BREAKING NEWS: Wing Commander Arena Announced! (February 22, 2007)

[Bandit LOAF]

Simple words do not express the excitement of this moment. Wing Commander fans have waited nearly a decade since the release of Secret Ops... and today we learn that our years of dedication were not in vain: Electronic Arts has officially announced Wing Commander Arena for XBox Live Arcade! Arena focuses on multiplayer action, and includes game modes for up to sixteen players at once! Here's the official press release and logo:

EA Launches Wing Commander Arena onto Xbox LIVE Arcade
Thursday February 22, 1:00 pm ET
Legendary Game Franchise Delivers 16-Player Online Space Combat

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS - News) today announced the return of its beloved Wing Commander(TM) franchise with Wing Commander Arena in development for the Xbox LIVE® Arcade(1). With up to 16 players, Wing Commander Arena offers the largest multi-player melee experience to date on Xbox LIVE Arcade. The game is scheduled to go live worldwide on the Arcade service in Summer 2007.

Wing Commander Arena is a fast-paced space combat game where players can team up to attack other teams of ships. The game introduces the classic franchise to an arcade-style experience that allows up to 16 players online in battle at once. Players can propel their customized ship through space, fire torpedoes and unleash deadly gravity bombs as they try to climb the leader board. Online players will compete for Frag count, high score and dueling stats.

"We're really excited to deliver unparalleled multi-player arcade action," said Chip Lange, EA Vice President. "The design for Wing Commander will appeal to both long-time fans of the franchise and immediately engage anyone who wants the melee style action of an arcade shooter."

Wing Commander Arena will feature four styles of play: single player, multi-team, multi-player free for all and multi-player duel. Within the game there are eight game maps that include team maps, free for all maps and dueling maps, so Wing Commander Arena offers a gameplay experience for every Arcade gamer, whether they want a quick ten minutes of action or a longer more immersive game.

Wing Commander Arena is produced and published by Electronic Arts and cooperatively developed with Gaia Industries. This is the second EA title for Xbox LIVE Arcade with EA's first title Boom Boom Rocket set to launch this Spring.

(1) Players must have an Xbox LIVE marketplace account to play Wing Commander Arena.

--
Original update published on February 22, 2007

[LeHah]

Two words can sum this up nicely: Holy Sh*t.

[Frosty]

Recruitment for my team begins here, only cool kids are allowed, though. Wimps and posers, leave the hall.

[MajorCamKollent]

This is huge. I wonder what they're going to do for single player.

[alucard]

Can someone please tell me why the hell they develope such a goodie only for x-box. I have waited long enough for a new Wing Commander on PC. I still want to know what happened to Blair. I do want a WC6 not a second WC Armada for a console, which cannot beat the hardware of my PC.

But maybe this will be the beginning of a new Wing Commander decade. We shall hope for it.

[Drizzt Do Urden]

I may have to buy an Xbox 360 now. Anyone know what the current best price is on one?

[Dyret]

Wow... look at that wonderful logo... It even has the little spaceships from the original. This is awesome news!

[lxi]

sweet jebus.....

oh man i'm pumped for this...

i know people will complain about no pc game and don't get me wrong, i would love that but the xbox live is pretty amazing and lots of people use it...

i think it's fantastic

[Blaster]

This is great news! Hopefully it will be available on the PC eventually so even more people will get the chance to play it.

[Pedro]

WOOHOO!

WOO

FREAKING

HOO

Oh and EA has been calling for ideas from its employees for space combat, but sales of the genre have apparently been a cause for concern.

So everyone buy buy buy and prove them wrong!

[AD]

I've got a gamertag... Now I just need an x-box 360

[Mav23]

Wow looks like I'll actually be frequenting the Wing Commander section of the site on a regular basis now. Oh wait, well at least the WC Arena portion!

Awesome news!

Edit: AD, lovin' that GamerTag!

[LeHah]

Originally Posted by Frosty

Recruitment for my team begins here, only cool kids are allowed, though. Wimps and posers, leave the hall.

Time to dig out that nose art you and LOAF were making.

[PeteyG]

dude. this is, like, whoa.

[Gaal Dornick]

Next question: Will this be out on PC?

[Hobbie]

I haven't posted in years, but I've been checking out the site every once in awhile...saw the news on IGN and came straight here!

To say I'm ridiculously excited is an understatement.

[Capn Johnny]

Hmm.. any guesses on what the gameplay will look like?

My guess is a top-down action shooter ala SubSpace, but with fancier graphics and whatnot..

I guess we'll find out soon enough.

-Capn J

[RGHawk2000]

I dont believe that after all these years I finally got to play something fresh again (I just wonder about the joystick part though) Hehehe, anyway, I knew when I received my christmas present (xbox-360) good things were to come soon

best regards,

RG

[Pedro]

We *might* see it on PC oneday, XBox Live was supposed to be well integrated with Vista, it wasn't, but we may eventually see live arcade games for PC, still I would be surprised if many games were released retroactively like that.

