EA Looking Into Reviving Classic Games?

Gamasutra reports that Electronic Arts has filed for trademarks on several popular old franchises: Populous, Wing Commander, Theme Park, and Road Rash. This, along with comments from Harvey Elliot of EA's Bright Light Studio, have led many to suspect that we may see new titles for those IPs in the near future. Elliot said, "If you remember all the old classics you played, if you go back and play them now, they're not the same. They were right for their time, and the trick with those games is coming up with what's right for the time now. I'm going to look at them at some point; I think there's an opportunity to bring those back in the future, but only if it's right for the time and not just a 'remake' or something. We'd need to do it in a way that's true to the original values, but would still make a great game today."

Re:Theme Hospital 2

[omgarthas]

I'm fine with that, Theme Hospital audio and gameplay with Unreal 3 engine.. /droll

Re:More Like...

[hedwards]

Technically speaking killing the undead isn't murder.

Re:Theme Hospital 2

[RogueyWon]

Are you telling me a 50 bugs price tag is too high to watch people suffer from both Bloaty Head and The Squits at the same time in high definition 3d?

Heathen.

How about Zero Wing

[oodaloop]

You don't even need to correct the English for kids today to recognize it. You know what you doing!

Re:So what's the yay factor?

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

While they're digging through Bullfrog's ruins, a new Dungeon Keeper would kick ass.

Populous could go either way. Done wrong, it'd just be EA sodomizing the corpse of a once inspiring series. Done right, it could be the game that Black & White never managed to be.

Re:Theme Hospital 2

[darthvader100]

50 bugs price tag

50 bugs?
Any restriction on what breed they have to be?
Do ants count?

What a novel way to pay for your games. I can now afford *millions* of games

I can think of a few possibilities

[KnownIssues]

• Populous: the MMO
• Wing Commander: the MMO
• Theme Park: the MMO
• Road Rash: the MMO

or when those fail to take off...

• Populous: the Movie
• Wing Commander II: the Movie
• Theme Park: the Movie
• Road Rash: the Movie

Finally after nearly 20 years...

[bdleonard]

Maybe that Low Blow sequel I've been waiting for will become a reality. I mean a boxing game where the easiest way to win is kick the other guy in the crotch whenever the refs aren't looking. Can you think of a more realistic boxing experience?

Re:Theme Hospital 2

[Opportunist]

I'm a programmer, I can afford billions. I'm rich. RICH!