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What happened to...Colony Wars?
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This is a new series being done by me to track down the fate of certain franchises and games that could be considered classic. The first game up will by Colony Wars
Back in the days of the original Playstation, it seemed that Sony's mission into making the Playstation the number one platform. And the way they accomplished that goal was by having a giant number of great games in different genres. Some franchises from that era still have a giant pulse, like Gran Turismo, which has been a blockbuster on every Sony platform it has been on. Others, like Crash Bandicoot and Twisted Metal, have been forgetting entirely due to diminishing returns for nearly each entry (Yes, I know Twisted Metal Black was awesome, but which Twisted Metal game has ever come close to Black since?)
Like many franchises from the original Playstation days, the Colony Wars franchise was financially succesful and critically acclaimed, just like Wipeout was (they even had the same developer, Psygnosis). But Wipeout has gone on to be seen in nearly every generation of consoles and was even a kickass PSP game.
What was Colony Wars? In the simplest of terms, a space combat simulator. One of the best of it kind. Intense combat, great graphics (at the time) and an awesome, non-linear storyline that determined an ending on how well the player performs. The number of ships and its accompanying stats is similar to Wipeout's class-based vehicle structure. The next two games, Vengeance and Red Sun, allowed players to customize their ships with more weapons and shield, based on how well they performed.
So what happened? Well, a lot. Psygnosis was owned by Sony since 1993 and was completely merged into Sony Computer Entertainment in 1999, dropped the name Psygnosis, and became SCE Studio Liverpool.And afterwards, the teams worked on Formula 1 racing series for the Playstation 2 and different Wipeout games. But being owned by a bigger publisher doesn't really allow teams to develop what ever they want. While the Liverpool has worked on two Wipeout games on the PSP (Pulse and Pure), one on the Playstation Network (Wipeout HD), there has been no indication that the Colony Wars will ever get touched again.
Which is a shame because even niche genres can do really well, even in this current financial climate of video games. A new Colony Wars wouldn't have to be new. Just the same combat mechanics and branching storylines with prettier graphics.
Will it ever happen? I've tried to contact to the studio and ask about any prospects for a Colony Wars update. No response yet. So all signs point to no, sadly.
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