Beware the ides of March - this especially interesting issue of Point of Origin, Origin Systems' internal newsletter, offers a fascinating look at the troubles the company faced in 1991. While reading through it, be sure to keep in mind that the company will be sold to Electronic Arts within a year. We'll get to that issue in the near future... A very special thanks to Joe Garrity of the Origin Museum for making this resource available and to Electronic Arts for sending them to him in the first place! Here's the breakdown for Wing Commander: View from the Top is a fascinating and in-depth analysis of 1991 at Origin... and the news isn't all good - the delays of big ticket projects like Strike Commander and Ultima 7 coupled with failures of games like Worlds of Ultima endangered the company. What won the day? You guessed it! "It was a big year for the Wing Commander line. Wing I & II and their associated products accounted for 90% of domestic sales revenue. They also brought the company tremendous visibility and established ORIGIN's dominance in action/simulation as well as fantasy role playing... Given the limited success of some products and the slippage in schedule of others, hard work, Wing Commander and a certain amount of luck carried the company through what could havee been a very rough year." Bulldogs Take Flight describes a new push to sell Origin games at retail. It's mostly about upcoming titles, but Wing Commander gets some mentions: "Likewise, Fred Meyer, a 100 store chain, has picked up Ultima 7, Underworld and Wing Deluxe... Wing Deluxe is moving a little slower, but still sold in excess of 100 units in the first two days of release. Babbages has already placed a reorder for that." World Media Roundup talks about a whole lot of international magazines... and they're all honoring Wing Commander! On the Tube reports that Wing Commander 2 will be on TV: "Wing 2 will be part of a 'Reviewer's Favorites' episode of The Computer Chronicles, a national PBS show. Locally, you can see it in Austin on cable channel 30 on Wednesday, March 25, at 10:00 pm and again on Friday, March 25, at 6:30 pm." At Press Time gives status reports for two WC titles in the pipeline: "W2/German Final 1.3 Strong--could sign off late next week & Spc. Ops. Alpha 1.1 Early stages, but lots of fun." And, lastly: "In our next info-packed issue: An on-site report from the SPA symposium in Seattle, where Wing Commander II is up for awards in 3 categories. Don't miss it!" -- Original update published on October 18, 2007
I don't know, it's kind of weird to imagine that the studio who was responsible for the greatest game ever that sells well gets so fast into trouble. But once again, WC saves the day! Very interesting read, as always.
