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:
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?
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I guess Blizzard wants to try something other than rehash.
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Wishful thinking there, Moshe Dayan. Blizzard are incapable of anything but rehash.
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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”.
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I SUSPECT NOT.
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That would be AWESOME. RR is one of my favorite games!
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For those curious, here is a link to the trademark that Blizzard filed on it. Apparently all the way back in 2004.
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@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.
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It’s a type of wading bird, isn’t it?
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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.
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Seeing as they’re throwing money around for intellectual property, they should really nab another license and make Trailer Park Boys: The Game.
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what.
that was unprecedented.
I loved its multiplayer. Takes me way back to that generation of shooty clicky games.
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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.
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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?
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Hey, the humans in Starcraft were all rednecks. Maybe they’re remaking Redneck Rampage in the Starcraft universe.
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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.
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Hmm for a second there I thought there was a time hole and i was in April 1st again.
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Right, where can i play this game?!
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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.
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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!
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Might want the name for a World of Warcraft quest.
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@The Sombrero Kid
That sounds reasonable, do you happen to have a source for that information?
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Ironically redneck families tend to have as few participants as possible.
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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.
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For anyone interested, Kingpin and Redneck Rampage are both available at Good Old Games for $5.99 each (about £4)
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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.
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Crysis is a spiritual sequel to Redneck Rampage!?
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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.
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Xbox Live arcade re-release. I would say that was what it was for.
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I refuse to believe anyone actually likes this game, not even the cobwebs of time can make this game seem awesome.
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I thought Blizzard said it was going be a new IP. Highly doubt this is it.
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If Blizzard remakes a build engine game and it’s not TekWar I’m gonna be pissed.
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that opening level of RR is cult-status!:)
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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.
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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.
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Yeah, well , WoW is mostly about FARMING, so it makes sense, no?
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“Hicks In Space strategy?”
They’re already working on Starcraft 2 (ba dum pssh)
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This is possibly the most ridiculous thing I’ve read this month, and that’s taking into account Qualcomm’s Wolfpigeons, Sharkfalcons and Crocodeagles.
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