By Kieron Gillen on February 21st, 2008 at 3:55 pm.
A somewhat enigmatic press-release has just emerged from Electronic Art’s UK Chertsey base. It proudly exclaims that they and Starbreeze “Chronicles of Riddick/The Darkness” Studios have teamed up to reinvent an old EA franchise. So far so good. It’s coming to the two fancy non-hand-wavey consoles and the PC. Yes, goddit. Quotes from EA presidents about being pleased to had over the keys to an acclaimed franchise. Yes, yes, yes. The odd thing: they don’t say what the franchise is, just that it’s being developed under the codename “Project RedLime” and they’ll tell us about it later. Now, a press release saying that Starbreeze and EA had started working on something is kind of normal – it’s this little of extra information that’s just bizarre. It’s as if they’re trying to stir up speculation on the internet which… fuck. It worked.
No idea what it is. I’m betting Archon, because I like losing money. Is there any clues in the full press release?
Well, no, not that I can see, but you’re welcome to have a crack yourselves…
STARBREEZE STUDIOS TEAMS UP WITH EA PARTNERS TO REINVENT A CLASSIC EA FRANCHISE
EA Partners to Publish Upcoming Title for PLAYSTATION 3, Xbox 360 and PCChertsey, UK February 21, 2008 – EA Partners today announced that it has teamed up with Starbreeze Studios, the award-winning developers of The Darkness and The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay to reinvent one of EA’s most acclaimed classic franchises. The title, with the internal code name Project RedLime, is being developed for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360™ system from Microsoft and PC.
“EA Partners is thrilled to hand over the keys to one of EA’s most acclaimed franchises to Starbreeze Studios,” said David DeMartini, vice president and general manager of EA Partners. “Starbreeze’s pedigree is undisputed and we could not be happier to welcome them to the EA Partners family. The team is creating an incredibly innovative take on a classic property and EA Partners is poised to deliver a blockbuster launch on the global stage.”
“EA Partners gives independent developers like Starbreeze access to EA’s unrivaled global publishing infrastructure, letting us focus our energy on what we do best – making incredible games,” said Johan Kristiansson, CEO of Starbreeze Studios. “We’re already deep in development on Project RedLime and the team at EA is giving us the time we need to perfect our vision. We’re excited to bring a new perspective and gameplay innovation to this beloved fiction.”
Additional information about the Starbreeze project will follow in the coming months. For more information about other EA games, please visit www.electronicarts.co.uk.
Developers interested in working at Starbreeze can search available jobs at http://www.starbreeze.com
No real clues over on Starbreeze’s site either. Anyone have any decent guesses?
21/02/2008 at 16:04 Schadenfreude says:
It’s Starbreeze so i’s most likely gonna be another FPS/Adventure thingy.
System Shock 3 could be a match?
Though if they’re busy “reinventing” a franchise it could be a spin off from any kind of game I s’pose. Wonder how they’d handle a Syndicate game?
21/02/2008 at 16:08 The_B says:
Part of me would like to see a DK3 – although Starbreeze don’t reallt have that much pedigree in management games. If we’re going for first person, perhaps a new Ultima single player game might be a possibility, but I don’t see how RedLime would fit into that at all.
The things is as well, EA have that many franchises, it’s a little hazy. Perhaps System Shock 3, to ride the Bioshock wave?
21/02/2008 at 16:08 Elyscape says:
My guess is the Medal of Honor series. That and Need for Speed are arguably their most acclaimed franchises, and I doubt Starbreeze would be working on a Need for Speed game.
21/02/2008 at 16:08 Binni says:
Possible candidates Desert Strike, Ultima, Syndicate, Dungeon Keeper, Bards Tale, Magic Carpet, Populous, Wing Commander, System Shock or Dune.
Nothing really jumps out as being obvious, except for maybe System Shock. My guess is something from Westwood, Origin or Bullfrog that they’ve f-ed up. I would love a new version of all of those games, although I would actually really hope for a new Magic Carpet.
21/02/2008 at 16:12 Kieron Gillen says:
Elyscape: I suspect you may have it. That said, EA are being really interesting right now*. Fuck knows what they’re thinking.
KG
*Er… don’t ask why. NDAs.
