EA Talks Franchise Reboots (June 14, 2012)

KrisV

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Joystiq is carrying a story about two classic franchises that EA has recently brought back. While the Syndicate relaunch was not a huge commercial success, the newest installment in the SSX snowboarding series has done really well. An EA exec does not rule other more franchise resurrections:

"Syndicate was something that we took a risk on. It didn't pay off ? it didn't work," Gibeau told CVG. "But in general it doesn't change my appetite for wanting to go look in the library and see what we have and maybe bring back some IPs for the next-generation. That's the nature of the business; some stuff works, some stuff doesn't."






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Original update published on June 14, 2012
 
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Hmmm, now what should I say...

I will be both excited and frightened if they ever announce another game in the Wing Commander universe.
The question for me is: "What if it sucks?"

Maybe this is a extreme case of "everything was better 20 years ago" but when I play new games I often get the feeling that the newer games are done with less 'love' than in former times.
I won't start bashing Arena now, it was a small game with a small budget and we see that the team wanted to do a cool new WC game. They just had neither the money nor the time for the things I would have liked, like a singleplayer/coop- campaign with a nice story and such things. Joysticks and cockpits and such things would also have been nice. For what they could do they made it awesome, and I would have bought it if it were available on the PC, although I don't like that sub-genre that much.

What I want is a game like WC3, or Privateer.
- Platform: PC AND PD3 AND Xbox. I would buy the one for PC on release day and the one for PS3 (I have one, I just don't use it except as a BluRay player.) a bit later.
- Singleplayer/coop campaign. Doesn't have to be branching but would be nice.
- Story PLZ!!!. Really. I don't need movies or stuff like that, just a story.
- Multiplayer, both coop and Arena-style... well, arenas^^
- First person view. PLEASE! Cockpits would be cool but I can live with HUD-only.
- Possibility to mod and make own campaigns.

I'm not sure whether I would like a WC MMO. Perhaps not. I'd prefer a new Privateer like it was in the '90s. IMO MMOs kill franchises, but that is solely based on my own experiences and a personal view.

And maybe not even a space shooter. EA could play it safe and make a "Wing Commander: Space Marine" game in the Battlefield engine or something. I would still buy it, even though I don't like FPS the way they are now, with the tube levels and regenerating health and too much ammo and all that things.

A RTS game would rule as well, even though I would quite likely suck playing it. But we have seen cool Homeworld and Star Trek Armada mods, I'd like it I think.

For FPS and RTS it is the same like for Space Action: Story PLZ!!

Just don't make a "Wing Commander soccer manager" game, EA. Kilrathi playing soccer against Terrans because war is too boring and violent. Kitties wanna play with funky feather toys (balls)!!
Same goes for "Wing Commander: Space Race", a funky space racing game. Please don't.


So yeah, I see the possibilities, I just hope there will be a really dedicated team and some money behind it. Just because it has to be created. But please don't make it suck, EA....
 
It's too bad; I've heard, in such a way as to believe it, that the recent Syndicate was a pretty good game. I never got into the original Syndicate myself, and while it was almost certainly an excellent game I don't think it ever had the impact Wing Commander did (in terms of sales or long-term recognition.) Does EA not realize that Wing Commander is the game that made PC gaming (and game development in general) what it is today? I think that's been lost to the sands of "IT HAD THE GUY FROM STAR WARS IN IT!"...

It's not mentioned in these articles, though, but the game he specifically mentions that they're bringing back is, of course... COMMAND AND CONQUER.

Now listen, I am not one to call for the violent, lawless murder of anyone. I do it so rarely. Maybe once a day, at MOST. But we need to get a bunch of people together, head out to California and put out of our misery whichever leftover Westwood hosebag is still hiding out in EA's corporate structure and funneling millions of dollars to Command and Conquer relaunch after Command and Conquer relaunch. You want to know if this game is going to make any money, EA? Maybe glance slightly at the balance sheets for the last seven or eight times you tried this.

- Singleplayer/coop campaign. Doesn't have to be branching but would be nice.

I do think Wing Commander is possibly the ultimate co-op franchise and I'm not altogether sure why EA hasn't realized that. They pour money into trying to make 'Army of Two' a thing and now they're retrofitting Dead Space as a co-op game... just give us a damn Wing Commander where we can be each other's wingmen.

I doubt you'll ever see a 'branching' game again. Doing it the way the Wing Commander I did was already too expensive by 1991, it'd never pass the cost-benefit analysis phase in 2012.

I'm not sure whether I would like a WC MMO. Perhaps not. I'd prefer a new Privateer like it was in the '90s. IMO MMOs kill franchises, but that is solely based on my own experiences and a personal view.

