Some patent and resume digging by French site HardGamers has uncovered the very real possibility that Electronic Arts is bringing back from the dead one of its most treasured old properties: Populous.
Managing to access what looks to be an internal wiki for EA’s marketing team (specifically projects involving its EA Partners program), they’ve uncovered mentions of a number of projects, most of them known, but two of them new.
One has the working title Outernauts, and is listed as the second joint venture between Resistance developer Insomniac and EA (the first being Overstrike).
The other is just called Populous. Populous of course being the world-altering God Game that got Fable creator Peter Molyneux his big break, which EA inherited when it bought Molyneux’s old Bullfrog studio back in the 1990s.
With the marketing material in question having since been taken down, note that at this stage the information is unconfirmed.
Primeur – Insomniac et EA auraient un deuxième projet: Outernauts [HardGamers, via NeoGAF]
Xuchiex
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 3:01 PMMan i will only loves this if its like the original populous games that i played on my Amiga 500 not the shitty rehash that they made. Mind you i bought Pop1 and 2 on gog a few weeks ago
Tom
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 3:09 PMAs long as Populous doesn’t come back as a first person shooter…
D.C.
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 3:14 PMI suspect a From Dust-like, streamlined experience. Man, Bullfrog made some damn fine games…
Ben
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 3:28 PMThey could charge $100 and I’d still pay it for a Theme Hospital HD remake. Bullfrog are one of the best developers from the golden age of PC gaming in the 90s
D.C.
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 3:29 PMYeah, Lionhead games still have a little of that spark there too — they’re a little more hit and miss, but it’s definitely there.
Braaains
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 4:07 PMProblem with Lionhead is that they’ve settled into a rut, churning out Fable after Fable.
Back in the 16-bit days, Bullfrog were right out there on the leading edge, every game they made was a major event, and it was always something different. Populous, Powermonger, Magic Carpet, Powerdrome etc etc. They weren’t always brilliant, but they were at least always interesting. These days they’ve become pretty predictable. Hopefully they’ll take the transition to next gen consoles as an opportunity to branch out and try a new IP.
D.C.
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 4:14 PMBlack & White and The Movies were pretty original, if flawed. You’re right, though, it’s also a little concerning that the Fable games are getting worse. They had Milo too, which seemed more of a tech demo, here’s hoping they aren’t forced by Microsoft to work on Kinect games.
Braaains
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 4:34 PMAren’t they doing that Kinect Fable wagon game now?
Blood Apathy
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 3:39 PMI love populous. And its lesser but still fun sequel.
Lanthal
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 3:43 PMOne of my favourite Bullfrog games of all time was Powermonger. I played the hell out of that game.
Would love to see Populous return to form though – wasn’t too fussed with the last one that they put out, what was it called again?
Goddy
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 4:21 PMOh please Jebus make this sell well, cause then it makes any other remake from Bullfrog that much more likely.
Dungeon Keeper + Theme Hospital HD anyone?
Braaains
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 4:34 PMOr Syndicate! Yeah!
Oh… bugger :(
Trex
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 4:49 PMOh the memories
Cmdr-Shepard
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 4:51 PMTheme Hospital was by far one of their best games. Ever. And I mean ever. How many hours I lost in that was incredible.
Marathon
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 6:32 PMPopulous for the 21st century…
“First Person Shooter that where the MP maps are asteroids or very small globes, and you have a jump pack!”
Sadly I wish this wasn’t even a remote possibility. Damn I love the old Bullfrog library.
achilles
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 11:00 PMHopefully a terraforming game true to populous, but on a massive scale.
A mix of populous and the imagery of total war, together with fast paced gameplay of Startcraft 2.
AND ADD MULTIPLAYER
Ax0r
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 11:01 PMPlease, EA, remake magic carpet, and don’t change a thing.
Dozens of different spells, bindable to left and right mouse buttons.
Forward and backward motion controlled by adjusting speed, rather than just pushing forward to go at max speed.
A big, spherical world, that can be terra formed in real time
A wide variety of awesome monsters
Mana as a collectible resource, allowing you to cast mo powerful spells
Storing your mana in your castle, which can be attacked by other wizards, who can steal your mana
Respawning being pendent on you having a castle
Maxed out castles being a draw for more and more powerful monsters who try to destroy your castle – a great equaliser
Keep all this, and you can have the same awesome fast paced battles of old