[Vinman]

Originally Posted by alucard

Can someone please tell me why the hell they develope such a goodie only for x-box. I have waited long enough for a new Wing Commander on PC. I still want to know what happened to Blair. I do want a WC6 not a second WC Armada for a console, which cannot beat the hardware of my PC.

But maybe this will be the beginning of a new Wing Commander decade. We shall hope for it.

Yeah, this news is kind of bittersweet for people without an xbox or access to broadband

Still, it is great that Wing Commander is making a comeback!

[Starman]

All I can say is OMG What fantastic news and hopefully this is just the start of a revival of the franchise.

[Dundradal]

This looks to be very promising, but I'm hesitant about the arena type of gameplay. I hope it doesn't take away from the WC feel of the game. All in good time though, just so nice to see the CIC updated with new official WC news again.

So have we now entered the 3rd Age of Wing Commander?

I also love the new Gamertag link that shows up in this forum. Great touch guys!

[Cardinal]

Originally Posted by Drizzt Do Urden

I may have to buy an Xbox 360 now. Anyone know what the current best price is on one?

After going through a couple of websites, it looks like the "Core System" retails for $299, and the "Premium System", is $399. The XBox website indicates that a Gold account runs about $50 a year. That's about the limit of my knowledge on the console.

[Bandit LOAF]

You will want a Premium System for this, since you'll download Arena and store it on the hard drive.

The Live Gold subscription can be offset with various other purchases -- you get a year worth, for instance, when you buy the XBox webcam addon

[Mav23]

Spring for the "Premium", the "Core" package is useless. I had to get one myself as it was all they had left on the first day (got the last one there too!), and slowly upgraded to the Premium. You'll save a lot of money if you go for the $400 package.

Edit: Ah LOAF beat me to it.

Edit again: LOAF, are you unable to save arcade games on memory cards?

[NinjaLA]

yeah its really neat looking.

[Bandit LOAF]

I believe you can save things to memory cards... but once you buy an XBox and a memory card large enough for Arena, you're going to spend more than the extra hundred bucks anyway... and you won't get the wireless controller or the headset or whatever else the nicer package comes with.

[Mav23]

Originally Posted by Bandit LOAF

I believe you can save things to memory cards... but once you buy an XBox and a memory card large enough for Arena, you're going to spend more than the extra hundred bucks anyway... and you won't get the wireless controller or the headset or whatever else the nicer package comes with.

Oh definitely, the Premium is a much better deal all around. I was just wondering if there's an actual restriction on doing that or not. The only thing I like more about my Core system is the lack of chrome on the dvd tray. I like it all matte white.

[Farlander]

To be honest...I'm not excited. This game sounds very multiplayer focused, and I don't care much for multiplayer. Anything short of a full sequel on the PC probably isn't going to do it for me. Still, it is good to see that Wing Commander hasn't been forgotten. Maybe if this game is good and people love it, we'll see something more.

[privfan]

glad to see a new WC game
for now that's all I'll say as my thoughts are drifting negative based on the screen shots but it's too early to be making an informed decision

[NinjaLA]

according to the press release there is a single player mode as well.. I'll be very curious as to how that works out. but as a 'live' game, obviously the heart of the game will be taunting your friends as you blow the crap out of them in an intense 16 person melee

[Chicken]

The beast is back.

And the Kilrathi!

[ChrisReid]

Legendary Game Franchise Delivers 16-Player Online Space Combat

REDWOOD CITY, Calif--Electronic Arts today announced the return of its beloved Wing Commander(TM) franchise with Wing Commander Arena

I couldn't imagine any better way that they could put that. Their legendary and beloved franchise is returning.

[Bandit LOAF]

Yes, and it's important to remember that this is *Electronic Arts"* phrasing -- not that of some biased reporter... EA specifically chose to begin their press release this way -- return, beloved, franchise... important words for us.

[Steltek]

Am I the only one who cringes at the words 'Electronic Arts', 'XBox Live Arcade', 'focuses on multiplayer action' and 'Gaia Industries'? I cannot even begin to imagine what a horrible piece of junk this will be and without decent single player, story, that old 'interactive movie' feel and Chris Roberts behint the steering wheel, my bet is on 'I will hate it' rather than on 'will appeal to [...] long-time fans'.

Maybe this will be the revival of the series and a good title will follow, but I see absolutely no hope for this one. (All my personal opinion of course, you may or may not agree.)

[Death]

Translation: "I don't care about the facts, I knows what I knows and that's that".

Gotcha.

[Mav23]

Did Mario fanatics freak out when Mario Kart was announced (or better yet, Dr. Mario?). I can't remember who made that connection originally (or even if it's in this thread or another), but that's pretty much how this game feels to me. A fun WC side game with Multiplayer action.

