A Brief History of The Darkening

One of the most rousing debates in the history of the Wing Commander fandom is over Privateer 2: The Darkening's name. Many remember that the game was announced as 'The Darkening' and only became a Privateer game close to its release. We aren't here to relitigate the debate over whether that was right or wrong; instead, we're going to try to answer a specific question: when were the multiple decisions to change the name made? To do that, we've put together a brief timeline of Privateer 2's development that we believe tells the story.

Privateer II: Dark Side - Mid-1994 to February 1995

Producer Erin Roberts pitched what would become Privateer 2: The Darkening to Origin in mid-1994. Erin had joined Origin several years earlier, coming from his home in England to Austin to assist his brother finish development of the original Wing Commander. He would go on to join the famed Strike Commander team as Associate Producer. He quickly gained a reputation for being effective in the role, someone with the rare capacity to balance managing a team and moderating the demands of the studio and corporation. He would go on to again serve as Associate Producer on the original Privateer and then as Producer on the Privateer CD-ROM release. During this final project, he famously got so fed up with Electronic Arts cancelling and then restarting development that he stopped checking his company email and had the team finish the game in peace. It would go on to sell well and to form the basis of several major OEM deals; it still generates profit today in digital release! Instead of again joining his brother on Wing Commander III, Erin wanted to return home to England. Electronic Arts had a growing presence in Manchester and he reasoned that with his experience and connections he could build a team that would produce Origin-quality games in Europe instead of Texas. He pitched this idea alongside a new game the team would build, a sequel to Privateer.

At the time, Origin had something of a hub-and-spoke system for financing game development. They would invest significant amounts of money in high risk projects from proven creators and then amortise those high budgets with spinoff games that would reuse technology and other assets. Wing Commander begat Wing Commander II, Ultima VI begat Worlds of Ultima, Strike Commander begat Wings of Glory and Pacific and so on. Erin's pitch was for a second Privateer game that would take advantage of the updated RealSpace engine being created for Wing Commander III. His project would take the bones of Wing Commander III and then, just as the original Privateer built itself on top of Wing Commander I's 3space engine, build a new Privateer where you could trade, dogfight and travel anywhere in an area of the Wing Commander universe. Additionally, the game would use a to-be-determined amount of current buzzword Full Motion Video that could be shot on a much tighter budget in the United Kingdom.

Origin, familiar with Erin's work well beyond his family connection, approved the project and the earliest development of Privateer II began in Manchester in the second half of 1994. Erin quickly assembled a world class team and production of the game began in earnest. The first task was to produce a proof-of-concept prototype which would prove to the powers that be that the new team was capable of adapting and improving on the Wing Commander III engine. This work would be the first step to securing funding for the intended FMV shoot. One offshoot of this work was that the team created a model of the original Privateer's Talon for the demo; it would be added back to the game for a special mission once it was again made part of the Wing Commander universe! As expected, the team proved themselves and Electronic Arts opted to budget three million dollars for the film shoot. It is not known precisely when the title was decided but by January 1995 the project was known as Privateer II: Dark Side.

The game was announced (but not shown) at Winter CES in January 1995. Electronic Arts happily boasted of the promising project just starting to take shape, promising members of the press that they would see the game and its intended-to-be-spectacular film portion later in the year.

• June 12, 1994 - Wing Commander Privateer CD-ROM released.
• Late 1994 - Production of Privateer II: Dark Side begins.
• January 6, 1995 - Privateer II: Dark Side is announced at Winter CES.

The Darkening - February 1995 to May 1996

Erin Roberts would spend the next eight months pulling double duty producing both the game in Manchester and putting together the star-studded film shoot at Pinewood Studios. FMV was new and at this time nothing on the scale of Privateer II had been attempted. Roberts was responsible for putting together the director, actors, below the line talent, the studio and more. He also worked directly with (and hired) screenwriter Diane Duane to build the story and the world (a duty shared with the team in Manchester that wrote the game's incredible breadth of text material while the live action material was being shot). It was during this time that the decision was made to step away from the Wing Commander universe: the technology and the idea was so promising that it seemed like it could stand on its own. The name was changed to simply "Darkside" (Draft 5) by April and by the time the shoot began in May (Draft 7) it was known as "The Darkening". The game was still a Wing Commander III technology spinoff but it was no longer expected to take place in the same world.

