By John Walker on April 6th, 2009 at 3:04 pm.
Here’s a fun, ridiculous, and undoubtedly dubious rumour: murmurings suggest that Blizzard’s secret project might be a new Redneck Rampage game.
The story comes from IncGamers, who report that Blizzard have recently bought the rights to the Redneck trademarks, and extrapolate from this. And as unlikely as it seems, they do go on to point out that an original Redneck Rampage developer now work for Blizzard. Hmmmmm.
The Redneck games were developed by Xatrix Entertainment, possibly most famous for the game that polished them off, Kingpin. They were then reborn as Grey Matter Interactive, making the utterly superb Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, and working with id to make Return To Castle Wolfenstein. Bought by Activision in 2002, they last worked on one of the last good PS2 shooters, Call of Duty: Big Red One, after which they were eventually consumed into co-developers Treyarch. Now Activision and Blizzard have been crudely grafted together, the resulting behemoth beast containing all sorts of remnant IPs.
According to IncGamers, the trademarks for three Redneck Rampage games have just been bought by Blizzard, having previously been snatched up by Vivendi in 2004. Vivendi/Sierra of course are all part of the Activision-Blizzard family, although I’d pity anyone who tried to draw that family tree. The main man behind Redneck Rampage, Drew Markham, was Chief Creative Officer at Sierra pre-merge, and then went on to other ventures. My cursory searches haven’t pinned down where he’s currently working. However, as Inc points out, Redneck’s lead level designer Alex Mayberry is now a senior producer working on World of Warcraft.
It’s all extraordinarily spurious, and really, do we need another Redneck Rampage game? They were pretty average, built using Duke Nukem’s Build Engine, with not much to them beyond mocking poor Americans. But rumours will persist, and with Blizzard announcing they’re making a fifth, unnamed game, and buying the trademarks, of course people are going to talk. A redneck MMO? Trailer park management sim? Hicks In Space strategy?
Here’s what we must hearken back to:
06/04/2009 at 15:09 Ceremony says:
Is there any reason to buy the rights to a franchise if you’re not going to do something with it? Do they get royalties on every copy of Redneck Rampage sold now (I’m assuming thats not many) or something?
06/04/2009 at 15:10 Moshe Dayan says:
I guess Blizzard wants to try something other than rehash.
06/04/2009 at 15:13 Steve says:
Wishful thinking there, Moshe Dayan. Blizzard are incapable of anything but rehash.
06/04/2009 at 15:14 Tei says:
Maybe Blizzard as decide to make multiple small games, or something. Most people outside usa, and you, and me, don’t know WTF is a “Redneck”.
06/04/2009 at 15:17 Meat Circus says:
I SUSPECT NOT.
06/04/2009 at 15:26 MrTambourineMan says:
That would be AWESOME. RR is one of my favorite games!
06/04/2009 at 15:34 Switchbreak says:
For those curious, here is a link to the trademark that Blizzard filed on it. Apparently all the way back in 2004.
06/04/2009 at 15:38 yutt says:
@Moshe Dayan
Like say, Warcraft 3 or World of Warcraft? You don’t have to like them, but Blizzard does far more than “rehash”. If you apply your silly over-generalizations to any mainstream developer all they do is “rehash” existing genres.
Blizzard makes excellent and wildly popular games. I think they’ll do alright by myself and others if they continue being much more talented and knowledgeable about game design and development than you.
On the topic of Redneck Rampage, I think it would be very ill-fitting as a Blizzard game. Maybe they would release it as Activision? Which entity bought the rights? Is there any way to even distinguish? It seems very much like an Activision franchise, but not at all like a Blizzard one.
06/04/2009 at 15:39 Bobsy says:
It’s a type of wading bird, isn’t it?
06/04/2009 at 15:49 Gratuitous Flamebait says:
Seems to be the sort of thing that would appeal to Blizzard fans and I know how much Blizzard hate coming up with their own ideas.
06/04/2009 at 15:58 BooleanBob says:
Seeing as they’re throwing money around for intellectual property, they should really nab another license and make Trailer Park Boys: The Game.
06/04/2009 at 16:11 sbs says:
what.
that was unprecedented.
I loved its multiplayer. Takes me way back to that generation of shooty clicky games.
06/04/2009 at 16:16 Rei Onryou says:
Maybe they bought it to cause people to speculate about World of Rednecks, rather than the actual game they’re making. They’ve got enough money to do this every month. Next they’ll buy the rights to the Atari 2600 E.T game.
