Where Hath Origin Gone?

M

Marcml30

Spaceman
Does anyone know if Origin has anything in the works or if they are even still in business? I think that it is a shame that a company that produced the WC series (which I think are the best space sims in the genre) has largely dropped out of sight. To this day I compare every space sim game I buy to the WC games. I enjoyed the plots, actors, et al and no other game on the market has come close to them (including Freespace and Independance War).

On a side note, does anyone know why Origin ended the Crusader series? Again, another game that was very successful both critically and commercially.
 
Origin and EA

After EA buy origin things there have gone from Bad to worst.
Origin is (Stupid) working in Ultima online 2 only, all other games have been put on hold (until the end of time)
Before that origin sayed that they would make Online games only.(the privatter online was one of the projects)
The Crusader Games, the memorys of burning my enemys or seeing them disolved....it brings tears to my eyes...I dont think that was ever explained.
And you are right about the Freespace games, A WC wanna be.
Origin have lost its edge on the market, I dont even know if a flop with the UO2 would be a bad thing.
 
If one thinks of Origin and EA as rational profit-maximising companies, they are in no sense stupid if Ultima Online is all Origin is making, since it produces the greatest revenue for the least cost. Of course, some diversification in products would be nice, but it seems massive-multiplayer games are the way to go. I don't think our current technology makes a persistent 1st person flight sim like Privateer Online economically viable.
 
Re: Origin and EA

Originally posted by Dragon
After EA buy origin things there have gone from Bad to worst.
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You are stupid, if that's what you really think.:) Without EA WC3 and later would never have such huge budgets that allowed them to be so ground breaking. Hell, without EA OSI might have never even finished the Kilrathi war.
 
That is true but I am talking about several thing.
1) Origin could finish WC III and WC IV without those fancy FMV,not as nice but cheaper.(they inteded doing that after the first Privater but tecnology keep on going)
2) Origin lost Cris Roberts after WC IV, I dont think that WC P would be the same with him on the Game.
3) Origin drop all projects to go after the easy money(they hope) seller ULTIMA ONLINE 2, that order come from EA not the staff of Origin(at least I hope)
4) Why did the crusader series was canceled? My bet is that EA did not want to continue the series.
5) Origin is now on full control of EA, and how many diferent types of games they produce after EA have take over?
Earthworm do you work for EA or something?
 
I'm confused. I thought that Origin had always been a division or something of Electronic Arts. By that, I mean that Electronic Arts dominated Origin. Now Dragon is suggesting that Origin dominates Electronic Arts, and that it is not the other way around. Will somebody please set this matter straight?
 
"Origin is now on full control of EA", sorry this is a error that I made, please read as "EA is now on full control of Origin".
 
Originally posted by Dragon
4) Why did the crusader series was canceled? My bet is that EA did not want to continue the series.
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Yes, of course. Those evil EA bastards would do anything to kill off any successful game Origin makes.

Oh, did I mention that I'm being sarcastic? A sequel to Crusader would have been nice, but Origin doesn't have unlimited resources. No games company does. Even the all-mighty Blizzard Entertainment is only producing two, three games at the most (at one time). In Origin's case, this number is of course lower because they spend a lot of resources on maintaining UO.
 
By the sound of things only Online games will me made....NOT.
Bioware relase BG II a sequel as it sould be, Better that the original, Bioware is a very small canadian house, far smaller that Origin and only so far made the folowing games, Satterd steel, BG I, IWD and BG II.
I do not intent do buy a game and THEN have to pay to play it. Origin started the online games but UO2 will have to fight for its place(and share of the money) among over 10 other, this time they have be far better that the opposition.
And the price of being the best (For the money sake) is eternal inovation, not droping everthing and go for a easy cash game. Besides EA is evil, they make THE SIMS.
 
Actually, Maxis made The Sims -- another company under EA's umbrella, in roughly the same position as Origin. It's amazing how EA is suddenly *evil*... afterall, they did fund almost every Wing Commander game (from Wing Commander 2 Deluxe on).

There's nothing "stupid" about doing Ultima Online 2 -- they're following up the *hugely* succesfull Ultima Online 2, *and* they're serving their original fanbase... Origin has been doing Ultima games since 1979. Continuing to do Ultima games both makes good business sense, as well as shows support to their longtime fans. Remember when Origin dropped Ultima in favor of FMV based Wing Commander games?

Plans for a sequel to Crusader were nixed when Tony Zurovec left to form Digital Anvil -- Chris Roberts departure would also significantly hamper EA's investment in Wing Commander.
 
Online games

Ok somethings been bugging me for a while now, single player games rely on being substantially different if they want to be successful. Now Quake I and II used a very simple pick up gun shoot enemy system but the textures, weapons, levels all were different (I still hate all Quake though). Unfotuntaley every MP FPS I've played has been very similar, fun for a few hours but the differences no more than I have seen with many fan made add-ons, how can any company put so much faith into a market which is likely to fail at any time.
Many companies are offering FREE MP parts to their games.