Another major reason for the change to "The Darkening" was that Chris Roberts, then deep in development of Wing Commander IV, was interested in doing a Privateer sequel himself. This wasn't a case of his stealing the project from his brother; rather, Electronic Arts was looking at Wing Commander IV and interested in pushing a larger, connected multimedia IP going forward. This would lead to things like the animated series and the card game but it was envisioned at first in much grander terms. Chris began development of a fascinating idea to make two Privateer sequels (Privateer 2 and 3) with a TV show that would take place between them. Players would follow one character on TV over the course of the season as they played the first game; then the second game would conclude the overarching story with both characters teaming up. It was a fascinating idea and it got so far as to be passed to a studio in Los Angeles for further development… but in the end it was more transmedia than was possible at the time. Still, Chris continued to plan to follow Wing Commander IV with a second Privateer game and eventually went into preproduction with a story by famed fantasy author Tracy Hickman.

Meanwhile, Electronic Arts conducted the first press junket for The Darkening in July. They allowed reporters to visit the sets at Pinewood Studios during the shoot and then to meet the team in Manchester to see how the game portion was being completed. This resulted in a swath of long form articles praising the imaginative production from July to November, mostly in the European press. These were mostly missed by Wing Commander fans at the time because, of course, they didn't mention Privateer. The game was fully "The Darkening" at this point and so a lot of this was completely ignored. Origin issued a November 1995 press release to support this media push listing the intended release date as simply 1996.

Then, a major change that would delay the game into the second half of 1996: around Christmas the team decided to drop the Wing Commander III engine. They believed it had been pushed to its limits by Wing Commander IV and was not conducive to the game world they wanted to build. Instead, they licensed BRender and converted existing work to the new engine. Two months later, Wing Commander fans would be forced to notice The Darkening when an advertisement for the game was included with the Wing Commander IV play guide…. Promising a now scrapped spring release date. Manchester's marketing artists began the initial development for its visual presence, complete with mockup advertisements and box covers for "The Darkening".

• February 1995 - Preproduction for the film shoot begins.
• April 7, 1995 - Draft 5 of the script is completed; it is called "Darkside".
• May, 1995 - The film shoot begins. Draft 7 of the script is titled "The Darkening".
• July, 1995 - First major press junket (at Pinewood).
• November 1, 1995 - Origin issues press release about the film shoot
• December 1995 - Wing Commander III engine dropped
• February 12 1996 - Wing Commander IV released

Privateer: The Darkening - May to July 1996

And then, some big changes. Chris Roberts left Origin in May 1996 which effectively ended work on his version of Privateer 2 (the Tracy Hickman storied game). The Darkening's next big press exposure was at E3 1996 where it made a big change as well: it was announced as Privateer: The Darkening. Privateer: The Darkening. Marketing artwork, starting to resemble the final version, was created bearing this name and Origin put out this press release. This came as a massive shock to the Wing Commander community which at this point was familiar with the project from the WC4 announcement but which wasn't particularly engaged with it beyond an interest to see what a beloved developer had put together. Frankly, there were a lot of upcoming space sims in 1996! But now this one was a Wing Commander game and the Usenet and #wing-commander went wild!

NEWS RELEASE - Contact Media Relations Department

For immediate release
Contact: David Swofford or Teresa Potts
Origin Media Relations

Privateer: The Darkening Debuts at E3

Los Angeles, Calf., May 16, 1996 - ORIGIN Systems® takes the Privateer® gaming experience to a new frontier with its first European interactive movie.

Privateer: The Darkening creates a new dimension in the Privateer universe by offering SVGA graphics and sophisticated gameplay including several hours of live action video. The Darkening is expected to ship during the holiday season on CD-ROM.

Privateer: The Darkening adopts and enhances the superlative gameplay of the original Privateer, ORIGIN's award-winning space exploration/action game which shipped in 1993. Choose for yourself whether you're in the mood to trade goods, be a scout, bounty hunter, escort, courier or reconnaissance agent. Up to 18 different ships and a wide variety of technology upgrades let you decide which ship can carry the advantages and weapons you'll need in your new career. Hire wingmen and cargo ships to help you blaze a trail across the galaxy as you take on hundreds of missions. As in all ORIGIN Interactive Movies you take control of the lead character, in this case Lev Arris (Clive Owen), and guide him through a multitude of adventures and missions. Its Origins most action-packed interactive movie to date!

