Stardock CEO confirms Star Control reboot is a prequel, will include multiplayer

Waiting for a reboot of one of your favorite franchises can be emotionally draining. Will it reignite an old flame like XCOM: Enemy Unknown , or defile your memory of it like SimCity ? Stardock CEO Brad Wardell knows you're probably really stressed out about the Star Control reboot he's been working on for the past six months, but it's cool—he said a bunch of things in an interview with Ars Techinca that should calm you down. Most importantly, he said that reboot will be a prequel and that it will include a multiplayer mode. "We plan to start the game around 2112 with aliens first contacting the Earthlings and the formation of Star Control," Wardell says.

Wardell says he has a lot of respect for the creators of the Star Control series, Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III. The two can't officially work on the reboot because of their commitment to Activision (where they're working on Skylanders), but Stardock is "talking to them" about the story, so as to better respect their vision. However, even with their support, Stardock isn't quite prepared to meddle with the future of that universe, which is why it's taking the series back in time.

Wardell also says that the multiplayer will bring bacc ship-to-ship combat. It will include the Super Melee mode from SC2, and maybe completely new, "more sophisticated" modes that Wardell says resemble Dota.

As he explained when he first announced the project , Stardock's reboot will draw its inspiration from Star Control 2. Its unique mix of role-playing, space combat, and adventure gameplay is commonly considered the high point of the series, and the reboot aims to hit the same notes only with much improved presentation provided by Oxide's impressive Nitrous engine .

Wardell doesn't expect to even consider a release date until late 2015, but he does expect PC to be the lead platform, and that that the reboot will be available on all platforms that the Nitrous engine supports.

Latest in Games
Commander Shepard in Mass Effect 3.
Mass Effect's Jennifer Hale, who played femshep, 'saw no line' before she recorded them for Bioware's flagship trilogy: 'It was all cold reading on the spot'
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 barbers change hairstyle - Henry sitting on a horse wearing armour.
How to find a barber and change hairstyle in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
Marvel Rivals characters - Hulk with his hands out as if he's grabbing the camera.
Marvel Rivals' growing roster of heroes scares me, but the game's director seems sure that all is under control: 'Everything is progressing smoothly'
Key art of the videogame Lunacid, showing a pale, long haired knight in purple armor contemplating a purple, flaming sword surrounded by the different phases of the moon.
One of my favorite indie RPGs is getting a follow-up made with FromSoftware's 25-year-old Super Mario Maker for first person dungeon crawlers
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 image - Henry riding a pink and blue striped horse while holding a fish
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 now has Steam Workshop support, and of course one of the first mods lets you adjust the 'jiggle physics'
Rainbow Six Siege year 9 season 2 key art - two Rainbow Six Siege operators facing each other
'Siege 2 was never on the table': Rainbow Six Siege X director explains why the 10-year-old FPS doesn't need a sequel
Latest in News
Commander Shepard in Mass Effect 3.
Mass Effect's Jennifer Hale, who played femshep, 'saw no line' before she recorded them for Bioware's flagship trilogy: 'It was all cold reading on the spot'
A side by side comparison of two Asus Q-Release systems, with the original design on the top and the bottom showing the apparently new design.
Asus appears to have quietly changed the design of its Q-Release PCIe slot after claims of potential GPU pin damage
Microsoft's Task Manager in Windows 11
After years of complaints about Windows Task Manager displaying CPU utilization incorrectly, a fix is finally on its way
Sony RGB LED panel tech
Sony's fixing the wrong panel problems while showing off its new 'RGB LED' backlight tech with outrageous colours and brightness
Super Mario World
Super Nintendo consoles appear to be running ever-so-slightly faster as they age and speedrunning detectives are hot on the case
A photo of an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor surrounded by DDR5 memory sticks from Corsair, Kingston, and Lexar
Fresh leak suggests Intel's on-again-off-again Arrow Lake CPU refresh is back on the menu (boys)