Gearbox Acquires Homeworld Rights

[Gahars]

You might or might not be aware of the circumstances, so let's do a little recap. The rights to the venerable Homeworld franchise were going on auction. The guys over at TeamPixel created a KickStarter to raise funds and make a bid. Last Friday, they announced that their attempt was unsuccessful, and that someone else had bought the rights.

But who? Well, that was a mystery.

Until today. Spoiler alert: It was Gearbox.

"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."

...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 with ideas about where the studio should take Homeworld in the future.

-The Escapist

That's right. The studio that brought you Borderlands is Homeworld bound.

There's some reason for skepticism, however. Gearbox has pretty much only developed shooters up to this point; I don't think they've ever touched the RTS genre up to now. Their record isn't exactly spotless, either. After all, they also put out the final version of Duke Nukem Forever, and the less said about Aliens: Colonial Marines, the better.

Spoiler: But I'll post this here anyway

So, what do you think? Will you stand by the studio as Brothers in Arms? Or will you try to stand in their way as an Opposing Force?

 

[ShadowSoldier]

"Sweet, now we have another franchise that isn't Borderlands that we can put minimal effort in!"

 

[IBNobody]

Yay. Another project to syphon funds away from. Borderlands 3 is going to rock!

 

[emigre]

Did Gearbox buy this with their money or Sega's money?

 

[Foxi4]

H-Homeworld?

Spoiler

Please don't screw this up Gearbox, please...

 

[EyeZ]

I'll never purchase another Gearbox game again without reading a review or two first after I trusted them with ACM.

 

[UltraHurricane]

I'll never purchase another Gearbox game again without reading a review or two first after I trusted them with ACM.

I kinda stopped trusting them after Duke Nukem Forever

 

[Janthran]

This is the Homeworld that was made by the same people who made Empire Earth, right??

 

[Kouen Hasuki]

Problem is Duke Nukem Forever isn't Gearbox's fault; they said bluntly they were just gonna finish it, release it and then do something more meaningful with the franchise so no need to bust Gearbox's balls on that one.

However with ACM... Have at it lol

 

[FAST6191]

Problem is Duke Nukem Forever isn't Gearbox's fault; they said bluntly they were just gonna finish it, release it and then do something more meaningful with the franchise so no need to bust Gearbox's balls on that one.

However with ACM... Have at it lol

I thought the ACM development history was almost as storied as DNF- http://www.vg247.com/2013/02/13/ali...eddit-to-shed-light-on-its-development-rumor/

As for the matter at hand I never did that much homeworld and can barely remember how to play it. Plenty of my friends and other associates did go in for it in a big way though.

 

[Tattorack]

H-H-HOMEWORLD!?!!?
One way I'm thinking:
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The other:
If they screw this up I'm going to [/insertverydestructivething]!!!!!!

 

[Rizsparky]

Hopefully we'll see something good come out of this..

 

[Tattorack]

Hopefully we'll see something good come out of this..

Though they're not thinking of a Homeworld 3, it would be awesome if they're updating the graphics of the Homeworld series.
Some on Relic News Forum were/are busy with mods that did that... but if an actual funded dev team does it...

 

[Taleweaver]

Erm...why do they acquire those rights in the first place?

Homeworld was an RTS. A 3D RTS, no less (with 3D as in 'you have three dimensions to take into calculation', not 3D as in 'get your fancy goggles and prepare for a headache'). It's not even close to any game they have made thus far, so...why do they buy it?

This is like a soccer manager who purchases the rights to a rugby team. Yeah, they're both sports (or games, in this case). But that doesn't mean you are automatically good at getting some good results.

 

[Maxternal]

I remember that Homeworld won awards for it's graphics engine in it's day. Unfortunately it almost sounds like they're just planning to port the existing versions to modern platforms to pull some profits out of them with minimal efforts. While it would be nice to see the games on tablets, smartphones, gaming consoles and handhelds (heck, if they push it they might even be able to port the thing to PSP) it would be NICE if they'd also update the graphics where possible. A little eye candy is always good.