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."

Reality check...

[Anonymous Coward]

"We'd need to do it in a way that's true to the original values, but would still make a great game today"

And you expect that from EA? They've been losing a lot of popularity for a reason.....

System Shock

[rarel]

I'd love to see a sequel to System Shock 2, a third installment would not only complete the Shock series, it would also complete the great "Looking Glass Trinity" as one could call it: Thief, Shock, Deus Ex. Two of these have "lived" to see a third, as DX3 is currently in the works. Thief will even have a #4...
(I'm aware that DX isn't technically an LG game, but its development was heavily influenced by Shock and Thief to say the least.)

Plus Shock 2 just turned 10 this week ;)

Sadly it will probably never be done. EA may have some trademark but the whole Shock licence is scattered among people who probably don't know or care that they have it. Even Levine back in the day couldn't trace it back.

Sucks. :(

I will pay 50â for a good remake of Wing Comm

[Kaleidoscopio]

Wing Commander was and his a great game. The story line did got a bit cheesy, it looked like a Sopa Opera towards the end, but it was fun, it was great and it even had Mark Hamil. I believe it was on Wing Commander II that your carrier got destroyed right at the start. Great storyline. Epic I would say http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wing_Commander_(video_game) [wikipedia.org]

Milliways, Infocom & risking being eaten by a

[Daem(Off)]

I really miss the old Infocom games. I remember playing them the first round through in elementary school, HHGTtG gave my brain a real hardcore tease for the longest time. IF (Interactive Fiction) is just so much fun, for both authors as well as players.

Anybody else read the Choose Your Own Adventure series? I used to have the whole collection, I just wish they were longer. Would love to see something more along these lines for adults. (My gutter-fabulous mind can only start to envision some of the more 'adult' "tails" that could be chosen. *starts chortling to self*

I think also would be great to see a revival of the old games we used to play on BBS'. Still to this day trying to remember the title of this one, it simulated hacking, sort of like GIbson's Johnny Mnemonic, pre-Shadowrun sort of era. Turn based, only got so many a day, and I believe it was interactive with the other players as well, as you rose up in levels.

Well, probably enough nostalgia for now... Should get back to social-notworking....

Hey, can EA get the Spore team to make a new

[DeanCubed]

Dungeon Keeper? That game ruled - 3rd person RTS that could turn into a first person game whenever you wanted. Imagine if that concept had been added to other RTS games that came out later - Warcraft 3, Age of Empires, etc. Hell, port the original games on Steam, WiiWare and the new download service on the DSi. It's a NO BRAINER EA! Both the Wii and DS have great interfaces for playing RTS/FPS games.

Re:Or...

[Xest]

It's worth pointing out that a new Wing Commander game was released just last year on XBox Live Arcade so I think you're probably right. They're just ensuring protection of existing trademarks I'd guess.

Still, I'd love a nice revamped 3D HD version of Desert Strike and Jungle Strike though personally! I wouldn't say no to a new Theme Park/Theme Hospital either. Oh, how about bringing Syndicate back whilst we're at it ;) ?

Re:So what's the yay factor?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wing Commander: Yes please. The space-combat-sim genre has been sadly dormant for many years

You should check out Eternal Silence [eternal-silence.net] then, I think you would enjoy it. Very fun./p.

Crusader: No Remorse/Regret series

[PrescriptionWarning]

Now this is one series of games I would much rather see a fresh re-imagining of beyond all others. Just so long as its not like what they did with the Bionic Commando (that is to say a very generic platform 3rd person shooter).