21/02/2008 at 16:14 Binni says:
Why would Starbreeze do a Medal of Honor game? Wouldn’t that be a giant step backwards into lame sell out territory?
21/02/2008 at 16:17 Kieron Gillen says:
The Call of Duty games aren’t a sell out, yeah? EA trying to get a top flight first-person game to try and match Infinity Ward’s output makes some kind of business sense, I think. Starbreeze have kind of shown their speciality is in taking underwhelming topics – Riddick and The Darkness – and making them into something more.
That said, there’s a load more interesting ones. If it wasn’t for Dead Space, I’d have suggested Shock 3.
KG
21/02/2008 at 16:17 Elyscape says:
Binni: Well, they’re supposed to be reinventing some EA franchise. MoH is a first-person shooter, the genre that Starbreeze seems to have the most experience in. Furthermore, I imagine that EA is desperately trying to think up some form of competitor for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. What better solution than to bring Medal of Honor into the present day (or future) as well?
Kieron: System Shock 3 has actually been announced already. It is being worked on by the same team that did The Godfather.
21/02/2008 at 16:19 Will Tomas says:
As Elyscape says, EA could have seen the success of Call of Duty 4 and be wanting to get them to do a modern-era Medal of “Honor” game. The actual Medal of Honor has been given out a handful of times in both the gulf wars, and CoD4 has been huge…
21/02/2008 at 16:24 Meat Circus says:
DELUXE PAINT.
21/02/2008 at 16:24 kuddles says:
It would really rock if this was Crusader, I could see Starbreeze doing a good job with that. I’ld be happy with Wing Commander too.
21/02/2008 at 16:28 Okami says:
@Binni: Your list just reminded me of how many of my most beloved gaming franchises EA has fucked up and/or burried..
21/02/2008 at 16:28 Kieron Gillen says:
Elyscape: Are you completely sure about that? I thought it was just speculation. I mean, there hasn’t been a Press Release about it…
KG
21/02/2008 at 16:30 Elyscape says:
Kieron: Yeah, it seems that I lied. It hasn’t been officially announced, but it’s fairly strongly rumored.
21/02/2008 at 16:36 Kieron Gillen says:
Ely: Yeah. I’m also aware that PCG:UK were one of the first to cement it.
Put it like this: I’m surprised we haven’t heard anything about it yet if it’s in development. Those rumours go back a considerable bit. If it was in development for all that time, I suspect it’ll have been announced.
Dead Space, for me, made me think Shock 3 was less likely. 2 horror-based space games from one publisher in a short space? That’s not very likely.
KG
21/02/2008 at 16:41 Ging says:
Elyscape – are those rumours perhaps not just pointing to Dead Space, rather than an actual SS3?
I know the SS3 rumour wagon really started up when BioShock got announced, since then, the only real sign of that sort of game from EA has been Dead Space.
21/02/2008 at 16:41 Wozza says:
It can’t be Medal Of Honour Future, that’s what Battlefield is for, maybe a new System Shock would be good.
Maybe some new Hack&Slashemup.
21/02/2008 at 16:42 The Sombrero Kid says:
SS3 wasn’t confirmed by EA
my votes are James Bond Black or Sim Serial Killer
21/02/2008 at 16:44 drunkymonkey says:
Oooh, well. Take your pick. EA have an enormous back-catalogue after all.
Could be Nuclear/Desert/Urban Strike. Or am I right in assuming that’s already been announced?
21/02/2008 at 16:47 Kieron Gillen says:
You know, a more Starbreeze-y take on Medal of Honour could be interesting. You know – their coherent environment, adventure aspect, etc. You don’t need all WW1 shooters to be the same, after all. That would be an interesting re-invention…
I admit, I have a fun idea for an RPG which only EA could publish because it uses pretty much all the IP they have lying around their vaults…
KG
21/02/2008 at 16:49 Tom says:
Road Rash?
Im saying Road Rash.
*folds arms*
21/02/2008 at 16:49 Gilzor says:
DEAD SPACE IS SYSTEM SHOCK 3!!!
Actually, I’m lying. There is no truth in that. However, it’s running on the Godfather engine, is being developed by The Godfather team, and it was stated ages ago that EA had put The Godfather devs on Shock3.
