Wing Commander III: Why Origin?

There's one more surprise from Shari Graner Ray:

More interesting (at least to me) is the "Why Origin" sheet for Wing 3. By the time of Wing 3, Origin was owned by EA. EA required that everyone who wanted to propose a game idea, had to do a "why Origin" sheet. This was to give a high level overview of the game and show that it was timely, feasible and something that would make sense for Origin to do. Even Chris had to do it for Wing 3. I think you might have fun looking at it, as it's how Chris sold the game to Origin. You might also notice there is no mention of any live action or filming ;)

This truly is a fascinating document. It's very interesting to read about some of the things that were planned, including an Academy-style mission builder and plans to carry over Strike Commander's 'virtual cockpit' feature. Note that Heart of the Tiger's final budget--including the film shoot--was around four million dollars.