This is probably a hard argument to actually make; I mean, they made (and are making) more Ultima and Warcraft games after Ultima Online and World of Warcraft came out... and I can't really think of any other game franchises that became popular MMOs in that way (broad media licenses maybe, but it's the same story with Star Wars and Star Trek... single player games still in development.) So I think this is another one of those 'admit it, you just don't LIKE this thing' cases... and I'm perfectly happy to admit that I don't like them either. I want a fictional world I can lose myself in, not one that's being messed up by other people. :)

That said, I'm pretty sure big budget MMOs are dead, dead, dead. They died a few years ago, we're just seeing the last dregs come out now. The audience has moved past the necessary fee structure and no one is willing (or able) to put the kind of money into development that you need to unseat World of Warcraft (which will itself fade as free-to-play games become more sophisticated.) (The big Star Wars game that will never, ever make any money for EA is the nail in the coffin... and I can't even think of another serious MMO on the way.)

And maybe not even a space shooter. EA could play it safe and make a "Wing Commander: Space Marine" game in the Battlefield engine or something. I would still buy it, even though I don't like FPS the way they are now, with the tube levels and regenerating health and too much ammo and all that things.

Well, let's face it, Wing Commander IS an FPS... it just doesn't have a floor. There's no physics to speak of. Regenerating health? Shields. Ammo limits? Missiles. (I actually worked on a Wing Commander Battlefield pitch which would have been pretty cool. It would have had both space combat and ground fighting in the same engine.)
 
What EA failed to realise, is that Syndicate was not a massive success, not because there were not enough fans of the original game or that the name on its own didn't create huge interest - both of those things were true - the game tanked because they took the game and turned it into something else. Syndicate was a real time tactical isometric shooter. They turned the remake into a first person shooter. One thing Syndicate most certainly wasn't. I honestly wonder how the game would have gone if it did not carry the Syndicate name. I don't think it's out of the question to suggest that it may have made more money, not less.

If you're going to use the name of a popular franchise, you have to respect it. A movie carrying the title James Bond can't be about pink unicorns. A tactical/strategy game that was light on story and all about gameplay can't be turned into an FPS (an arguable point but it certainly can't be made into a poor one, which is what Syndicate was).

There are two hurdles to overcome in doing a relaunch of a cult classic - one is respecting your fan base and the other is actually making a quality game. Occasionally you can get away with radical departures (see the new Battlestar Galactica TV series or Fallout 3 in the gaming world as good examples) in your relaunch, but every success at doing this have one thing in common - they are extremely high quality products.

In this vein, I would never accept a Wing Commander relaunch to be anything other than a space flight sim. Having said that, if they proceeded to make one of best RPGs ever produced set in the Wing Commander universe, I would probably begrudgingly enjoy it, while bitching that it wasn't my beloved space sim. ;)

I'm not convinced EA are aware of what made some of their past games so amazing. Activision have made what appears to be a similar mistake with the new XCOM first person shooter ("those sell - lets make one of those!"). Thank god someone there had the sense to get Firaxis to make a turn based strategy game that carries the name as well.
 
Well, Syndicate was not a bad game, it was just different from syndicate. as you knew it, and the FPS part could have worked if it had only be added(as in clicking on a soldier and taking control of his body in first person's perspective), instead of completely taking over the classic game's idea.

classic wing commander gameplay combined with a multiplayer element, would suffice for me.
 
Well, let's face it, Wing Commander IS an FPS... it just doesn't have a floor. There's no physics to speak of. Regenerating health? Shields. Ammo limits? Missiles. (I actually worked on a Wing Commander Battlefield pitch which would have been pretty cool. It would have had both space combat and ground fighting in the same engine.)

Technically it is an FPS, but not from the feeling.
To be more clear: With FPS I mean "guy walks around with a gun in his hand shooting other guys"-games.
I don't have even have any problems with regenerating health (shields) in FPS if you run around with a shield generator in your pocket. That just isn't the case in the present day warfare and wasn't in WWII either last time I checked.

In former times you had to be careful with your health and ammo in shooters. You sometimes had to judge whether to take the risk of entering a side corridor or not because there was a medi pack or ammo in it, but also enemies guarding them.
You had to find your way through a labyrinth and fight the monsters, finding secrets and whatever.
That was cool and that's what I enjoyed in shooters. Take Jedi Knight 1 as an example, It had really cool labyrinth level design, while Half Life 1 had a cooler story but it was the start of tube levels. It was still more complex than modern shooters, I consider it one of the last great shooters. Tube levels CAN be fun (HL2, Portal) but most aren't for me.

Battlefield MP gameplay is nice (I played BF2 a lot), although for me it always felt a bit too small for the planes thing.
But I loved that it had four types of gameplay:
- infantry classic FPS style
- vehicle combat
- air/air and air/ground combat with helicopters and planes
- commander mode (which I loved, I am angry they dropped it.)

It was like the old Operation Flashpoint 1 (not that crap they sold us after that), just less realistic and more fun and action. I could live with such a game in the Wing Commander universe I think. (if there was also a (coop-)campaign to play through)

The problem with the old space combat is that nobody wants to play it anymore, so there is no market an EA doesn't take the risk. If there is another Wing Commander I doubt it will be a classic space shooter like WC1-5. At the moment RPGs and FPS are hot.
 
