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Why Robin Makes Batman Better BioWare has been expanding their Dragon Age and Mass Effect story universes through comics and novels for several years. Now they’re branching out into animation projects, working with FUNimation to create a pair of anime features for later this year, Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker and Mass Effect: Paragon Lost.
In this Dailymotion video recently shared on the BioWare blog, we get a closer look at the production process and at what story Paragon Lost will be telling. It centres on James Vega, showing how he got to be where he eventually landed, at the side of the famous Commander Shepard.
The video also features a number of character and location sketches, showing that surprisingly, vorcha manage to look kind of cool in 2D. They confirm that the release of Paragon Lost is still the nebulous “fall 2012,” and that Dawn of the Seeker, following Dragon Age 2 character Cassandra Pentaghast, will be coming out May 29.
Paragons and Seekers [BioWare Blog]
There’s good news and bad news, Fullmetal Alchemist fans. The good news? There’s a new game coming based on Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. The bad news? It looks to be some sort of turn-based card battling game for iOS, Android and Facebook.
Much like Dragon Age: Origins before it, EA and BioWare are teaming up with FUNimation Entertainment to create an anime feature film based on the Mass Effect series. Production has begun, with digital and home releases planned for 2012.
EA, BioWare, and Japanese animation distributor FUNimation have teamed up to create an animated movie based on the award-winning role-playing game Dragon Age: Origins. Production began last month, with a direct-to-video release slated for 2011.
FUNimation’s recent disagreement with publisher Atari cast doubt on future Atari-branded Dragon Ball Z games. I know, it would’ve just been gutting if we couldn’t see yet another Dragon Ball Z fighter packed to the brim with horribly designed characters from Mr. Akira Toriyama. Today, we have “good” news to pass on, as IGN is reporting that FUNimation and Atari have agreed to terms that will allow for the continued stream of DBZ licensed software to continue through 2010.
According to IGN the terms of the agreement see Atari issuing a $US 2.7 million cash payment and $US 800,000 in “royalty payment reductions”. In even better news for Atari, the publisher is said to have a new candle at its headquarters, giving much needed light to employees following a series of electric bills that have gone unpaid. Rumours point to executives also having found a previously unclaimed crust of bread.
More good (read: company collapsing) news for Atari, as Dragon Ball Z licence holder FUNimation has leveled an accusation against the publisher, claiming breach of contract. According to the Gamespot report of the complain, FUNimation sees the licence agreement as terminated, with Atari disagreeing and continuing to sell the games based on the series.
For those who aren’t twelve years old, Dragon Ball Z is a long running anime series based on the manga created by Akira Toriyama, who’s also responsible for art direction of Dragon Quest and Blue Dragon, among other non-dragony things. Dragon Ball also happens to be one of Atari’s major revenue sources, in a time when it really, really needs the revenue.
Let’s all hope for a speedy resolution, so that our nation’s children can continue to enjoy more Dragon Ball goofiness.
Atari fights to keep Dragon Ball Z [Gamespot]
