Gearbox Snags Homeworld Rights

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Gearbox Snags Homeworld Rights


Get ready to see Karan S'jet in a whole new light.

The studio that brought you Aliens: Colonial Marines and Duke Nukem Forever is now going to work its magic on Homeworld, and while I'm perhaps being a bit harsh for the sake of a zing - after all, Gearbox is also responsible for the reasonably decent Borderlands and Brothers In Arms - I can't say that my heart is aflutter with relief that it's these guys who ended up with the rights to Relic's storied space opera RTS.

"Brian Martel, Gearbox Software's Chief Creative Officer, has great love and respect for Relic's brilliant, fun and innovative game and personally spearheaded the acquisition," Gearbox said in a press release. "Brian intends as first priority to direct Gearbox's interest 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."

Snark over its recent track record aside, what makes this acquisition truly baffling is that Gearbox is the very definition of a "shooter studio." Its first game was Half-Life: Opposing Force and everything it's worked on since, with the exception of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, has been a shooter. So why the sudden interest in a real-time strategy title? It may be an easy way to score points with gamers for keeping the dream alive, as it were, but it sure doesn't seem like a very natural fit.

Beyond what will apparently be either a remake or a GOG-style update of the existing games for modern systems, Martel invited fans to hit up the Gearbox forums [http://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/forumdisplay.php?f=186] with ideas about where the studio should take Homeworld in the future.


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Andy Shandy

Fucked if I know
Jun 7, 2010
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Well these can only end well. Whenever Gearbox has its' hands on a previously loved license, well...we've seen the results.

It's too early to tell admittedly, but I fear for any Homeworld fans.
 

fix-the-spade

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Feb 25, 2008
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Maybe they're sick of making shooters over and over?

If they make a decent job of this then great. If they Borderlands PC port this I'll personally mail a head crab (live) to Randy Pitchford.
 

Zombie_Moogle

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Dec 25, 2008
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Considering the inventory-palooza that is Borderlands, Gearbox might actually be pretty well-suited to do an RTS

Time shall tell
 

1337mokro

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Dec 24, 2008
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Get ready to have the Homeworld game farmed out to third party devs whilst Gearbox focuses on Borderlands 3.
 

Therumancer

Citation Needed
Nov 28, 2007
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mirage202 said:
Well, that killed my hopes for Homeworld 3.

RTS really is a dying genre isn't it?
Well, I think the issue is that Blizzard set the mark so high, and has dominated the scene so intensely with Starcraft that most companies are afraid to even try, the last real attempt was from the "Command And Conquer" franchise and it didn't go all that well.

I also think MOBAs did a lot to hurt the genere just as MMORPGs hurt single player RPGs. The basic arguement being from an investor standpoint is that for the same basic outlay of money you could put a lot of these really in depth and tested games online and then make a ton of money from microtransactions and/or subscription fees. Thus for a long time you saw all the RPG developers working on MMOs, or like with Amalur... doing single player games only as lead ins TO an MMO, a and with RTS games you've largely seen people looking at how what started as RTS mods (ie DoTA) making huge bank so everyone has wanted to jump on that bandwagon. All of these fly by night MOBA games pretty much being in place of what would otherwise have been regular RTS games.

Such are my observations.
 

Therumancer

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Nov 28, 2007
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fix-the-spade said:
Maybe they're sick of making shooters over and over?

If they make a decent job of this then great. If they Borderlands PC port this I'll personally mail a head crab (live) to Randy Pitchford.
Well, being sick of it doesn't make them qualified to do it. I see nothing about Gearbox that makes me think they would have any chance of doing this justice at all.

Sadly there is no way to create fair, and enforcible regulation preventing the aquisition of well loved IPs by terrible developers.

To me, Gearbox is a terrible developer, which I think actually stumbled upon it's "Borderlands" success by dumb luck, making it an exception to their usual portfolio. While they eventually DID find a way to increase the (Borderlands 2) level cap apparently, remember they spent quite a while QQing about how it couldn't be done and how they had pretty much designed themselves into a corner. That right there, in response to their biggest success, was more telling about Gearbox than anything else was IMO.