With my awesome deducing powers of deducting deduction, I reckon Dead Space started life as Shock 3 and then… Devil May Cry style*… it became something else.
*Devil May Cry was originally Resident Evil 4, before Shinji Mikami felt it was veering too far from the mould. So it was decided that it would become a new franchise.
21/02/2008 at 16:49 Willy359 says:
Huh. If Starbreeze got a hold of System Shock, I think I’d feel pretty good about it. Therefore I doubt it’ll happen.
21/02/2008 at 16:55 Kieron Gillen says:
Gilzor: That’s my theory too.
I may end up writing something more about Dead Space later.
KG
21/02/2008 at 17:05 fluffy bunny says:
Kieron: Archon isn’t an EA-franchise, and Mercury Games(Myriad Interactive (formerly Digital Gansters/Jesters) announced an Archon sequel a while ago.
Edit: I might be wrong, it says “Licence holder: EA” on Myriad Interactive’s website. Odd. But the new Archon-game is apparently coming to XBLA and DS. Read here: http://www.myriad-interactive.com/index.php?txtShow=brands&brand=3
Anyway, I’m hoping Wing Commander. EA seems to be at least somewhat aware of this franchise these days, what with the crap Arena game on XBLA and all, and for some reason I think it would fit well with Starbreeze.
Other than that, maybe a Syndicate-based shooter or Shock 3. I don’t see them doing a strategy/tactics thing, but I could be wrong.
21/02/2008 at 17:19 Ian Dorsch says:
Syndicate squad-based FPS. At least that’s what I really want it to be.
21/02/2008 at 17:28 John Walker says:
I pick Neuromancer.
No wait, Shadow of the Beast.
Or James Pond.
21/02/2008 at 17:33 Meat Circus says:
You could never get away with making games as unforgivingly hard as Shadow of the Beast* these days. Angry gamers would storm the gates.
21/02/2008 at 17:35 Fizzbang says:
I’ll join you in throwing money away, with a bet for Realm of Impossibility.
Because, seriously, I would go crazy for some first-person, zombie-dodging, M.C.Escher-world-running action.
21/02/2008 at 17:44 Gilzor says:
One statement from EA today did say, to some effect, “EA is handing the keys over to Starbreeze to tackle one of its classic franchises”… I paraphrase there. However, “hand over the keys” word-for-word appeared.
I reckon Need For Speed: Allied Assault.
21/02/2008 at 17:49 Joe Martin says:
Pray for Dungeon Keeper, be happy with Wing Commander, sigh and walk straight past Medal of Honour.
21/02/2008 at 17:51 Dinger says:
Deconstructionist Construction Set (working title “The Sims Postmodern Conferencin”)
M.U.L.E. 2008: now all auctions involve Xbox Live points.
Madden 1989 ReLoaded: Play with the same teams, now 20 years older. Morbid Obesity, Arthritis, Hemorrhoids and Viagra gags abound.
21/02/2008 at 18:18 Binni says:
I think the key word here is “classic” franchise. Hopefully it’s not MOH or NFS but rather something we love from the olden days from Westwood, Bullfrog or Origin. I would trust Starbreeze with every single one of those IP’s and if it was any of them I and probably most other people here would be super pleased with EA’s choice.
21/02/2008 at 18:48 THX-1138 says:
Road Rash maybe?
21/02/2008 at 18:53 Incognito_gbg says:
Populous. Just because no expects it.
21/02/2008 at 18:57 THX-1138 says:
I’m pretty certain it’s a new Road Rash game.
21/02/2008 at 18:58 Matu says:
Hey, Riddick was an awesome character in the films as well. Anyone able to kill someone with a cup (and no, I do not mean those two girls, although they did kill a part of me) is badass. So they didn’t start Butcher Bay without any material.
21/02/2008 at 19:01 CrashT says:
Isn’t Dead Space actually being made by the team supposedly working on System Shock 3, ala the folks behind The Godfather game?
It seems likely that whatever System Shock 3 was it may well have become Dead Space.
As for what this is… Oh dear god please be Syndicate.
21/02/2008 at 19:34 Homunculus says:
Count me in with the long-shot brigade: Mutant League Football.
Less an actual guess, more a fervent hope.
