By Alec Meer on November 15th, 2010 at 5:40 pm.
That’ll be the initially Asia-only game being developed by Chinese outfit Netdragon. Toy-makers Hasbro (also responsible for brands such as GI Joe, My Little Pony and Nipple Torture Adventures In The 28th Century) revealed in their latest money hat conference that they’ll be releasing the game in the US and Europe too. There remain no details, other than a tiny JPG that just might have enough hints of red and blue to suggest Optimus Prime will appear in the game. In fact, I am willing to say right here, right now that the most well-known Transformer of them all will appear in an upcoming Transformers game even though that has not been confirmed. Yeah, crazy huh? I’m a daredevil, me.
Here’s that picture. Revel in the detail:
Also revealed is the unsurprising news that next year’s third Transformers affront to all sentient life movie will see a spin-off game from Activision. That publisher doesn’t exactly have a history of pouring time and big ideas into its MovieFormer games, but maybe third time’s the non-insulting charm. We’ll see.
On top of that is a sequel to War For Cybertron, a Transformers game which did a few things right and a few things somewhat tediously. Hopefully the relative success of the first one means this one can strive a little harder: there’s certainly some potential there now the framework of shape-shifting and thumping has been established, but I’ll be very upset if it’s another exercise in corridors and lever-pulling.
15/11/2010 at 18:13 Chris says:
With this being from Toy company Hasbro could this be a kiddies mmo?
And….
You just made me google something i regretted instantly <— waves angry internet fist at you!
15/11/2010 at 18:24 Hydrogene says:
You googled “My Little Pony”? I share you anger, it’s really too awful.
15/11/2010 at 18:34 MadTinkerer says:
(Ooooooh! upgraded comment system!)
New War For Cybertron? Count me in, then. While the gameplay wasn’t awe-inspiring it was more than competent which is far better than you normally get from this sort of licensed game. In fact, keeping the horrifically strict development schedule in mind (the primary reason most licensed games suck), it was downright impressive. You know: relatively speaking.
The fact that they’re not forcing the WFC guys to make a movie spin-off is a good sign. We’ll get one sucky movie spin-off, a probably-semi-competant-MMO-which-I’ll-probably-never-play, and a third game I’ll actually pay attention to and probably like.
15/11/2010 at 18:39 DrGonzo says:
Transformer games never seem to focus on the transforming, which is ya know the most important part. Didn’t like War For Cybertron personally as it was too Gears of War looking, didn’t feel anything like the Transformers I remember.
15/11/2010 at 20:50 Rich says:
Hey! OK I was being a bit of grumpy face, but since when did commenting on this being “yet another MMORPG” become a comment-deleting offence? I didn’t swear. I punctuated my sentences correctly. I even checked for typos.
Or is Transformers just too revered by the Hive Mind to accept criticism?
15/11/2010 at 23:36 Bret says:
Well, not Transformers in general.
But Meer has a little shrine to Xaaron up in his room and it would be a shame to disappoint the old buzzard.
15/11/2010 at 23:45 Alec Meer says:
“Don’t care? Don’t comment.”
16/11/2010 at 09:29 Rich says:
Yeah OK, I was a bit too snide. I do ‘care’, though, that this has become an over populated market and very few new MMORPGs add anything fresh. The cynic in me also says that these MMORPGs are seen as such cash cows that everyone wants one but no one can be bothered to do anything remotely innovative. I guess the market for kids MMORPGs isn’t completely full though, so maybe there’s room for one.
Really, I was just taken aback that after a couple of years reading and commenting on this site this was my first comment to be deleted. It’s like being told to “f**k off” by your best friend.
16/11/2010 at 09:54 Rich says:
All right. I tried to comment a justification for my snideness, and that ‘I do care’, there’s ‘too many MMORPGs’ with ‘nothing fresh’, and everyone uses these things as excuses to ‘milk money and spending nothing innovation’ blah blah blah, but it got eaten by the Spamatron and now it won’t post as it says it’s a duplicate. Don’t worry, I can take a hint.
16/11/2010 at 09:54 Rich says:
Duplicate.
16/11/2010 at 10:56 Rich says:
Looks like the spam bot just puked up all my comments.
Too bitter, clearly.
15/11/2010 at 21:37 Ricc says:
The picture looks like a CPU, which is oddly appropriate.
15/11/2010 at 23:07 Jake says:
Being a massive TF geek (the good type of TF, not the MovieFormers, I hate you have to specify this nowadays) I copied that picture into Photoshop and zoomed and enhanced – like in Blade Runner – looking for clues. I can confirm that it is a just a messy load of pixels which may or may not be screenshots. The top picture doesn’t even look like a thing at all while the bottom picture looks more like a thing, but not really any specific thing.
Hope this helps.
16/11/2010 at 07:22 Urael says:
I hate that you have to specify, too! I used to be quite active on a few TF boards but all that stopped when the first film came out and people who had previously threatened Jihad against Hasbro over transformer toy colour schemes just made excuse after excuse for the insultingly bad rubbish being presented to them, the most heinous of all being “Hey, I enjoyed it; it was just a big, dumb popcorn flick – what did you expect??”
*furiously but silently points to 20+ years of character development and multiple story-lines evoking spiritual and/or philosophical themes*
*forgets that and points to well-written, well-plotted stories of giant robot combat*
*cries in corner and leaves TF fandom to get on with it, dying a little in the process*
16/11/2010 at 00:42 Matt says:
Transformers? could be good…
Chinese-developed MMO? not getting my hopes up, unfortunately. Hopefully they’ll keep the grind toned down!
16/11/2010 at 00:53 BeamSplashX says:
I initially thought this was a cancellation announcement that got its title cut short.
“No ‘Con Do”
16/11/2010 at 04:19 bill says:
Good god! They are making a 3rd Transformers movie?!?! Did they learn nothing???
16/11/2010 at 04:47 Vinraith says:
Transformers worldwide box office take:$709,709,780
Transformers 2 worldwide box office take: $836,297,228
I think it’s fair to say they learned that making Transformers movies, no matter how crappy they may be, is basically like printing money.
16/11/2010 at 09:21 Chevluh says:
Add to that the toy sales have grown tenfold thanks to the movies, and it gets obvious why they won’t stop making them
16/11/2010 at 07:10 Urael says:
GOOD: New TF MMO!
BAD: It’s an MMO. It’s being made in Asia meaning it will probably be mental.
BAD: A new game based on the Bayformers’ 3rd tits-n-explosions outing.
GOOD: This will probably be the last film they make, so last pathetic cash-cow tie-in game also.
GOOD: Transformers WFC gets a sequel!
BAD: the first game was clearly visuals over gameplay. Let’s pray they make the required changes to the formula for the second game. Oh, and hey – while we’re on the subject, isn’t it about time we non-exclusive buyers got the rest of the characters available for the first game? Where’s my Shockwave and Jazz, dammit!?
16/11/2010 at 09:00 Cataclysm says:
I think people are a little harsh on the Michael Bay Movies, I may wish I’d never said this but… despite Hollywooding it up, they weren’t horrendous movies to watch, infact some might say rather enjoyable and although changing the TF universe for movie effect may make us MenChildren fight to hold back tears, its actually nice to see a franchise you loved in days gone by actually get some attention and some coverage, no matter how Hollywooded.
17/11/2010 at 15:38 Hmm-Hmm. says:
I think the idea is: Better no movie than a bad movie (or: incorrect from the pov of TF fans). If the LOTR movies by Peter Jackson had changed the character of most major characters and changed the story for the most part.. and ended up with a nice looking set of movies..
Well, that’d be bad. Just sayin’.