Since its founding in 1982, Electronic Arts has been the source -- or at least the rights holder -- to many franchises that have reached "classic" status.
New trademark filings unearthed by Superannuation may hint that EA is reaching back into its catalog of classic games for a possible revival of aging brands. Just this month, EA filed trademarks for the Bullfrog Productions-originated properties Populous and Theme Park, and the EA action games Wing Commander and Road Rash.
1989's Populous was a "god game" designed by Peter Molyneux, the Bullfrog founder who's now lead man at Microsoft-owned Lionhead, developer of Fable. 1992's Theme Park another Bullfrog-developed game, was a management sim based around operating a theme park. EA acquired both properties when it purchased Bullfrog in 1995.
The motorcycle combat sim Road Rash debuted in 1991 and saw several iterations, while 1990's space sim Wing Commander saw sequels and even a film.
The filing of a trademark application isn't a 100 percent guarantee that a product launch will follow. For example, in 2007, Sega filed a new trademark application for "Dreamcast". That, of course, didn't lead to a revival of Sega's final console.
But sometimes, a filing is a precursor to a to-be-announced product. For instance, in late 2008, Sega filed a patent for Virtual-On Oratorio Tangram, a mech-based fighter that appeared on the Dreamcast. In 2009, Sega released the game as a download for Xbox 360.
The EA trademarks were also filed about the same time as Harvey Elliot, the head of EA Bright Light Studio who has roots with Bullfrog, said in a kikizo interview, "For me, I love the old Bullfrog IP, it got me really passionately into games, and I'm really proud that Bullfrog is part of the heritage of Bright Light".
"I'm personally a huge fan of Populous and Theme Park, they were some of my favorite games - many years ago, obviously - and I'd love to see both of those remade."
The last time Populous hit shelves was with Populous DS, developed by EA Japan and published by Xseed Games.
The US Patent Office requires trademark holders to renew their patents after a period of 10 years.
niiiiiiiiiiiiiiice, all of them were great series, so if they manage to improve them well, they could have some hits on their bags!!!
one speculation: this possible wing commander revival comes after lucasarts begin to toy with a possibloe comeback for the X-wing/tie-fighter series...so, there could be trying to follow lucasarts steps?
Now, if only there will be a new sindicate series of a redux of Dreamweb....:P
Lucasarts denies any kind of X-Wing game already, their announcement was for Super Star Wars. I don't see anybody doing a AAA Space Sim anymore. Who should be the audience for such a game? The old players?
They brought Joysticks to control those games, that were Simulations compared to any Space-Action game on the market today, the whole Genre was a PC-Genre, but every attempt to do something like this in the last years wasn't a success. Only Egosoft's X series could survive.
Maybe a complete reboot of the Wing Commander series? This would end up in something like Factor 5's Star Wars games for the N64 and GC, but in my opinion they sold mainly because of it's license (nonetheless, they were great games), younger players know nothing about Wing Commander.
So as much as I would love to see more Space-Flight-Action-Sims, I think this genre is seriously dead.
so...should we begin again to dismiss genres as dead? the graphic adventures were dead....till telltale games bring them back.....the beat em up was dead...till it became trendy again (God of War is undenniabely a beat em up, or castle crashers or...), the 2d fighting games were dead, but suddenly street fighter 4 arrived, the 2d platforms? dead and buried..didnīt they? well, I think the DS and PSP and the dowloable 2d platformers have another story to tell...
so, didn't we learn something from the past?
don't dismiss anything as dead, zombies exist and they could eat your flesh!!!
:D
what I mean is that with the right design and the right brand in the proper moment, you can brin any genre back (except maybe text-based videogames)...but most likely I will be wrong :)
oh, and as there is no "edit" option....in my previous post I mean: "now if only there will be a new sincate game or a redux of Dreamweb"
The classic Space Sim is dead, cause it is to complicated to be successful today. Flight Sims are dead too, the majority of gamers don't want to read 100+ pages manuals before playing, but if you want to make a game like X-Wing this would be necessary.