Question how many people are actually subscribed to UO? Is it more than would be expected with a standard Ultima game? If not you'd expect Origin to be making MP games for their other popular series and not just Ultima
 
Re: Re: Origin and EA

Originally posted by Earthworm
Without EA WC3 and later would never have such huge budgets that allowed them to be so ground breaking. Hell, without EA OSI might have never even finished the Kilrathi war.
Click to expand...

When exactly did EA purchase Origin? I thought it was after WC3 or WC4. Regardless, not continuing the franchise doesn't make sense to me. While the cost of WC3/4 were huge (for a computer game) weren't the dividends equally large? In fact, wasn't WC4 on of the largest grossing games prior to Diablo? The series does not have to die just because the brainchild left. I have to wonder if the real reason is that disastrous WC movie - the first movie I ever fell asleep at.

Originally posted by Bandit LOAFIt's amazing how EA is suddenly *evil*
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I think that the evil part refers to a big parent company stifling projects for the bottom line - profit. Look at some of the better games that have come out from small no-name companies that are just trying to realize a dream project.
 
If it wernt for single player games to begin with, where would the ideas come from for multiplayer games? Indeed Quake had and still does have a good run on their game series, but they went Multiplayer only on Q3. I did not buy that game for that reason. I enjoy both multiplayer and single play games. I too find that after a few hours of shooting everything that moves in the FPS games, it gets boaring. Even with a mod such as requiem se for quake with all its little bells and whistles, I find myself falling asleep at the puter. I played Freespace 1 and 2 and found the flight physics to be, well somewhat blah and non-realistic, had nice graphics, but if you get more enjoyment from a game in the way its made, who cares about textures and graphics. Although I would love to see a GL version of WC 1-4 and the Privateer games. Untill the entire net community gets on high speed connections, it makes no sense to play a multiplayer game against DSL and Cable connections and your tugging along with a 56k that may or may not even hit 50kps. Been there, done that with Quake 2. I should have just stood there and let everyone shoot me! Also if they are gonna charge you 50 bucks for a game, I would want more than just a few maps and it be both single and multi capable. If only EA would allow someone to continue the WC universe, in effect take it over, it would be the best thing to happen since frozen pizza. Maybe everyone here should get together and pool resources and submit to EA to let us continue the WC universe. If only it could happen. If only!!

RFBurns

"Look behind you.....watch your six!....BOOM!"
 
Originally posted by RFBurns
I played Freespace 1 and 2 and found the flight physics to be, well somewhat blah and non-realistic, had nice graphics, but if you get more enjoyment from a game in the way its made, who cares about textures and graphics.
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Agreed, I found the games themselves to be blah - Freespace 1/2 and I-War didn't draw me in the way the WC games did (cartoon graphics included). The way the characters in WC and the Crusader games were developed has been unmatched since. Those games made you want to see the plot through to the end - not to mention the branching story lines. And blast FMV all you want, to me it was the goal behind finishing a mission. Hopefully some EA exec will decide to take a gamble on the WC series.
 
EA purchased Origin in 1991, three years before WC3. WC3 sold *very* well (the record for units sold belongs to Myst, though, not Diablo or WC) -- WC4 barely broke even.
 
i know, i wonder why that was, most fans think it's the best in the series, plus WCIV had way more advertisement then WCIII (i remmeber a complete NBC news report on interactive movies, and they ONLY talked about WCIV and PRIV2)

[Edited by Twister on 01-18-2001 at 17:27]
 
It would be great if EA would put an online order page for those that wish to purchase the games. Then they could justify selling them based on the orders taken in. I would be more than willing to wait a few weeks or so in that they could get enough orders for a particular game or games and make them, then ship em out. Perhaps the numbers were low on sales because they pulled the thing too early, or maybe the news of C. Roberts leaving or some other office memo that may have killed any future potential. In any case, there is a thing called "re-release", much like the music industry has done over the last 20 years with re-releasing recordings done back in the 30's. If you can get that stuff today, they should be able to follow along those lines and make the software available to those that want it. No need to press a million copies to take a chance on selling all of it or not, just make em per the number of pre paid orders. The saga continues!

RFBurns

"Look behind you.....watch your six!.....BOOM!"
 
Agree, EA is just lazy.
How long was the last time that they update the origin web Page?
Besides I see here a lot of old games (megatraveler,Space quest V)that are being sell in a cd that have the manual in acrobat, why does EA do not do that? if it works for sierra...It sould work for EA as well, No they are more conserned in making NEED FOR SPEED XIX that anything else (how many need for speed will they make, that game will sell a lot less that a WC VI)
And like someone else said here if they are not going to sell it anymore, freeware it.How long would it take to download WC I or WC II? And I am not asking for tecnical suport.
Do you know that Freespace III is on the works, Interplay is letting volotron make a another go(despite the great loss of revenue of Freespace II), the way things are in space sims, It will sell a lot of copies.
Hell I am going to buy a copy.(the only chance I have of flying a Starfighter these days)
 
Yeah, but resampling an old record to put it on a CD is a relatively simple process compared to the pains a company has to go through to make a re-released game compatible with present computers and present operating systems.
 
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