-Wing Commanders (which just goes out to prove you that even old fans of this great series are not necessarily a "cut above the rest", as much as we'd like to think so...) thinking exactly what you said - that it was an attempt to "change the series". I really couldn't understand this logic, but my mistake was assuming baying masses having logic.

I guess the thing to remember is that nobody really cares what internet jerks are saying--it's considered very positive if they're saying anything at all (remember to laugh to yourself every time Kotaku mentions what a 'disaster' the Dante's Inferno marketing campaign was... the whole idea is to get that kind ot attention.) Arena had pre-release attention far beyond other downloadable games at the time, which convinced the folks in charge there was interest in the brand.

It's nice to see that those small projects are out there, too bad they don't just materialize...I still haven't, for the life of me, heard why "genre" games couldn't be developed and marketed conservatively with a budget of less than ten million (for digital distribution)... I guess it's simply because a game costing 5 million for a niche audience can't generate a tenth of the sales that a 50 million dollar can (of course, except when it won't, like in 90% of the cases).

I guess the big problem is that the amount of money doesn't work both ways. Yes you need five to ten times as much in 2010 to produce a AAA title as you did in 1996... but that doesn't mean that five to ten million dollars for something else is now cheap. The market for little games is a lot like the market for independant films--thousands of titles done unbelievably cheap each hoping that it will be the one in a hundred that picks up a buzz and makes some amazing return.
 
Now there was some feedback from the front, thnx LOAF.

Too bad it won't be FMV, but there are a number of reasons why you could not continue the story as set by the end of SO. Since you in some way will be probably be questioned in a QA-advisor way, you'll probably make sure that nothing will contradict the original stories in any way, and tie in some references that do not cost anything but might mean something to the in-crowd. CGI-characters these days can look fantastic. The marvel Ultimate Alliance Cinematics were fantastic for example, ofcourse those were comicbook characters to begin with.

I do assume it will be a space-sim again? Would there be any way to get a light, durable flightstick bundled/shipped? I have played all WCgames and ports with different controllers on multiple systems and through emulators, and it just handles better(or gives more depth to the experience) with a flight stick(Ever played house of the dead 3 with a controller instead of a lightgun?). And maybe a "light" version without the stick for those who already have a flightstick for their system?

If they can ship guitar hero guitars, could a stick/pedals be included while still maintaining a good market price?(they could make it compatible with other flightsim titles or games involving flight such as BF:1943 as a bonus)
 
Too bad it won't be FMV, but there are a number of reasons why you could not continue the story as set by the end of SO. Since you in some way will be probably be questioned in a QA-advisor way, you'll probably make sure that nothing will contradict the original stories in any way, and tie in some references that do not cost anything but might mean something to the in-crowd. CGI-characters these days can look fantastic. The marvel Ultimate Alliance Cinematics were fantastic for example, ofcourse those were comicbook characters to begin with.

I think the irony is that the importance of such an advisor is inversely proportional to the size of a project. For Arena they were happy to let me write flavor text and ad copy... for a hundred million dollar project probably much less so. I'm sure any fan who might be involved will do his best, though. :)

(One thing I've learned about these projects is that 99% of the time everyone knows exactly who is going to complain and why and that decisions are made. I guarantee you that every continuity "error" on the new Star Trek movie, for instance, was known to the folks making the movie... it's just a case of balancing the overall audience against the geeky stuff.)

I do assume it will be a space-sim again?

I would expect either a space sim or a space sim plus an FPS--similar to what they wanted to do in StarLancer 2 way back when.

Would there be any way to get a light, durable flightstick bundled/shipped? I have played all WCgames and ports with different controllers on multiple systems and through emulators, and it just handles better(or gives more depth to the experience) with a flight stick(Ever played house of the dead 3 with a controller instead of a lightgun?). And maybe a "light" version without the stick for those who already have a flightstick for their system?

If they can ship guitar hero guitars, could a stick/pedals be included while still maintaining a good market price?(they could make it compatible with other flightsim titles or games involving flight such as BF:1943 as a bonus)

That is a cool idea and something I was lobbying for about a year ago (on yet another missing project). Unfortunately the romance has faded for plastic instruments and similar pack-ins. There are mountains of unsold plastic instruments and a whole string of failed pack-ins trying to be as succesful as Guitar Hero (quiz buzzers, DJ Hero record machines, that stupid pretend snowboard).

In fact, I picked up a flight stick for the 360 recently for IL-2 and... future games... and I ultimately found just using the controller was a better experience (I think the same thing happened with Chris Reid and HAWX). Expect a game to be optimized for a controller with maybe a profile for the (now increasing in number for some reason) optional flight sticks.
 
The story goes that LucasArts' reps saw Wing Commander's first demo at Comdex and immediately went back to their hotel room, printed up an X-WING COMING SOON sign and got on the phone to beg Larry Holland (then developing succesful World War II air combat games for them as an independant) the moon and complete creative control over the project. What they got was a strangely serious almost slow-paced space game that became a surprise hit and lead to sequels... but in 2010 with a million other succesful Star Wars lines and a newfound desire not to oversaturate the IP (hah-hah), there's very little impetus to bring back Totally Games at some really high price point to build a new X-Wing.

Where did you hear that story about X-Wing? I always thought it was pretty natural that a group of guys who been developing several arcade-ish flight sims for lucasarts, with Battlehawks, Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe and Their Finest Hour, would eventually turn to the Star Wars IP.

It's an interesting thought the impetus for X-wing could've basically been a knee-jerk reaction to WC....

Personally the X-wing series is my favorite line of space-sims - you're right, - they're strangely serious...I like their impersonal nature and amazingly graceful flight-model....
 
It goes without saying that for their time, the X-Wing series were utterly superior as space sims - however, Wing Commander was unrivaled in story and immersion coupled with space sims. X-Wing's campaign consisted of briefing fluff text and occasional short videos (of course, decorating and promoting your pilot was hooking - that's something all Wing Commanders after WC1 fell short on - I'd love for it to return in future titles, and it certainly will, since memory or FMV issues won't get in the way. Of course, two promotions per game are enough!))
 
It's an interesting thought the impetus for X-wing could've basically been a knee-jerk reaction to WC.....

Well If I am not mistaken I think that back then , Origin was to make a Star Wars

Space sim , but Lucas(-arts?) didnt aprove or something like that.

LOAF or someone could bring some light to that .

If that happened , and with the success WC had in 1990 ,Lucasarts had to react somehow.They had to STRIKE BACK :p
 
That is a cool idea and something I was lobbying for about a year ago (on yet another missing project). Unfortunately the romance has faded for plastic instruments and similar pack-ins. There are mountains of unsold plastic instruments and a whole string of failed pack-ins trying to be as succesful as Guitar Hero (quiz buzzers, DJ Hero record machines, that stupid pretend snowboard).

In fact, I picked up a flight stick for the 360 recently for IL-2 and... future games... and I ultimately found just using the controller was a better experience (I think the same thing happened with Chris Reid and HAWX). Expect a game to be optimized for a controller with maybe a profile for the (now increasing in number for some reason) optional flight sticks.

Yes, if they optimize it for controllers it would end up playing with on those, but take a lot of nostalgia away(At least I have never seen a real or fictional cockpit with a gamepad resting in a batterycharger.) What I tend to miss in a thumbstick for manouvering is accuracy when attempting to "follow" or "lead" your target. the range of motion is much more limited and thus either slower responding or less accurate. (And a HOTAS system is less stressfull on your hands)

In the end I will purchase it anyway.
 
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