When people get all misty-eyed about the amazing, original Syndicate from 1993, they often overlook something. The game’s ending. Or, to be more accurate, its complete lack of one.
The single best piece of video game news today is that the original Syndicate is now on sale over on Good Old Games for $US6. You’ll get more fun out of that game than you will most games costing 10x as much.
Electronic Arts recently trademarked the hell out of Syndicate, Bullfrog’s much-loved early ’90s PC game of violence among drug-fuelled cybernetic spies. But what can we expect from a new Syndicate?
EA files three new trademark registrations for Syndicate, further teasing us with visions of a downloadable online sequel to Bullfrog’s classic real-time tactics game.
Some of you may be too young to remember this, but back in the mid-90′s, Bullfrog were kings. Theme Park, Magic Carpet, Syndicate… everything Peter Molyneux’s former studio released turned to gold.
Way back in October 2008, we first heard talk that Starbreeze were working on a remake of Bullfrog’s classic Syndicate. Was nice talk, but talk nonetheless. Today, that talk has resurfaced.
The good news? EA today announced Dungeon Keeper Online, an MMO-based continuation of Bullfrog’s classic strategy games. Bad news? It’s not for you.
Cast your minds back to February, and you’ll remember some excitement surrounding the revelation Starbreeze had been tapped by EA to work on one of the company’s “classic” franchises. Some comments by EA boss John Riccitiello made it seem like that franchise was Road Rash, but CVG now say that – according to a “secret agent” – it’s not. It is instead Syndicate, which EA didn’t develop (Peter Molyneux’s Bullfrog did), but which they do own the rights to. Exciting news, if also a little terrifying, since the chances of another studio capturing the feel of the original are – as we’ve already seen – slim.
Syndicate fans, this one’s for you. After posting a little something on former Bullfrog boss Peter Molyneux’s love of the series, we were contacted by a former Bullfrog and EA UK employee. This guy was nice enough to let us know that a new Syndicate game wouldn’t be anything new. Indeed, over the years he says there have been “quite a number of attempts to get a new Syndicate game into production”.