06/04/2009 at 16:20 Jeremy says:
I thought it was a sort of inherited thing, like those scary old clown pictures that get passed down. You don’t really want it, but no point in trying to sell it, who would buy it anyway?
06/04/2009 at 16:32 Pax says:
Hey, the humans in Starcraft were all rednecks. Maybe they’re remaking Redneck Rampage in the Starcraft universe.
06/04/2009 at 16:36 The Sombrero Kid says:
the franchise was bought by Blizzard Holding Company a company set up by Activision Blizzard to transfer all the IP’s from vivendi into so that they can stop using the Sierra and Vivendi names, this is an administrative process that’s part of the Activision Vivendi merger and laughably nothing to do with Blizzard whatsoever.
06/04/2009 at 16:38 Xercies says:
Hmm for a second there I thought there was a time hole and i was in April 1st again.
06/04/2009 at 16:39 MetalCircus says:
Right, where can i play this game?!
06/04/2009 at 16:47 Doctor Doc says:
I loved both Kingpin and Duke Nukem 3D but I have never played Redneck Rampage before and I think I know why… Judging by the video it looks like total crap.
06/04/2009 at 17:19 clovus says:
Maybe it is like when Exxon buys the secret patent for a technology that would make combustion engines obsolete. Blizzard is just saving everyone from Redneck Rampage: Blue Collar Edition ever being created. It will now be put on a shelf in warehouse somewhere never to be seen again. You know, like the Ark of the Covenant.
I live in Kentucky, BTW. So, please excuse me while I go shoot me some Hatfields!
06/04/2009 at 17:26 Tworak says:
Might want the name for a World of Warcraft quest.
06/04/2009 at 17:28 yutt says:
@The Sombrero Kid
That sounds reasonable, do you happen to have a source for that information?
06/04/2009 at 17:35 Heliocentric says:
Ironically redneck families tend to have as few participants as possible.
06/04/2009 at 17:38 Po0py says:
Can’t say I’m on the edge of my seat about this one but I suspect if there is any truth to it then it would be an online thing like Team Fortress. I seriously can’t see Blizzard doing an fps.
06/04/2009 at 17:59 Panther says:
For anyone interested, Kingpin and Redneck Rampage are both available at Good Old Games for $5.99 each (about £4)
06/04/2009 at 18:01 Fumarole says:
Man that video brings back memories. For those of you who don’t like the game based on the video, try the plot on for size:
The plot revolves around two brothers, Leonard and Bubba, fighting through the fictional town of Hickston, USA (though the game is supposedly set in Arkansas, the highway signs in the first level of the first episode refer to Interstate 20 which is in northern Louisiana), to rescue their prized pig Bessie and thwart an alien invasion.
Once the aliens show up it all pretty much goes to shit.
06/04/2009 at 18:38 Pundabaya says:
Crysis is a spiritual sequel to Redneck Rampage!?
06/04/2009 at 18:51 phil says:
Wait a second, you get to shoot overweight Americans? And poor people? AND your love interest is a pig – where’s the pre-order form? Oh, there isn’t one – as this is clearly wild baseless speculation.
06/04/2009 at 18:53 Charlie says:
Xbox Live arcade re-release. I would say that was what it was for.
06/04/2009 at 19:58 Jeremy says:
I refuse to believe anyone actually likes this game, not even the cobwebs of time can make this game seem awesome.
06/04/2009 at 21:07 DD says:
I thought Blizzard said it was going be a new IP. Highly doubt this is it.
07/04/2009 at 01:03 capital L says:
If Blizzard remakes a build engine game and it’s not TekWar I’m gonna be pissed.
07/04/2009 at 01:05 Valentin Galea says:
that opening level of RR is cult-status!:)
07/04/2009 at 01:08 Wisq says:
I know I played DOOM back in the day and all, but when I see something like that video, the lack of strafing and mouse-look still seems so awkward in retrospect.
07/04/2009 at 01:58 Archonsod says:
It wasn’t a bad game as such, and I’ll always remember the machine gun bra. It just felt far too much like Duke Nukem.
07/04/2009 at 02:41 Furbomb says:
Yeah, well , WoW is mostly about FARMING, so it makes sense, no?
07/04/2009 at 02:52 Erlam says:
“Hicks In Space strategy?”
They’re already working on Starcraft 2 (ba dum pssh)
07/04/2009 at 12:29 PC Monster says:
This is possibly the most ridiculous thing I’ve read this month, and that’s taking into account Qualcomm’s Wolfpigeons, Sharkfalcons and Crocodeagles.