EA and Starbreeze Studios (The Darkness, Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay) have today announced a partnership that will see Starbreeze developing a new title said to be a reinvention of a classic EA franchise. Codenamed Project RedLime, this reinvented classic, whatever it may be, is currently in development for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. And yeah, that’s about all that we know at this point… very mysterious. I don’t even know where to start guessing. I’ve been dying for General Chaos to make a comeback for years, but I doubt that’s what this is. And honestly, I’d rather a General Chaos update be like Capcom’s upcoming Bionic Commando Rearmed. You know, more of an enhanced XBLA/PSN remake than a complete reinvention.
What about you? What do you hope/think this reinvented EA franchise will be?
“EA Partners is thrilled to hand over the keys to one of EA’s most acclaimed franchises to Starbreeze Studios,” said David DeMartini, vice president and general manager of EA Partners. “Starbreeze’s pedigree is undisputed and we could not be happier to welcome them to the EA Partners family. The team is creating an incredibly innovative take on a classic property and EA Partners is poised to deliver a blockbuster launch on the global stage.”
“EA Partners gives independent developers like Starbreeze access to EA’s unrivaled global publishing infrastructure, letting us focus our energy on what we do best – making incredible games,” said Johan Kristiansson, CEO of Starbreeze Studios. “We’re already deep in development on Project RedLime and the team at EA is giving us the time we need to perfect our vision. We’re excited to bring a new perspective and gameplay innovation to this beloved fiction.”
general chaos? i never liked the art style, but yeah, that was one awesome game back in the day. i’m HOPING it’s space hulk (or maybe something crazy like escape from monster manor). space hulk was pretty unique for its time and hell, it’s a game that NEEDS a remake. the pc and console (3DO, saturn, playstation) versions were single player only, so imagine a single or multiplayer focused update where you need to work as a team as big ugly genestealers pour in from all sides trying to rip you to chunks. anyway, starbreeze does some interesting firs and third-person games, so whatever it is should be cool.
so yeah, space hulk… that or rings of power (yup, that super underrated genesis open-world rpg). still, i wonder if they’re thinking of something really eye-popping like a remake of system shock (which they own the ip rights to, i believe)… THAT would be pretty interesting (yet not too surprising, considering how well bioshock did at retail)
Yeah, System Shock probably makes the most sense given how well BioShock did, as you said. I’ve read some places offering up Ultima as a possibility too…
Well, I can tell you it ISN’T System Shock, mostly because they are working on trying to buyout Take-Two, which means they would acquire Levine’s team…so they’d probably wait for that to be a done deal and have Levine’s team work on it.
Lots of speculation is leading towards Wing Commander, which I could completely see these guys working on. At the same time, though…it’s not really an FPS…but that would be pigeonholing a studio for doing what they do best.
We all also know that rumors have been swirling forever about a return from Road Rash and Mutant League Football, so there are those possibilities…but I would think that Tiburon would get those projects before anyone else, given their experience with sports and racing games…respectively.
So honestly, the only one aside from all of these that would make ANY TYPE OF SENSE…
IS THE “STRIKE” SERIES! DESERT STRIKE! SOVIET STRIKE! JUNGLE STRIKE! Those games were so amazing, so much fun, and I could EASILY see them updating those for today’s generation, ESPECIALLY given how popular Warhawk proved to be for Sony.
Just wanted to add this:
Sebastian Bach, former lead singer of Skid Row (or current singer, whatever) apparently slipped up on The Classic Metal Show and said that he just contributed a track from his new record for “a game called Road Rage or Road Rash or something like that”.
Yeah, I read about that as well, though I’d be very surprised if Starbreeze is the team doing a Road Rash update. Who knows though, they may want to take a stab at developing outside the usual FPS stuff they’ve been doing recently.