It doesn't worry about story or FMV. Just kickass multiplayer action. And that's good enough for me.

Edit: To clarify, of course I want a full fledged WC sequel to Prophecy/Secret Ops, but perhaps this is the first step. And even if that full on sequel never comes, WC Arena is still a brand new official WC release! Something we've been lacking for a very long time.

[Steltek]

Translation: "I don't care about the facts, I knows what I knows and that's that".

Would you care to elaborate on the facts that should make me think this will be a great game and worthy successor to Wing Commander 3 and 4? Granted, I have not seen the final game and I believe nobody has, so of course my personal opinion (and that's all it is) is based on what I know about this company and read from the press release. And that is what I stated.

Did Mario fanatics freak out when Mario Kart was announced

Well, I'm sure the action bits will be OK in Arena, just like they were in the previous Wing Commander games. The thing is, it wasn't only the action bits that got me to play WC, it was the story, the FMVs, the atmosphere, and I fear that those will be lacking, if not missing entirely, in EA's new offspring.

[Quarto]

Originally Posted by Steltek

Well, I'm sure the action bits will be OK in Arena, just like they were in the previous Wing Commander games. The thing is, it wasn't only the action bits that got me to play WC, it was the story, the FMVs, the atmosphere, and I fear that those will be lacking, if not missing entirely, in EA's new offspring.

Like I wrote in the other thread, this is not *the* next installment of the series. It's a side-title developed for a rather limited console (yes, yes, the XBox 360 is a grand console and all that - but Live Arcade games are required to be small and accessible, so Live Arcade is an entirely different beast than the 360 on which it runs). There's nothing to worry about here.

(of course, people will always find some crazy reason to worry - I'm sure back when Wing Commander Academy and Armada were released, some people said the exact same thing you're telling us now, and they would've kept on saying it... right up until Wing Commander III was announced)

[Steltek]

I have to agree with you on the Academy and Armada bit, that's the exact reason EA has got me ranting again now: This is yet another Wing Commander Academy but somehow I fear that instead of Wing Commander VI, only more WC Academys will follow it.

[Quarto]

Originally Posted by Steltek

I have to agree with you on the Academy and Armada bit, that's the exact reason EA has got me ranting again now: This is yet another Wing Commander Academy but somehow I fear that instead of Wing Commander VI, only more WC Academys will follow it.

And why does that bother you? If you don't want to play such titles, don't play them - but don't get in the way of others who do.

..I mean, do you seriously think that a string of Academy-like titles makes the release of a full title less likely than no WC games at all being released does?

[Steltek]

That is the exact thing that I fear: Wing Commander being reborn as a series of multiplayer arcade games with no story and then dying out once and for all. At least before this there was hope that EA would sell off the rights to the series to somebody else.

[Quarto]

There's never been any such hope, though.

[Steltek]

And why does that bother you? If you don't want to play such titles, don't play them - but don't get in the way of others who do.

I'm not getting in your or anybody else's way (How could I? I'd have to shut down XBL for that and trust me when I say that I'm definitely in no position to ever be able do so. ). I'm merely voicing my personal opinion, which seems to collide with yours. That's fine, you're just as free to ignore me as I am not to play Arena. We can agree to disagree.

[Pedro]

Originally Posted by Quarto

There's never been any such hope, though.

Indeed, and even if there were, what other company could afford to make a true WC sequel, or would take the risk given the lack of any high budget and profile space combat titles against which to compare sales.

[Steltek]

I'm not saying the next WC should be a 20 mil monster with movie footage. That would be too good to be true. If it was to be a 'Darkstar One in the WC Universe', that would already be sufficient. But a multiplayer focussed arcade game just reads as too far away from the originals to me. Hopefully I'll be very very wrong.

[Pedro]

Originally Posted by Steltek

I'm not saying the next WC should be a 20 mil monster with movie footage.

I actually hope for the reverse, all these games like Gears of War with beautiful engines, superb animation, and then not putting it to use with anything resembling character or a plotline (don't get me wrong I love GoW, just think they wasted the storytelling opportunity). Maybe Wing Commander could shine the light, lead the way, as it did all those years ago.

[LeHah]

Originally Posted by Pedro

I actually hope for the reverse, all these games like Gears of War with beautiful engines, superb animation, and then not putting it to use with anything resembling character or a plotline.

Gears Of War doesn't require a plotline though. It's the cast of Predator on steroids shooting aliens. What they did with the plot is exactly what it needed.

[Pedro]

My point is more that the technology is out there but not being utilised as it could be, I'm not taking a crack at one of my favourite games in years.
However, GoW cutscenes bored me. They didn't need to be a focus of the package but for me when it was clear they weren't even trying I found they lowered the overall presentation, your player avatar had less personallity than master cheif in his green suit.

[Mav23]

Dom was cool though.