I agree, Wing Commander was always more "light-hearted", an action game instead of a simulation, but the WC series always benefit from the huge ammount of Video Sequences, something nobody cares about today. Besides this games like WC or X-Wing were never in the same league as Street Fighter or Monkey Island. I can't think of any Space-Sim/Space-Flight-Action-Game that was as successful as an succesful Beat'Em'Up or Point & Click Adventure.
By the way, I still consider the Beat'em'Up and Point & Click Adventure as dead, there are some niche products, that sell in the adventure category and there is SF IV, GoW was always like DMC, not exactly a Beat'em'Up.
The Textadventure is still alive and kicking, just check
What do you actually mean by "dead", Christian? If you are referring to MS FSX's fate last year, that's only one aspect. If you look at the games that actually come out from Russia (the Il-2 series, the LOMAC series and the succesful DCS series, etc.) there still seems to be a viable market out there for them.
The military sims, like DCS, are usually made for the military first, therefore they already have initial funds provided to them. Following that, they adapt the game to the gamer market.
Furthermore, joysticks and flight sim accessories are still on the rise, logitech just came out with a full hotas system.
I agree with some of your points chris, but beat em up could be not as big as it was once, but there are reissues of old games of the kind for the downloable networks and also new games, and I cosidered DMC and GoW into this genre too....you walk by smashing creatures hand to hand...the visual enviroment could be different, there could be quick time events, but the core gameplay is still the same in the original Double Dragon and in GoW...but, you know, this is just my opinion. and thanks for poiinting me to the website, when I mean that the textr based games are more or less dead i mean for the mass market, you will never see one of those released in a big scale like other kind of games. And I still consider that space sim can be brought back, even if it has to be sadly "casualized" like everything in these days...a star wars space sim could still have good sales just relying in his brand, and if itīs any good or it has an addictive gameplay it could be a winner.
one speculation: this possible wing commander revival comes after lucasarts begin to toy with a possibloe comeback for the X-wing/tie-fighter series...so, there could be trying to follow lucasarts steps?
Now, if only there will be a new sindicate series of a redux of Dreamweb....:P
They brought Joysticks to control those games, that were Simulations compared to any Space-Action game on the market today, the whole Genre was a PC-Genre, but every attempt to do something like this in the last years wasn't a success. Only Egosoft's X series could survive.
Maybe a complete reboot of the Wing Commander series? This would end up in something like Factor 5's Star Wars games for the N64 and GC, but in my opinion they sold mainly because of it's license (nonetheless, they were great games), younger players know nothing about Wing Commander.
So as much as I would love to see more Space-Flight-Action-Sims, I think this genre is seriously dead.
so, didn't we learn something from the past?
don't dismiss anything as dead, zombies exist and they could eat your flesh!!!
:D
what I mean is that with the right design and the right brand in the proper moment, you can brin any genre back (except maybe text-based videogames)...but most likely I will be wrong :)
oh, and as there is no "edit" option....in my previous post I mean: "now if only there will be a new sincate game or a redux of Dreamweb"
I agree, Wing Commander was always more "light-hearted", an action game instead of a simulation, but the WC series always benefit from the huge ammount of Video Sequences, something nobody cares about today. Besides this games like WC or X-Wing were never in the same league as Street Fighter or Monkey Island. I can't think of any Space-Sim/Space-Flight-Action-Game that was as successful as an succesful Beat'Em'Up or Point & Click Adventure.
By the way, I still consider the Beat'em'Up and Point & Click Adventure as dead, there are some niche products, that sell in the adventure category and there is SF IV, GoW was always like DMC, not exactly a Beat'em'Up.
The Textadventure is still alive and kicking, just check
http://www.ifarchive.org/
;-)
The military sims, like DCS, are usually made for the military first, therefore they already have initial funds provided to them. Following that, they adapt the game to the gamer market.
Furthermore, joysticks and flight sim accessories are still on the rise, logitech just came out with a full hotas system.
;)