Stardock has just announced that it has secured the rights to the Star Control franchise with the intent to develop a new Star Control game. Development should start still this year with a release date to be determined at a later time. Stardock was the highest bidder for the Star Control franchise in a recent Atari bankruptcy filling auction.
“We expect the new Star Control to come in the form of a reboot, similar to what Firaxis did with the XCOM series last year. We are looking at Star Control II as a major source of inspiration.” -Brad Wardell, president and CEO of Stardock.
Released in 1990 for several different platforms, Star Control is a classic space action-strategy game by Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III, known as Toys for Bob. They were also behind Star Control 2 in 1992, a sequel that introduced more adventure, shooter and story-driven elements. Star Control 3 was released in 1996 but was not developed by the original developers but by Legend Entertainment.
I requested more details about this announcement from Stardock but the reply is that this is all they have for now. So, they will start developing a new Star Control game (a reboot) still this year, but more details will only be known in the coming weeks or later in the year.
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Now this will be interesting. If they do as good a job as Firaxis did with X-Com, then I feel we have nothing to fear and indeed, something to look forward to!
What a shame.
I love star control, but I have no faith at all in stardock..
It will be interesting to see how Stardock does this one, but I have faith in them. I’m a big fan of Stardock and enjoy many of their games
I loved all the versions of Star Control, but I and II most of all and look forward to seeing how stardock do with the IP.
I’ve had both good and bad experienced with Stardock so I guess I’m just keeping my fingers crossed for this one. It was never a very complex game so I *really* hope they don’t feel the need to dumb it down further. In fact just the opposite would be very nice.
Wonder whether this will have any impact on the Ur-Quan Masters?
Good question. In fact, that, and other Star Control copyright/trademark issues are being discussed in this Ur-Quan Masters forum thread. Brad Wardell (Stardock’s CEO) is personally involved on that discussion (as Frogboy). Looks like Stardock intends to get the original developers on-board.
Brad Wardell’s statement on Ur-Quan Masters forum:
Found out about this through Blue’s News.
Interesting stuff Adam, thanks!
It would seem that SC is in great hands. Now if only a Star Flight remake would be in the works…
I would kill a room full of puppies to see a remake of StarFlight…the Genesis version was even better than the PC version, which is very rare for a console game to be better than the PC version :)
I loved the Genesis version of Starflight… was one of my first games I played on that console. I did hate how grindy the game would get though just to keep your spaceship fueled. Otherwise, it was perfect.
I hope they get the original developers and authors on board. I think they can do the job best and it’s their child. IMHO Star Control III was not bad, but it wasn’t as brilliant as SC 2
That’s what I was hoping, on the site it states:
‘The project started in August 2002, when Toys For Bob released the partially ported sources of Star Control 2 3DO version to the fan community.’
Which in my eyes means that Toys For Bob never had the right to do that, the moment I saw the Atari buy out on the 19th and saw that SC was sold I was wondering what would happen, shame the MOO series never went Stardocks way though, that would have really been interesting.
Wargaming.net bought the rights to Master of Orion, I believe it was in the same auction Stardock got the rights to Star Control. Stardock also bid for Master of Orion but lost out.
Don’t have a lot of faith that Wargmaming.net will create a good MoO game. It’ll probably be some F2P MMOish game based in the MoO universe.
Edit: Doh, I read about that on this site. Here: https://www.spacesector.com/blog/2013/07/wargaming-takes-master-of-orion-stardock-gets-star-control/
Great job Stardok, now We’ll have to wait for star control IV: Legendary Heroes to have an enjoyable game ;-)
Frankly, Stardock has had a much better record with space-themed games than fantasy, so that is in their favor.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t a fan of Star Control, so a “Star Control III by Stardock” doesn’t impress me as much as a “MOO IV by Stardock” would have. Also, as I have noted in another thread, I’m concerned that Stardock’s acquisition of the Star Control franchise threatens a potential Galactic Civilizations III. Stardock devotes much of its efforts to its extensive catalog of Windows apps. The company rarely develops more than one game at a time, so purchasing Star Control may threaten continued development of the Gal Civ series.
Who cares if this impacts GalCiv development ? I’ll take a new StarControl any day over Galactic Civilizations :)
“Frankly, Stardock has had a much better record with space-themed games than fantasy”
That’s highly subjective. In my eyes, galciv is nothing more than a cheap space themed civilization ripoff, that had only one real good thing going for it, the awesome ship model builder.. which then they did not take advantage of, as there were no weapon arc simulation or tactical combat of any kind.
Elemental on the other hand, while it might not be as flashed out as galciv was in its own category, it at least has the depth that is missing from its space themed brother.
Again.. that is how I look at it. Either case, I do not expect much from stardock.. they might have dedication, but I think they simply lack the skill.
everything is ‘highly subjective’, even death LOL
Oh my, where did all the Stardock hate come from? The GC universe is rich and long-lived. Stardock has persevered with the series for years (a decade or more?) and GCII Twilight of the Arnor stands up well compared to any more recent space 4X game.
I love the GC series and would hate to see another new GC game side-tracked in favor of a re-launch of Star Control.
Stardock has a history of dogged perseverance in developing their games, but because their main focus is Windows apps, they develop only one game at a time. Work on Star Control can only come at the expense of Galactic Civilizations III, hence my concern.
Now please Stardock, don’t make it Steam only.
They were making a game about 10 years back called Stellar Frontier, a top down sapce shooter like star control / star flight. But it never got past beta I don’t think. Perhaps they will use some experience from this to make the game.
Stellar Frontier is still alive, it was still supported by Stardock till 2006, the game itself is still going though.
I know I’m going to get some hate comments on this, but I felt moved to say that Stardock, run by the severe right wing Republicano and egomaniac Brad Wardell, is one of the most overrated game studios around today. The only half-way decent game they’ve done is SINS, and even that series is a bit overrated.
NO!!! We *don’t* want a reboot! We want a TRUE SEQUEL to Star Control 3, with emphasis on dialogue and exploration over combat!