EA To Bring Back Old Franchises (December 20, 2006)

[KrisV]

Darklightr came across an interesting quote in the October issue of the U.S. PlayStation Magazine. In "The People vs. EA," the company responds to some of the criticisms gamers have. Look what Nick Earl, general manager of EA Redwood Shores, says in response to complaints that the company has 'killed off' old franchises! Could there be a new Wing Commander title in development already?

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"EA...killed all my favorite franchises, only to replace them with their own. Ultima, dead. Wing Commander, dead. Dungeon Keeper, dead. Populous, dead. System Shock, dead. Lands of Lore, dead . . .And Command & Conquer only lives on as a shell of its former self." -- OPM message boards

EARL [. . .] "To answer the charge about not revitalizing certain franchises, that's actually not true. There are several unannounced franchises we are working on right now from that list that we are bringing back out. There are several that we are starting up again that we want to bring back to the fans. Sometimes it comes down to how loudly the market is screaming for something."

And who else screams as loudly as Wing Commander fans? It's worth pointing out that EA continues to promote Ultima Online after nearly a decade, and the vast majority of Wing Commander titles were created and paid for by Electronic Arts too.

--
Original update published on December 20, 2006

 

[Delance]

That's great news, and actually good thinking. Game companies pays lots of money to use franchises, so why not use their own for free?

 

[MartySheen]

He said they were working on several new games from the list of franchises!Id put money on it that 1 of them is System Shock. As for the others, its hard to say.

 

[MannPower]

Still, Wing Commander is part of a niche market, and nobody tries to capitalize on trends more than EA. WC may not be one of the games considered because of the decreased popularity of flight sims.

Still, at this point, I'll take a Wing Commander-themed game of any genre. Even RTS, which I actually think would be a good endeavor.

Now, if they are bringing back Wing Commander, it'll be another anxiety to wonder what they'll do with the art design...

 

[gwydion]

i swear i posted a response to this already... anyway... for all we know they're just talking about redoing some of those franchises for EA Replay. But lets hope it's something more substantial.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

EA Replay isn't unannounced, though.

 

[AD]

i swear i posted a response to this already... anyway... for all we know they're just talking about redoing some of those franchises for EA Replay. But lets hope it's something more substantial.

You somehow managed to post it to the other news story. And I second the thought that this is substantially larger that just EA Replay.

 

[Franz29]

So, do we start a big letter writing campaign to ensure WC is one of the franchises we see in future? And yes, I said letters not e-mails. Regardless of the company, letters carry more weight than e-mails. It appears to take an effort to write and put a stamp on an envelope rather than click and send.

Even if WC isn't currently on the table for work, maybe a concerted campaign will convince them to give it a shot.

Stephen

 

[CataclysmX]

I doubt they'll pick up Wing Commander again, as much as I'd like to see it happen. EA knows its most popular title is the Sims because it's easily accessible across multiple age groups, they rebundle sports titles yearly, unless the fans of WC get out there and tell them how much we want those games, they will never realize that there still might be a profit opportunity for the Space Sim market. And at the end of the day, that's EA's #1 concern, profits and shareholders.

 

[Mace]

If they can bring back frogger, prince of persia or pac-man lots of times, why not WC?

 

[LeHah]

Id put money on it that 1 of them is System Shock. As for the others, its hard to say.

How quickly we forget...

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/bioshock/index.html

 

[Lt.Death100]

I don't see EA on there. They may be creating a true sequel to System Shock.

 

[RogueBanshee]

Still, Wing Commander is part of a niche market, and nobody tries to capitalize on trends more than EA. WC may not be one of the games considered because of the decreased popularity of flight sims.

Still, at this point, I'll take a Wing Commander-themed game of any genre. Even RTS, which I actually think would be a good endeavor.

I wouldn't mind a game where you're in command of the Confederation and the Kilrathi Empire.

 

[MartySheen]

How quickly we forget...

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/bioshock/index.html

I didn't forget about bioshock, its actually one of the games im looking forward to for the Xbox 360.

However, EA has no involvement with the game (its being developed by irrational games and published by 2k games).

Theres lots of rumors going around that EA may be working on system shock 3 and I think its highly probable that this is correct.

http://www.macnn.com/articles/06/08/07/system.shock.3.official/

 

[hurleybird]

Theres lots of rumors going around that EA may be working on system shock 3 and I think its highly probable that this is correct.

The rumor I've heard is that System Shock 3 is being developed by the Godfather team.

IMO, out of the franchises listed I think that Ultima has the highest chance of being revisted, due to the success of WoW, System Shock has the second highest chance as there are already whispers of a new game being in development, and Wing Commander has the third highest chance because of it's immense popularity and the complete lack of competition in the space sim genre.

Very encouraging news!