Homeworld 1 and 2 HD remakes from Gearbox

[briareos_kerensky]

Homeworld was originally developed by Relic Entertainment whne they were part of Sierra. Things between Relic and Sierra went sour during the development of Homeworld 2 and Relic left for THQ, leaving rights for Homeworld to Sierra.
THQ then bought Homeworld rights from Sierra, never returning them to Relic, and recently went bankrupt. Relic was acquired by Sega along the Company of Heroes franchise, leaving Homeworld and other THQ IPs to be auctioned at a later date.
There was a Kickstarter to buy Homeworld rights, but it wasn't successful. One of the other bidders for Homeworld was Stardock (Galactic Civilizations, Sins of a Solar Empire), but they have been outbidded by...Gearbox Software.
...
...
wow.
Count myself unhappy with this news.

In Gearbox's own words: "Brian [Martel, chief creative officer and the guy that spearheaded the bid] 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."

Gearbox's portfolio isn't exactly rich in RTS, I would have been more than happy to see Stardock handle Homeworld, but Gearbox? Urgh.

[remakes announced, here for details]

[Kit]

Gearbox?

That is a strange one. The only game they've ever made with any sort of tactical element is BiA.

[EvilBoris]

Gearbox?

That is a strange one. The only game they've ever made with any sort of tactical element is BiA.

They've barely made any games to be honest.

[Kit]

Gearbox had some lean years in the beginning but Colonial Marines aside, they generally make decent shooters. This is odd though. Maybe they just want it in their portfolio for selling digitally? Sounds like THQ never put it up on GoG/Steam.

A new game is out of the question. They have a team of 180 and two or three games already in the works.

[briareos_kerensky]

Maybe they just want it in their portfolio for selling digitally?

They essentially announced it with the press release, so HW1 and HW2 available digitally...not a bad thing, I might grab them as well to have a full English version rather than the Italian subtitled boxed games I own.
I wonder who owns the rights for Cataclysm (stand-alone expansion for the first Homeworld), it was developed by the studio that will later become Rockstar Vancouver and they were appointed directly by Sierra for it.

[rmoxon]

Love the homeworld games. To be honest I wouldn't care who made the third game as long as it meant we would actually get one.

The complete balls up that was Colonial Marines aside, Gearbox are a good developer, and I'm sure they are more than capable of branching out.

However even if all this means is console ports of the first two games, well I wouldn't mind that either.

[Asura]

In Gearbox's own words: "Brian [Martel, chief creative officer and the guy that spearheaded the bid] 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."

Translation:

We're making a freemium isometric multi-currency city-builder for iPad. It'll be generic trash, but it'll look a bit like Homeworld.

[mekanor]

Would have been much happier if Sega grabbed it so relic could have a go at Homeworld 3 one day... By the sound of things Sega wasn't even interested.

[briareos_kerensky]

Would have been much happier if Sega grabbed it so relic could have a go at Homeworld 3 one day... By the sound of things Sega wasn't even interested.

The thing is that many important minds behind Homeworld have left Relic...with Cunningam (art director) working on a new game (Hardware), surely it wouldn't have looked the same. But yeah, at least Relic already has the know-how on RTS games.

[S3M]

wow.
Count myself unhappy with this news.

I think I'm even more unimpressed with the fact that everything else went to Nordic Games. Might as well stick R.I.P next to all THQ games. The only reason I can seriously think Gearbox bid is that they either love Homeworld or one of the creators for Homeworld now works at Gearbox??

[briareos_kerensky]

Gearbox revealed that they will release the HD remakes of the first two games (no mention to Cataclysm, I wonder who holds the right for that...maybe Rockstar?), as well as the original games on "digital platforms" for Windows.
No other details have been given, leaving many questions unanswered, like: why remakes and original games? Don't you dare to touch anything about the the first Homeworld Gearbox, just improve custscenes resolution, polygonal count and texture quality, everything will work out. No redubs, no stupid glossy surfaces.

[eastyy]

was thinking they were pc games anyway so surely that means they were hd anyway

[briareos_kerensky]

"HD remakes" is waht Gearbox spoke about. Doesn't really mean a thing for PC games, but I guess they are gonna update HW1's engine to support 16:9 and 16:10 resolutions at the very least; IIRC HW2 already supported those.

[briareos_kerensky]

So, Gearbox unveiled Homeworld and Homeworld 2 remastered:

http://www.homeworldremastered.com/

On the website you can vote which special edition you prefer, though both are with HW2's Mothership, rather than the original one. Anyway, the game is scheduled for Autumn 2014, and preorders will open once the poll for the special edition closes.

[briareos_kerensky]

Big ship (12") won, announced at PAX. The Mothership will use USB to light up. Can't wait.