Good/Bad News! Gearbox buys Homeworld IP!

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Good/Bad News! Gearbox buys Homeworld IP!

Post by Anakha56 »

/You choose how this news affects you...

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/04/g ... rce=feedly
Going once, going twice! Gearbox picks up Homeworld in THQ auction
Borderlands developer plans to "preserve and assemble" new versions of RTS classics.

by Kyle Orland - Apr 22 2013, 9:40pm SAST

When the now-bankrupt THQ was broken up and sold for parts earlier this year, a few of the pieces weren't included in the deal. Chief among them was Homeworld, the classic PC real-time strategy series that THQ picked up from Sierra in 2007 and then proceeded to ignore for years.

The ownership of the venerable brand has changed hands once again today, as Gearbox Software announced it had won a secondary auction for the Homeworld IP for an undisclosed sum.

Known for well-received first-person shooters like Borderlands and critical flops like Aliens: Colonial Marines and Duke Nukem Forever, Gearbox doesn't have a single real-time strategy game under its belt. Still, Gearbox Chief Creative Officer Brian Martel said in a statement that he "has great love and respect for Relic's brilliant, fun and innovative game and [he] personally spearheaded the acquisition."

While the announcement doesn't talk about a long-awaited Homeworld 3, Gearbox says it intends to "preserve and assemble the purest form of the original acclaimed and beloved games, Homeworld and Homeworld 2, with the intent of making them accessible on today's leading digital platforms."

Gearbox's winning bid beats out a group of Homeworld fans that had organized to raise funds through an IndieGogo campaign that managed to bring in just over $13,000. Original Homeworld developer Relic Entertainment was purchased by Sega for $26.6 million in the first THQ asset auction in January.

We're still waiting on word of the results of separate auctions for former THQ properties including Darksiders, Red Faction, the MX motocross game series, Worms, Supreme Commander, and more. Overall, bids on all of these remaining properties are expected to bring in $6 to $7 million for THQ's creditors on top of the over $73 million raised in the first auction.
The part that worries me is this:
with the intent of making them accessible on today's leading digital platforms
Console ports here we come! And as with 98% of console ports its going to be simplified and lacking depth...

Now for the hopeful news part...

Please, please can we see this come to Steam with updated multiplayer and widescreen support? Man that would make my day...
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Re: Good/Bad News! Gearbox buys Homeworld IP!

Post by hamin_aus »

I'm not expecting great things
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Re: Good/Bad News! Gearbox buys Homeworld IP!

Post by StarBound »

Already gave my thoughts to another site but giving it here.

Gearbox did good with Borderlands. However 2 other games haunts its legacy. Duke Nukem Forever and Aliens: CM. That already is reason enough for concern.
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Re: Good/Bad News! Gearbox buys Homeworld IP!

Post by GreyWolf »

StarBound wrote:Gearbox did good with Borderlands. However 2 other games haunts its legacy. Duke Nukem Forever and Aliens: CM. That already is reason enough for concern.
Apparently Aliens:CM suffered because Gearbox was focusing on Borderlands 2. If this is true, then I hope they give their full attention to Homeworld. Correct me if I am wrong but, there haven't been any other good space RTS games apart form Homeworld right?
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Re: Good/Bad News! Gearbox buys Homeworld IP!

Post by hamin_aus »

GreyWolf wrote:Apparently Aliens:CM suffered because Gearbox was focusing on Borderlands 2.
Thats no excuse tho...

Gearbox outsourced the dev work on Aliens to another company and gave them almost no guidance on what to do so they winged it for the most part.

Gearbox only got seriously involved in the games "development" after BL2 was released - a few months prior to Aliens release and realized what a crap-fest they had on their hands.

They released the game on schedule anyway in an EA-esque disregard for their customers.

I really like the Borderlands franchise, but screw Gearbox.
GreyWolf wrote:there haven't been any other good space RTS games apart form Homeworld right?
Right.
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Re: Good/Bad News! Gearbox buys Homeworld IP!

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GreyWolf wrote:Apparently Aliens:CM suffered because Gearbox was focusing on Borderlands 2.
Sorry but that is not a good enough excuse. If your busy with a project and can't spare the man power then say so. But the question remained, what happened between the E3 demo and the actual game? And ofc why did the screenshots from 2008/2009 look better than the game?
GreyWolf wrote:Correct me if I am wrong but, there haven't been any other good space RTS games apart form Homeworld right?
I believe there was a few like Nexus: Jupiter Incident. You could maybe throw in starwars galaxies (think thats what it was called). Homeworld was the first to embrace the 3D space. And it did so in a memorable way. Darkstone never managed to dethrone diablo even when it was the first 3d dungeon crawler.
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Re: Good/Bad News! Gearbox buys Homeworld IP!

Post by hamin_aus »

StarBound wrote:I believe there was a few like Nexus: Jupiter Incident.
Never heard of it but will google
StarBound wrote:You could maybe throw in starwars galaxies (think thats what it was called).
Wasn't a 3D RTS

Closest I've ever seen to HW style gameplay is EVE Online aka spreadsheets in space...
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Re: Good/Bad News! Gearbox buys Homeworld IP!

Post by GreyWolf »

Its hard to stay optimistic, but by the power of Greyskull, I do hope they do a good job, despite their general Tomfoolery with other titles...
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Re: Good/Bad News! Gearbox buys Homeworld IP!

Post by StarBound »

The general thing is people are concerned given the track record.
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Re: Good/Bad News! Gearbox buys Homeworld IP!

Post by rustypup »

hamin_aus wrote:
GreyWolf wrote:there haven't been any other good space RTS games apart form Homeworld right?
Right.
sword of the stars and sins of a solar empire were entertaining...

but still not quite the same...
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Re: Good/Bad News! Gearbox buys Homeworld IP!

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rustypup wrote:sins of a solar empire
Yes indeed... slightly diluted from HW's pure 3D RTS, but still a whorthwhile investment
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Re: Good/Bad News! Gearbox buys Homeworld IP!

Post by GreyWolf »

Sweet, will look into it..
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Re: Good/Bad News! Gearbox buys Homeworld IP!

Post by StarBound »

Sins felt more like a civ game than a C&C in space.
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Re: Good/Bad News! Gearbox buys Homeworld IP!

Post by hamin_aus »

Yeah the space combat was only about 20% of the game, the meat and potatoes was empire building, R&D and ship design
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Re: Good/Bad News! Gearbox buys Homeworld IP!

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Re: Good/Bad News! Gearbox buys Homeworld IP!

Post by StarBound »

They forgot to add a soundtrack CD. ...NEVER FORGET THE SOUNDTRACK CD!
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