21/02/2008 at 19:49 Ging says:
Mutant League Football would be, pleasant.
Then again, a new Wing Commander (or even, fmv-less Privateer) would also be enough to satisfy me for a while.
21/02/2008 at 20:15 Yhancik says:
I’m with Binni on “classic”. It’s surely older than MoH.
What can we learn from the codename ?
.. mh
well if you mix the letters of RedLime, you get LERM Die. And LERM stands for Light Encoded Reality Matrix. Right ? So.. uh..
21/02/2008 at 20:18 malkav11 says:
Syndicate or Crusader both seem to fit with their action-heavy resume and the generally rather dark settings they’ve run with.
So obviously it’ll be a shooter based on the Ultima franchise.
21/02/2008 at 20:56 Stx says:
10 bucks on Syndicate
22/02/2008 at 00:59 Leelad says:
From that pic i’m gonna say “Vin Diesel’s Dentist”
22/02/2008 at 01:39 James T says:
Dammit, I got beaten to James Pond. Come on — Starbreeze? ‘Project Redlime’? ‘Old EA franchise’? Connect the dots!
…It’ll be like The Darkness, except you’ll have ‘Robocod’ extendible
armsfins. But you’ll still have to play that stage full of teddybears. Over, and over, and over… Because there won’t be a save system!22/02/2008 at 02:19 Gwog says:
I can’t imagine wanting a developer who’s pedigree is pure action games to be given the keys to the System Shock franchise… and I am very fond of Starbreeze’s Riddick game. Let them cut their RPG teeth on something else first.
My vote? Undying 2.
22/02/2008 at 10:40 Lou says:
Starflight.
You know it makes sense, what whith the dev team’s name and all.
23/02/2008 at 19:47 Perry says:
It is System Shock.
24/02/2008 at 08:35 malkav11 says:
Ooh. What a nice thought. Undying 2, as handled by Starbreeze? That would make me very happy indeed.
24/02/2008 at 09:08 Flint says:
But can you count Undying, a one game “series”, as a franchise? As much as I’d love to have continuation for Undying, it’s more likely that the mystery franchise is something that’s an established series and not just a single game.
But in the perfect world it would be Undying. Or Crusader. Or BOTH.
27/02/2008 at 08:54 HAL says:
What’s with all of this MoH stupidity? First of all, Airborne just came out not to long ago, so it wouldn’t make much sense for EA to keep a big secret about just another MoH game, much less talk about reinventing it. Secondly, MoH is *not* a classic franchise. Thirdly “beloved fiction” pretty much rules out MoH, as it does Road Rash, and a bunch of other games you people have been speculating about. Use your heads, people!
Personally, I think a new Wing Commander with FPS elements is the most likely possibility.
27/02/2008 at 16:25 The_B says:
The people saying Road Rash might be onto something…
27/02/2008 at 19:48 HAL says:
Nope. We already have confirmation that it is not Road Rash or something Strike.
“RedLime is not Road Rash nor is it [insert locale here] Strike”
http://softrockhallelujah.blogspot.com/2008/02/were-not-dating-jones-this-is-not-date.html
Besides, Road Rash isn’t a beloved fiction.
10/07/2008 at 23:29 Andrew says:
Crusader series, one of them or a 3rd part, in fps environment or diablo 3 would be awesome but with cool graphics and playable with XP and VISTA SO, we don’t have descent crusader versions to play either, we have to recurrate to this crap of DOS BOX which it still being slow! No matter how many upgradings they do to it!
Guys you have to asociate the word “RED LIME” = Crusader is honestly the most suitable Game which came first on my mind and most desired! Or maybe a combination of all these! DUNE+CRUSADER+WCOMMANDER who knows! I hope a CRUSADER 3!!! IN FPS or BETTER in the same environment as usual but with cooler graphics just like DIABLO 3. Maybe Lineage 2 environment will suit perfect with Crusader and Online playable would be rocking balls!
10/07/2008 at 23:32 Andrew says:
I miss that cool reddie Soldier from WEC It was awesome to play it! I Still doing it but sometimes I get angry with this crap of DOS BOX 0.72 running so slow! Seems magic of the game lost somehow! I was going to try handleing an old pc for those game by the way!