A WC rumor

A

Avenging_Angel

Spaceman
I was at a party last night. A couple people there that work in the gaming world. not asure what they do. as i don't persionally. but they said ea is suppose announce a release of a wing commander collector edition with all all the wing commanders games. updated to ruun on today computers. plus one of the unrelease titles and some others stuff. i'm taking that with a huge pile of salt. but has anyone heard that?
 
That would be great if it turned out to be true, but I'd be very skeptical until I saw a big update on the front page.
 
t.c.cgi said:
I'm guessing your guys were pretty drunk and don't actually work for EA.
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drunk....~~~...think that would be a understatement. i think i was one of three at most sober. but i know the host well enough if he says they work in the gaming business they do. but i think they are reporters. but that the first rumor bout wc i heard in the last a few months. but it's the believable one i heard. like i said i'm taking the rumor with a huge pile of salt. but they said it would be announced about the time for e3. sorry to get anyone hopes up, i was just relaying what i heard. funny thing is i wasn't the one to bring up wing commander. we got talking swg and their space expanison how it sucked.
 
Avenging_Angel said:
I was at a party last night. A couple people there that work in the gaming world. not asure what they do. as i don't persionally. but they said ea is suppose announce a release of a wing commander collector edition with all all the wing commanders games. updated to ruun on today computers. plus one of the unrelease titles and some others stuff. i'm taking that with a huge pile of salt. but has anyone heard that?
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I half expect them to release a compilation, but I really don't know what you mean by "unreleased" game. As far as I know the only WC games that were far along enough in progress to be released were ports of existing games (wc2 snes, and WCP PS1 though I'm not sure they really did much work on the WCP port). unless they mean a PC port of Arena. This story sounds fishy to me.
 
Privateer 3 and Privateer Online were quite far in development AFAIK. I think I even still got a PC mag that has screenshots of one of them.

I still don't believe that rumor however.
 
This is the braincase...

I do expect that Electronic Arts will revisit the IP in the future (maybe even by E3?)... but not like this. A 'First Decade' style collection for Wing Commander would be a much more complicated beast -- and a less attractive one for the general market, for a number of reasons.

The age of the games makes it more difficult to sell to a modern audience... and harder to develop in the first place. Not only is it harder to update a DOS game for a modern computer than it is a Windows 9x C&C title, but they have access to very little of the original development material (source code, original art, etc.)

It's also the wrong audience: given the amount of money the next Wing Commander game will require to develop, it will be a console title first (and a handheld title second and a mobile title third and a PC title maybe fourth.) Releasing a collection for the PC to test the waters when you're going to be selling something to a different audience entirely just doesn't make sense.

(There's also the same issue that helped kill the series in the first place - the perception that space sims need flight sticks... releasing a classic collection will only help cement that belief rather than ween everyone over onto an Xbox 360 controller...)

The 'unreleased title' bit shoots this to pieces, too - there's no original Wing Commander title lost in the void... and if there were, EA wouldn't have access to it, since there's no archive of Origin's development material in place.

All of the 'lost games' are ports - Wing Commander 2 SNES, Wing Commander 3 Saturn and Wing Commander Prophecy DVD. The two titles that were announced and then cancelled (Privateer 3, Strike Team) were many months if not years from release... and millions of dollars of development money from being finished. Others that we 'know about' weren't even announced... and were even further from being finished (Privateer Online 1/2, WC FPS, etc.)

Privateer 3 and Privateer Online were quite far in development AFAIK. I think I even still got a PC mag that has screenshots of one of them.
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Most of the art in that magazine are renders - a lot of concept art and some development of the engine was done for Privateer 3... but we're talking about an FMV game that was cancelled before the film shoot even took place -- it's hardly sitting on a disk waiting for modern audiences to run it. :)
 
I understand all the sceptims. Nevertheless, hope dies last! I hope they release something like that and I hope it will be on the PC. Having a XBox360 now for half a year, I cannot help but realize that it failed to catch my interest. I am no console person, I want PC games.

So crossing my fingers even if it's in vain.
 
What's funny is these reporters probably heard it from other reporters who heard it from their reporter friends who... [five second-hand rumors down the line] ...heard it from a Freelancer bartender who reads the CIC forums.
 
t.c.cgi said:
What's funny is these reporters probably heard it from other reporters who heard it from their reporter friends who... [five second-hand rumors down the line] ...heard it from a Freelancer bartender who reads the CIC forums.
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There a John Wayne line in Flying Leathernecks bout believeing dark rumors and you'll be fine. I found that to work most of the time. but i wish one dark rumor would come true...
 
t.c.cgi said:
What's funny is these reporters probably heard it from other reporters who heard it from their reporter friends who... [five second-hand rumors down the line] ...heard it from a Freelancer bartender who reads the CIC forums.
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Yes, I admit it, I started the rumour the other day down the pub when I was working. :D
 
Hmm... I could see playing any of the Wing Commander games on the 360. The analog controls are suitable for flight sims. It'd be pretty cool if they did re-release them for the 360 but that's wishful thinking me thinks and I'm not too into that...

But then, I spent all last year Ebay buying the series so I can just go to DosBox when I want to play.
 
Rebuilding a long lost story to a new audience is a hard task.

Can we make a comparison;
The remake of masters of the universe.

It was created with all possible attention, even canonical(the new series actually takes place two years before the original, explaining the difference in looks, and actually explains the origins of characters). But they screwed up, the kids that watched the original show are parents now, and most of them don't even remember the original show, let alone that they would watch it. You can not make money from that, so you do not develop anything and drop the project.

You could continue the story of wing commander, but not do "See, this is related to a 25 year old game". And fans , who have the knowledge to find every whink and easter-egg are only a small part of the target audience.

Create a new series set after wing commander, but keeping the fictional universe, and have tom wilson as an admiral, fans would go "Wow, it's maniac!, yeah he is now admiral marshall", others would just buy it and follow the new story. that would be the best of both worlds.
 
I would personally prefer prequels so we can see more about the earlier decades of the Kilrathi War, and the earlier ships which were mentioned but never shown in detail.
 
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