Masters of Orion and Star Control coming back?

Arctic Blast · July 20, 2013, 10:38:20 PM

With Atari going under, a bunch of their IP has been auctioned off. Wargaming World Limited (aka Wargaming.net) now owns the rights to the Master of Orion and Total Annihilation franchises. Stardock were runners up for MOO (Brad Wardell has said that apparently they went to 7 digits in their bid and still lost out), but they did end up with Star Control.

All of the winners can be found amongst the legalese.

Martok · July 21, 2013, 04:45:41 AM

At this point, I'll only believe there's a resurrection of either franchise when I see it.

Staggerwing · July 21, 2013, 06:40:08 AM

Actually, my biggest fear would be that they will add an extra 'O' to MOO.

bbmike · July 21, 2013, 07:08:02 AM

Quote from: Staggerwing on July 21, 2013, 06:40:08 AM
Actually, my biggest fear would be that they will add an extra 'O' to MOO.

Or an FPS after it. or MMO.
Too bad Stardock didn't get the rights, at least they know what turn based means.

Martok · July 21, 2013, 07:10:21 AM

Quote from: Staggerwing on July 21, 2013, 06:40:08 AM
Actually, my biggest fear would be that they will add an extra 'O' to MOO.

(Took me a second to figure out what you were getting at.)

Yes, that would suck big donkey balls. Bad enough that the Imperium Galactica franchise is getting the MMO treatment; it would be a tragedy for such a fate to be inflicted on another (to say nothing of one with MOO's pedigree).

Arctic Blast · July 21, 2013, 03:22:54 PM

Quote from: Martok on July 21, 2013, 04:45:41 AM
At this point, I'll only believe there's a resurrection of either franchise when I see it.

I dunno...these aren't mega sized game companies. If they're throwing down 7 figures to obtain a license, it likely isn't to solely squat upon the rights.

Martok · July 22, 2013, 10:06:03 AM

No, but games can still get stuck in development hell just the same.

(Sorry, I know you have a point. It's just that there's been so much talk for so long about bringing both franchises back, that I'm *extremely* cynical by now.)

Arctic Blast · July 22, 2013, 04:06:01 PM

Quote from: Martok on July 22, 2013, 10:06:03 AM
No, but games can still get stuck in development hell just the same.

(Sorry, I know you have a point. It's just that there's been so much talk for so long about bringing both franchises back, that I'm *extremely* cynical by now.)

Understandable. And if this was a much larger publisher, I'd be a lot more skeptical as well.

Anguille · July 23, 2013, 03:46:29 AM

Quote from: Martok on July 21, 2013, 04:45:41 AM
At this point, I'll only believe there's a resurrection of either franchise when I see it.

Same here...

Yskonyn · July 23, 2013, 05:02:02 AM

Let's just hope they haven't done it just to get the rights to use the branding.
A WoT clone set in the MOO universe might be rather popular and therefore make them even richer than they are now.
It just has nothing to do with the reason MOO players loved the franchise.
We'll see.

Martok · July 23, 2013, 10:17:34 AM

Well put, Yskonyn. You've highlighted perfectly why I'm just a wee bit skeptical about Wargaming.net getting the MOO franchise.

As for Star Control... I like Stardock a lot. I think they make and publish (generally) good strategy games. But that's pretty much *all* they've done...whereas Star Control is a slightly different animal.

I'd love to be proven wrong on both counts. I'm not optimistic, however.