It hasn’t really been on the radar much, but in the next year or so I’d be surprised if the Star Control reboot doesn’t start to capture the imagination. It’s coming from Stardock, makers of the Galactic Civilizations series, Sins of a Solar Empire and Ashes of the Singularity. And according to them, it’s their biggest game with their biggest budget yet.
There’s nothing really in the way of screenshots or footage for the revamped sci-fi space combat classic. Stardock acquired the rights to the Star Control franchise back in 2013 in the wake of Atari’s bankruptcy auction.
Brad Wardell, the CEO of Stardock, also indicated early on that the company would be more akin to making a reboot or a remake of the series rather than a sequel or a prequel. In the first major update on the game’s progress in a year, however, Wardell confirmed that the new game would be taking “place in its own universe”.
It’s a move designed not to interfere with the canon of the first three games that were released in the 1990’s. But perhaps of more interest is the fact that more staffers from Ashes of the Singularity and Offworld Trading Company have now been redeployed to work on Star Control, making it Stardock’s biggest game ever.
“The new Star Control game is the biggest game we’ve ever made,” Wardell wrote. “Its budget is bigger than the combined budgets of all the games we’ve released in the past few years.”
There’s no word yet on early access, betas or an eventual release date. Stardock has previously indicated that they’d like to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Star Control 2, which would be November next year.
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6 responses to “Star Control Will Be Stardock’s Biggest Game”
WHAT?! YES! How did I not know about this?
Nobody outside of Stardock and a few hand-picked founders (basically people with a steeped knowledge in the lore and everything to do with the original games) knows what the game looks like yet and there’s plenty of development to go, so things have largely been on the down low.
A few more gamers should get private access later this year as the project gains some speed, but I’d wager that you won’t really start seeing a great deal until early next year when Stardock are ready to show it off. But that’s just a guess, there might be more revealed before Christmas. We’ll see.
Interesting, There was a period of time where I pretty much played nothing but Star Control 2 on my 286
This makes me a *happy camper*! I hope we can *dance* with the Orz 😀
Nothing will be revealed until close to the release. And that’s been moved already to early 18. Stardock is super serious to make it 100% right upon release.
I really hope they don’t turn this into another XCOM: The Bureau or something. This game was amazing because of the deep, deep lore, the unique and thoroughly fleshed out alien species and the amazing space battles with highly unique ships. If they turn this into a generic FPS or space shooter, it’ll be a huge waste.
No doubt the “new universe” will just mean that they’re getting rid of a bunch of the awesome races so that they can make a game that focuses only on 3 or 4 tops…. You know what? I’m already scared for this franchise. SC2 was one of my fav games of all time.
Sadly, Stardock didn’t get the rights to the rest of the universe and game. Toys for Bob still has those, so they have to make up everything from scratch.
They basically have the right to use the title. 🙁
Stardock has all the licenses and rights to the game. They chose not to continue Paul and Fred’s work as they expressed the desire to possibly doing a sequel later when they’re done bathing in Activision money. The new game is set in a alternate universe. It might be possible to intertwine the two universes later on.
According to a certain other gaming site, they DO not possess all the rights to the game, just the name “Star Control” and all of the unique stuff introduced in 3. The stuff from 1&2 is off limits. No Ur-Quan. No Yehat. No Arilou. etc. No buy from me if true.
Sadness at the new universe. I was quite fond of the Fot Zoq Pik. Such diversity and alienness in in the characters. It was a universe alive with possibilities.
Has GalCiv already been abandoned? IMO no one should buy games from you, as they tend to be woefully incomplete at launch and mainly pleasing to the eye. You release games, sell a dozen overpriced DLC’s with it which don’t even attempt to solve the gravest problems and move on to the next cash grab.
So pardon me that I dismiss this vacuous article as mere window-dressing.