Gearbox acquires Homeworld | Hacker News Reader

Gearbox acquires Homeworld

gearboxsoftware.com

109 pointscocoflunchy30 comments

Oh no.

Looking past the recent Gearbox disaster that was Aliens: Colonial Marines, their last acquired IP was Duke Nukem Forever.

Before that they were dubiously known for creating the first Brothers in Arms game (which was excellent), and subsequently flying that straight into the ground with an endless series of ever-worsening sequels.

If you look at their previous games, they almost all fall somewhere between "mediocre" and "just bad".

The only diamond in their track record is the Borderlands series. I'm not sure how Gearbox lost its reputation for strict mediocrity via Borderlands alone, I'm still very skeptical about their game development prowess - and certainly very skeptical about any claims Randy Pitchford makes about the quality of their games, after his breathless demos of both Duke Forever and Aliens.

Honestly, I'm glad they're repackaging Homeworld/2 for Steam and such, but I'd rather have no Homeworld 3 than let Gearbox helm it.

I honestly didn't enjoy Diablo II the FPS with lulz maymays very much. (I'm exaggerating, but doing so to illustrate my beefs with the Borderlands series.)

Interesting repercussions for the Teampixel Kickstarter / Indiegogo campaign for "Homeworld Touch" and "Homeworld 3." They were successfully funded but lost the rights auction, and are now legally prevented from delivering on their Kickstarter promises.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/teampix/homeworld-touch-...

Yeah, I had thought that was a done deal... clearly not.

Who on earth thought the IP could be acquired for $50,000?

I don't know how much this sort of thing is worth, but there hasn't been a homeworld game in almost a decade. Obviously THQ didn't think it was worth much (or else not enough to start a game with it or be worth selling before the bankruptcy made it necessary). I can see how someone might make the mistake.

A AAA game is an enormous investment, to the point where they could value an IP at millions of dollars and still not value it enough to make a game with it.

Teampixel has done a fantastic job of handling refunds for their contributors. I'm looking forward to the release of their space strategy game, even if it won't be using Homeworld's intellectual property.

And now gearbox will execute on their ideas because th kick starter campaigns provided social proof?

Relic is owned by Sega, which is in crappy relationship with GB because of colonial marines. So the Homeworld team cannot be brought even as consultants. Zero experience in strategy games in GB. I think I will just play Hardware when it comes out.

I love homeworld 1&2 but doubt they will get the XCOM treatment when Gearbox decide to cash on their IP.

Also - expect Ultra Mega DLC season pass and premium DLCs not included in the season pass. And 35 different preorder bonuses.

It seems that at least for the moment GB will be repackaging the existing Homeworld games (2, maybe 1) so that they can be purchased over Steam/another platform. There don't seem to be plans for another game yet.

http://www.gearboxsoftware.com/community/articles/1029/homew...

After Aliens: Colonial Marines, I really hope they don't spread their teams too thin across too many products...

Borderlands was great, but given they've done almost exclusively first person shooters, I'm definitely concerned for the Homeworld IP.

Edit* Let me rephrase, I'm terrified for the Homeworld IP.

All genres are now sub-genres of FPS anyway...

Anyone looking for a modern Homeworld-esque experience might want to check out StarDrive (currently in beta, available on Steam). It's a 4X RTS which shares some design elements with HW and mixes in some of Civ's colony management and sci-fi themes from EVE Online.

Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with the developers; I simply tried the beta on Steam and found it pretty intriguing.

Is it only for Win or is it avail on OSX? Website doesn't seem to indicate.

Win-only for now, as far as I know. I'm not sure if there are plans to make it cross-platform, but the dev has been pretty receptive to feedback on the forums.

It owes much more to Master of Orion and its sequel, with its races and customizable ship design. Homeworld's main innovation was the fully 3D battlefield, Stardrive is entirely 2D (not even psuedo 3D).

Not that that's a bad thing. The art is gorgeous and it has a great sense of humour. Worth a punt if you're even remotely a 4x fan IMO.

StarDrive doesn't have the 3D RTS elements of Homeworld (which made that game), it's more of a standard top-down affair. They have some fun ideas though, and a new 4X is always fun to learn.

One of Homeworld's strengths was having actual 3D space combat rather than the fake-3D-in-a-2D plane that almost everyone else has. I'm surprised more people didn't take heed of their relatively smooth control system for handling 3D movement.

Even if it's on a larger scale, Sins Of A Solar Empire is also worth the look.

If you don't mind 2d and are ok without competitive multiplayer, AI War: Fleet Command is a really good take on the RT4X genre.

Homeworld still has a chance. Gearbox are a great developer, I'm glad it was them who decided to purchase the IP not Electronic Arts who would have turned it into a micro-transaction orgy. I have fond memories of the Homeworld franchise, so I hope they don't taint those memories.

With a handful of great games under their belt, I reckon Gearbox can do it. Aside: I am really looking forward to Brothers in Arms: Furious 4 coming out sometime this year hopefully from the guys as well.

I'm not sure if they're that great, they seem contempt or OK is releasing pretty poor games lately (Duke Nukem Forever and Colonial Marines).

Borderlands 2 was pretty good. Duke Nukem Forever to be fair was in development for 14 years prior to Gearboxes involvement, they finished the game, they didn't develop it from the start they merely did what 3D Realms failed to do. Colonial Marines was definitely a crappy game, horrible even. The graphics quality not to mention the number of bugs, lack of Aliens continuity and horrible AI that it had make it one of the worse games Gearbox have ever released.

We'll see what they make of the franchise.

Although I think the project that builds on it has been dormant for many years, the original Homeworld's code was released as a part of the Relic Developers Network. I wonder if that license grant is still valid now that ownership has changed hands.

http://www.homeworldsdl.org/

https://github.com/timdetering/HomeworldSDL/blob/master/LICE...

EDIT: It looks like there were already serious problems with the license which mean no one can distribute the code http://homesource.nekomimicon.net/sourceforum/viewtopic.php?...

R.I.P Homeworld. We, as gamers, loved you.

YES!!!!

I've been a fan of Gearbox since Opposing Force was released. I'm damned excited about this, I hope they handle it well.

Although what happened to Teampixel sucks, I wouldn't be surprised if you see Gearbox have a chat to them to see if they want to come on board... We'll see, anyway!

EDIT: Just as a random thought, imagine Homeworld with Occulus Rift. Floating around the universe like a god...

Oh boy, I can't wait for the writing talents at Gearbox to get their hands on the subtle, understated galactic drama of the Homeworld series.

I have many fond memories as a kid playing through all three Homeworld games. I'm glad Gearbox plans on revamping both one and two, so I can finally play online [0]! I'll also be looking forward to what they can do with modern graphics engines. HW was an incredibly beautiful game even back in 1999.

[0] We had dial up back then. Those were the days....

I have respect for the developers at Gearbox -- I'm looking forward to see what they can make of the venerated IP that is Homeworld.

Homeworld <3

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