While the Syndicate relaunch was not a huge commercial success, the newest installment in the SSX snowboarding series has done really well
Well that's an easily solved mystery: SSX snowboarding is still a snowboarding game!
Most of the old Syndicate fans (like myself) probably didn't want a shooter reboot, and most of the FPS fans didn't care enough for the Syndicate franchise to buy a mediocre game (which i hear it is at best, haven't played it myself).
I think i understand the economical reasons that led to the the game as it is: The current trend *is* shooter games, and it *is* clear that players prefer to buy games with a familiar name, but in this case there's just to huge a gap between the FPS target audience (or "next-generation" as he calls it) and the "fans of old". Syndicate was a popular game, but still too much of a niche product to be exploited like, say, the Command & Conquer franchise.
I think it's practically the same with the X-Com shooter, but 2K made the right decision (in my opinion) to put it on hold and please the old fans with a low-budget, old school, turn-based strategy game first.
I daresay many of those fans will be much more positive towards the FPS reboot afterwards.
That said, i am very grateful EA put the old Syndicate on GOG.com, i just hope American Revolt finds its way there someday too.
 
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I hope they don't do a SSX-WC crossover game. Snowboarding Kilrathi may be more than I can stomach :D
 
Single player and coop
Branch story
Lots of stories
Shooter
Multi platform
Space

Its already here: Mass Effect

And you actually pilot the ship (not in combat) around the galaxy.

I love WC, but WC2 story is very teen. WC3 a little darker/cheesy, WC4 even more dark. Mass Effect story is fantastic! Having 40 times the branches of WC.

I would love to play something similar in WC universe, but at the same time a fighter "sim" in Mass Effect universe would nice as well.

After Prophecy, I think it's better to let WC where it is.
 
I'm going to ask the old question - is there any chance we will see a new, proper WC game being published by EA? I think its interesting to see reactions to this question as time moves on. Because of the recent WC buzz about GOG, academy dvds and possible chris roberts project I would say its at best maybe, just maybe possible. To be honest I still think it unlikely.
 
Well, the last I heard was (last year, I think...) that Chris Roberts had started up a new studio and was possibily been working on a new WC game.

LOAF, Chris and the rest of the CIC crew have been suspiciously silent about the whole thing for a long time now, which makes me wonder if they know more than they are allowed to let on. ;) I'd be talking about it and speculating at every chance I got, but I have to go back and re-read some news articles to remember that the rumours even happened. ;)

(Or, perhaps those rumours were debunked and I just didn't hear about it? I don't think so, but...)
 
Well, the last I heard was (last year, I think...) that Chris Roberts had started up a new studio and was possibily been working on a new WC game.

LOAF, Chris and the rest of the CIC crew have been suspiciously silent about the whole thing for a long time now, which makes me wonder if they know more than they are allowed to let on. ;) I'd be talking about it and speculating at every chance I got, but I have to go back and re-read some news articles to remember that the rumours even happened. ;)

(Or, perhaps those rumours were debunked and I just didn't hear about it? I don't think so, but...)

Chris Roberts is still actively trying to get the game made. His problem is convincing someone to finance him $30 million to create a new Wing Commander.
 
He needs to hold a Kickstarter - earn a couple of million to convince EA that it is worth bank rolling. ;)
 
Unfortunately, with the amount of people jumping on Kickstarter, I think a WC project based on that would be lost in the noise to all but us. Roberts seems more of an 'All or Nothing' kinda guy to me.

Mass Effect Space Combat sim huh? Don't recall much talk about fighter-sized craft in the ME universe... but I've said before, I'd be all over a Mass Effect style RPG set in the WC universe. Imagine picking your squad - Kilrathi, Firekkan, Human, even the damn Mopoks! (yep, I'm the one to bring Mopoks in Space to this thread!)
 
Mass Effect Space Combat sim huh? Don't recall much talk about fighter-sized craft in the ME universe...

We do hear about them in the Codex and in ME 3 we do see and hear a lot more about them and even see them in combat I think this would be a great game but ME is my 2nd best series after WC
 
Given how much is made of humans using carriers in Mass Effect as a loophole around the battleship restrictions (similar to the Naval Treaty of Washington between WWI and WWII), there's plenty of room for having players fly off of one, presuming that the player character is cast as a fighter/bomber pilot rather than as Shepard.
 
It's not like ME3 will be the last game ever, even if they went out of their way to destroy the universe. Next one might as well be a space sim.
 
I'm not convinced EA are aware of what made some of their past games so amazing. Activision have made what appears to be a similar mistake with the new XCOM first person shooter ("those sell - lets make one of those!").

On the other hand I like what they did when moving XCOM to a space sim genre. Sure, the game was rather bad, but all in all it was a nice idea that could have worked if they had putted a bit more work into it IMO.
 
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