BREAKING NEWS: More Wing Commander Details Come to Light (September 10, 2011)

Bandit LOAF

Bandit LOAF

Long Live the Confederation!
There's more evidence suggesting Chris Roberts is developing a new Wing Commander game tonight, as another months-old article mentioning the project has come to light. St3lt3k discovered the May 27, 2011 piece from the Detroit Free Press, which is about a $25 million spending cap for Detroit film projects. It again quotes Chris Roberts... and this time directly refers to the project as Wing Commander. The article also refers to it as a multiyear project and indicates that it will likely be developed in Quebec.
"Wing Commander," a video game project that would be a multiyear task, would change gears if it got approval tomorrow, says Chris Roberts, chief creative officer of Blink Media. But at the moment, it's focusing on Quebec as its future home.

"The cap sort of put a spanner in the works," says Roberts.
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The big questions now: has Chris Roberts been able work out financing since these articles were published? What part do rights-holders Electronic Arts play in any of this? And why hasn't anyone noticed these references before now?

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Original update published on September 10, 2011
 
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This is interesting. Apparently, Chris has been dropping hints about a new WC game for some time...I wonder if he got sick of nobody picking up the trail and that's why he then let slip that he'd like to work on another WC game. If these dates and details turn out to be true, didn't he make that comment after he's talked publicly (albeit in non-gaming circles...) about the existence of his new studio - and now as it turns out - even mentioning that it's Wing Commander?
 
I think the key to understanding those recent interviews with Chris Roberts is the fact that, after all these older articles that somehow slipped by us, he' now talking about how he'd like to do another Wing Commander game. Meaning - he's no more advanced now than he was then. Obviously, he's working on this, and I'm sure his experience with film production (which is all about getting people to fund your projects, really) will be very helpful - but it doesn't seem like he's gotten to the point where he'd even be ready to say "yes, we are working on something".
 
I don't know...Doesn't EA still own all rights to Wing Commander? He can't just crank up his own studio with a vague goal of working on a WC game. He'd need the formal approval, and I assume, the funding, backing and distribution contracts with EA already set up.

If I had to guess, I'd say his comments are on the sly to try and get people thinking about Wing Commander again, even as his studio has started work on the project.
 
Chris Roberts has been developing video games for over 20 years. He wouldn't be doing these things unless he had something concrete to build on, and at least some nod from EA to do it.
 
Well, yeah, I think it is safe to assume Chris Roberts has the rights to develop a Wing Commander game. He probably also has some preliminary agreements on funding - but the fact that as recently as three months ago he was still unsure as to where to set up the development studio, that's a pretty good indication as to what stage this project currently is in.
 
Sylvester said:
Chris Roberts has been developing video games for over 20 years. He wouldn't be doing these things unless he had something concrete to build on, and at least some nod from EA to do it.
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Not wishing to nit-pick, but Roberts more or less stopped video-games after Freelancer. He may be a veteran, but a rusty veteran. Lets hope EA sees past that and grants him permission to use the license again.
 
Roberts probably only needs to work out financing with EA regarding a new Wing Commander. If memory serves, he holds certain creative rights to the franchise which would allow him to start development on the game. But I may be wrong about that.
 
No, EA still has the game rights--they would need to license or otherwise make them available to Chris Roberts for such a project to even be considered. But it seems like we're past THAT point now, which was historically what prevented him from doing a new Wing Commander in the past.

Chris Roberts still retains the rights to do a new movie or a TV show, and in 2015 he'll get the rights to the 1999 movie back from FOX... but nothing for games in there. Which is, of course, why StarLancer wasn't a Wing Commander Movie game.
 
Was StarLancer supposed to be a WCM-game? (I really loved the gameplay of StarLancer...the InFlight was great!)

I think it's safe to say, that this project here is past the EA-licensing-phase. He wouldn't call it Wing Commander or describe it as Wing Commander if EA said "no" already. Or am I totally wrong here?
 
I think you are completely right.

StarLancer was made in a way that it *could* have been turned into a Wing Commander movie game--but I don't think they ever came close to letting that happen.
 
Bandit LOAF said:
I think you are completely right.

StarLancer was made in a way that it *could* have been turned into a Wing Commander movie game--but I don't think they ever came close to letting that happen.
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Starlancer was built in a way that it could have become many things - if you deconstruct the game files there are half a dozen or so other mockups and artwork for other games, including a Lucas Arts logo.

I had a chance once to ask one of the developers about it on the Lancer's Reactor and he mentioned that the entire Engine was built to be pitched for multiple flight simulators, including a version of X-Wing and that some of the marketing material that they had ginned up for the demos must have gotten left in the production data.
 
I think that the tech for a really beautiful Wing Commander game exists now that will blow us away just as much as previous ones did when they pushed back the graphical envelope. Look at the graphics of Freelancer (which were quite beautiful and cutting-edge at the time), and imagine how ten years of industry can advance them.

Also, I don't think we really need live-action video (and we are probably better off without it if they are using Malcom McDowell, Mark Hamill, John Rhys-Davies, and Tom Wilson, since they all now look about 20 years older than their characters if it is going to be set any time while Tolwyn is still alive). For example, the Freelancer model of the character Tobias (played by Rhys-Davies) was a passable resemblance to the actor given the overall graphical quality of the character models. I think that with today's graphics we can get a decent resemblance to how they looked back when WC3 was filmed.
 
Ijuin said:
I think that the tech for a really beautiful Wing Commander game exists now that will blow us away just as much as previous ones did when they pushed back the graphical envelope. Look at the graphics of Freelancer (which were quite beautiful and cutting-edge at the time), and imagine how ten years of industry can advance them.
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Probably the most amazing part of this is that Freelancer still looks pretty good today. So does Starlancer. They both held up a lot better then most of the other games that came out around that time.

st3lt3k said:
Interestingly, Wing Commander Productions, Inc. appears to be registered as a Michigan corporation since 1-11-2011 with Michigan's Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs.

http://www.dleg.state.mi.us/bcs_corp/dt_corp.asp?id_nbr=03790V

This may have been done in preparation for the incentive . . .
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That address is only twenty minutes from here. Would it be worth driving over for a look?
 
Jason_Ryock said:
Probably the most amazing part of this is that Freelancer still looks pretty good today. So does Starlancer. They both held up a lot better then most of the other games that came out around that time.
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Yes. Now imagine how much BETTER it can be with the two to three generations of hardware advancement that have happened since then. If done right, it can be jaw-dropping.
 
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