Privateer: The Darkening features a top-of-the-line cast starring noted European actors John Hurt, David Warner, Jurgen Prochnow and Clive Owen, as well as American actor Christopher Walken. Filming for The Darkening took place over a six-week period last summer at the famed Pinewood Studios outside of London.

The Storyline

Lev Arris awakens from cryogenic storage, a coldsleep that might have lasted for as long as ten years. He was allegedly suffering from a disease for which (10 years ago) there was no cure. His pod has been pulled from the wreckage of a star-freighter called Canera, which was mysteriously attacked by ships of an unknown origin. He has lost his memory and is now faced with rediscovering his identity by interacting with dangerously devious and sinister characters, some of whom are out to kill him. Arris must endure a roller-coaster journey of bribery, corruption, deception and violence. However, the decisions you make will decide his plight.

ORIGIN Systems develops and publishes state-of-the-art entertainment software. To date, the company has released more than 50 titles, including the award-winning Ultima, Wing COmander, and Crusader series of games. ORIGIN is based in Austin, Texas, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS).

###

ORIGIN, ORIGIN Systems, We Create Worlds, Privateer, and Ultima are registered trademarks and The Darkening, and ORIGIN Interactive Movie are trademarks of ORIGIN Systems, Incl. Electronic Arts is a registered trademark of Electronic Arts Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Well he helped produce Privateer and so The Darkening is very much like Privateer. I think we may even call it Privateer 2. And, you know, it's going to be very much in the Privateer game format. But a lot better designed and thought out and care taken on the gameplay itself. The characters and story haven't got anything to do with Privateer, though. But it looks really, really cool. So, I think it's going to be out this Christmas. I think it's going to do really well.

What we learn here is that the debate over what to name the game was going on for some time before fans had any idea. Most interesting is this clip from a Chris Roberts interview in the June 1996 issue of PC Action. This was most likely shot at ECTS in April before he left Origin and it suggests pretty strongly that he was pushing for the game to be renamed Privateer 2 at that time. Which makes quite a bit of sense: Chris would've wanted to support his brother's project and he was the decider for everything creative and technical about the Wing Commander IP at the time. It wasn't purely a faceless Electronic Arts executive insisting on the change… it was the executives running Origin like Chris Roberts, people whose direction we have always implicitly trusted. (It's also believed that Chris did an uncredited edit on the Privateer 2 intro sequence around this time, again simply to assist his brother's project.)

• April 14 1996 - ECTS; Chris Roberts speaks publicly about possibly renaming the game Privateer 2.
• May 1996 - Chris Roberts leaves Origin to found Digital Anvil.
• May 16 1996 - E3; Origin announces the game as Privateer: The Darkening

Privateer 2: The Darkening - July to December 1996

Less than three months later, the powers that be at Origin changed their mind again. An updated version of the E3 press release was posted to Origin's home page retitling the game Privateer 2: The Darkening. Six weeks later, it was shown at ECTS under that name. And in December the game shipped first in Europe and then the United States.

• July 31, 1996 - The game is officially renamed Privateer 2: The Darkening
• September 8, 1996 - ECTS; the game is shown as Privateer 2: The Darkening
• December 13, 1996 - The game ships in Europe.
• December 28, 1996 - The game ships in the United States.

What does this all tell us? The simple story that the game was 'The Darkening' and then it became 'Privateer 2' right as it was released is true only in the broadest sense. In the end, the game was in development from idea to release for about thirty months and for fifteen of those it had Privateer in the name. That said, the change happened when only a small amount of the setting had been established and so much of the game was indeed created without thought for it being part of the Wing Commander universe.

THAT said, there's no moral to the story, you should decide for yourself how you feel about Privateer 2 and the decision to change its name yourself, understanding that the latter was made without the input of the team that bled to make the game happen. My opinion will always be that Privateer 2 is an incredible game and a worthy addition that expands the Wing Commander universe in some very necessary (if unexpected) directions. At the same time, there's no question in my mind that the internal issues that caused the rift between the Manchester and Austin teams were completely valid… but again, their cause wasn't the team that worked so hard to build the game in the first place.