Who knows, maybe they can do it, but I'm certainly not holding my breath. After what they pulled with "Aliens: Colonial Marines" I don't even trust them to be honest about the development as they make the game.
 

Doom972

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Dec 25, 2008
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I never was a fan of the franchise and I never played any of its games, but I feel bad for those who are. I doubt Gearbox would give it the treatment it deserves.

mirage202 said:
Well, that killed my hopes for Homeworld 3.

RTS really is a dying genre isn't it?
It's still alive, but it isn't as great as it was in previous generations in which the PC was the leading platform.
RTS is a genre that isn't console friendly (unless they finally decide to have in-game mouse support) and often requires long-term planning and patience - which is why publishers would rather not invest in it.
 

Jandau

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Dec 19, 2008
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So, a venerated series is being picked up by a developer who's had one good idea (Borderlands) and an uneven history when it comes to quality, and also does shooters practically exclusively? Yeah, not too optimistic about that one, sorry... :(
 

Tireseas_v1legacy

Plop plop plop
Sep 28, 2009
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Therumancer said:
mirage202 said:
Well, that killed my hopes for Homeworld 3.

RTS really is a dying genre isn't it?
Well, I think the issue is that Blizzard set the mark so high, and has dominated the scene so intensely with Starcraft that most companies are afraid to even try, the last real attempt was from the "Command And Conquer" franchise and it didn't go all that well.
No love for Stardock?

On topic: At least it's going somewhere, and, more importantly, to a studio with the money to bankroll a potential continuance of the series. And if this trailer [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDhSzuWdKgU] for what is generally believed to be the spiritual successor to the series is indication, the junkyard aesthetic that Gearbox is known for might work out better than we expected...
 

Vigormortis

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Nov 21, 2007
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Welp. There went my hopes of ever seeing a good third installment of the series.

Seriously Gearbox? Fuck you. Stick to ripping off other peoples ideas and putting them in Borderlands, and leave other studios franchises be. Even if it means letting those IPs flounder.

Also, I'm taking this:
"...intends as first priority to direct Gearbox's interest 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."

to mean they plan on re-releasing the first two games on services like Steam, GOG, etc. Which may be the only good bit out of this news. And, if they follow through on such a thing, then good on them. As long as the asking price isn't ludicrous.

Of course, given Gearbox's track record, what will follow is a rushed, unfinished, out-sourced "sequel".


[edit]
Let me be clear. That "fuck you" isn't directed towards everyone at Gearbox. There are quite a few talented artists and programmers over there.

I'm directing it more towards Gearbox's upper-management and creative directors. Specifically, in this case, towards Brian Martel.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I normally don't do this, but it seems so damned apropos.

Captcha: take umbrage

Why yes. I think I will Captcha.
 

Akexi

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May 15, 2008
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Well that news is just downright depressing. Instead of a beloved IP being bought out by that group that was actually trying to acquire the license for the sake of making another great game in the series, it goes to a developer who seems to be dead set on acquiring rights for the sole purpose of destroying them. I'ts 1:24 right now and I need a drink.
 

Johnson McGee

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Nov 16, 2009
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Therumancer said:
mirage202 said:
Well, that killed my hopes for Homeworld 3.

RTS really is a dying genre isn't it?
Well, I think the issue is that Blizzard set the mark so high, and has dominated the scene so intensely with Starcraft that most companies are afraid to even try, the last real attempt was from the "Command And Conquer" franchise and it didn't go all that well.

Such are my observations.
I'm not really of the opinion that Starcraft is all that great, a strategy game should come down to more than just actions per second. There have been a few good RTS to come out recently like Sins of a Solar Empire and Wargame: European Escalation but they just haven't been capturing a lot of attention for some reason. Plus there have been more turn based strategies coming out which have a lot of overlap audience wise.

OT: If Gearbox has enough old Homeworld fans or maybe tracks down a couple Relic alumni then it might turn out well but if they come out with Homeworld: Enforcer I'll be really disappointed.
 

flarty

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Apr 26, 2012
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mirage202 said:
Well, that killed my hopes for Homeworld 3.

RTS really is a dying genre isn't it?
Hopefully 2k will show some footage of a fps gearbox has produced called homeworld. You know where im going with this?