By John Walker on December 9th, 2011 at 8:22 pm.
From a job advert posted on Gamasutra, it is revealed that PopCap are working on “a stylistic reboot of our Peggle franchise”. Which is a way of saying: NEW PEGGLE! Which pretty much confirms that rumour from last month, after naughty Adam Orth tweeted about needing a new art director for a Peggle project, before promptly deleting it and probably having his knees spanked.
More than just a unit of measurement, Peggle is one of those games that you’d have to be Sir Wrongface Wrongington to dislike. Surely, I don’t have quite the passion for it that, say, an Alec Meer might have, and yes, I do skip the tiresome repeating of Ode To Joy at the end of each screen much to those such as Kieron Gillen’s disgust, and of course I recognise that Bookworm Adventures is PopCap’s bestest game, but that doesn’t mean I don’t recognise Peggle as one of the most masterful timewasters out there.
Of course, PopCap is now EA’s Pop-EA-Cap EA, so it’s certainly entertaining to pretend that a reinvention of the series would mean it will be an online only first-person shooter that formats your hard drive if you mutter a swear word to yourself as you’re playing. But I’m too mature to sink to such levels.
The job advert is demanding someone with over 7 years experience at being an art bod, so they’re taking this jolly seriously. Here’s the key quote:
“PopCap is looking for an Art Director to join our Peggle Franchise Studio. The Peggle Franchise Art Director will be responsible for defining and directing a stylistic reboot of our Peggle franchise.”
I wonder how EA are going to ruin it?
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Origin only?
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3 letters: DLC
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you guys are thinking small time.
it’ll be Origin Exclusive, have paid DLC (at least two available on day 1), AND it’ll require a yearly subscription like their new Tetris thing.
also probably hvave to be always online and let an EA employee come by your place once a week and kick your puppy. don’t have a puppy? you’ll have to buy one. So they can kick it.
because EA kicks puppies.
In their cute little puppy faces.
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Also, multiplayer.
And possibly from a first-person perspective.
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Good news, as long as they are also working on plants vs. zombies 2
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They’re owned by EA now. You can pretty much bet that every major, profitable PopCap property will be getting an annual sequel.
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EA to the rescue! Hooray!
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I’d agree with you Vinrath if Popcap had never milked a franchise or built a business entirely around DLC aimed at our mums.
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The only difference I could see from this arrangement is that Your Mums might now end up with “that Origin thing” installed.
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Peggle Blitz
Calling it now.
EDIT: I cannot read “stylistic reboot” without thinking “Peggle GrimDark”. Anyone else have this problem?
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Peggle Twist?
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Peggle: Russian Roulette
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You realize that Peggle Extreme is a real thing, right?
http://store.steampowered.com/app/3483
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Peggle Sims.
Where every ball has needs. And possibly a pet if you are willing to buy the expansion.
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It’s a first person shooter, isn’t it?
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Peggle FPS? where you are the ballshooter and you have to angle your shots to take out the most targets?
I would play that game.
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Yes! This is exactly what we need to cheer us up after the news about GSC.
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Luckily, I read the news in reverse and now I’m enjoying this one more as a joke than a giant punch to the crotch by EA and the video game industry by extension.
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About time they “rebooted” it.
The deep Peggle story really jumped the shark.
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So how much is this going to cost, in Peggles?
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Peggle 2 will take place entirely on one board, focussing on important points in the board’s history over ten years. Each time you release a ball several waves of pegs will appear, and you will have to take out all the pegs with that ball. Fail, and the waves will overwhelm the screen, causing the Rite of Spring to play in its entirety.
Most of the pegs will actually be giant spiders.
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Peggle, now re-imagined as an FPS with QTEs
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For modern gamers.
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It’s like I’m invisible.
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I see you. . . HI John! *waives*
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this is big news! The Orange Box launched with the first Peggle. Now Prometheus’ flame is in EA’s hands, and Peggle 2 will likely go head-to-head against Half-Life 3… who knows if valve will survive?
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The article has no “TL;DR”, so… :D
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I should summarise all my jokes in a bullet-point list at the end of each post.
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I thought that’s what you’d been doing thus far, it just never became relevant…
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What are you doing here? It’s your day off. GO OUTSIDE! :p
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Bullet points fired by non-protagonists, probably.
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Faaalcooooor!
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…Punch!
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I want Peggle 3D. You drop a ball from above into a space filled with floating spheres that it can bounce off of in any direction using real physics. And it has a genius dynamic camera that always catches the ball bouncing action from the most entertaining angle.
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I, for one, am hoping to see a sequel to Insaniquarium. Oh, the hours I sank in that game.
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Yaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!
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Shhh us hardcore gamers are supposed to pretend we don’t like cutesy puzzle games with unicorns.
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Call me Mr Wrongington if you will but I think Peggle is one of Popcaps weakest games. Its utterly superficial rewarding complete chance with glitter and uncopyrighted music.
Compared to Bookworm or PvZ I’m not even sure I’d call it a game. I’d probably call it some kind of a yo yo.
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I used to be a Peggle fan like you, then i took a ball bearing to the knee.
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Peggle was pretty much a ball of pure joy for a little while, but it faded fast. I don’t want to be Johnny Grump, but I would so much prefer them to pour the same spirit into something new, rather than rehashing Peggle. Still, hopefully they’ll surprise me!
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Game related internet comedy is pretty terrible nowadays.
It’s owned by EA…FPS! QTEs!
LOLLLOLOLFORFLR
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I love Peggle, but would really like it if they went less cutesy with the next one. It’s a great game, but it’s Lisa Frankness grates on me a bit.
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