The maker of World of Tanks, World of Warplanes and World of Warships has announced a new game: World of Warmaster of Orion. No, wait, what's that? Oh, it's just Master of Orion.
It's a reboot of the late-'90s 4X strategy series, which Wargaming picked up the rights to during an Atari auction in 2013. Here's the announcement trailer:
This new Master of Orion isn't being developed by any of the World of... studios. Rather, Wargaming has put the project in the hands of NGD Studios, "with key members from the original title’s team."
Details are pretty light at the moment, and Wargaming claim that this new version is being built from the ground up. Certainly things have moved on since the series was at its peak. Even the disappointing MoO3 was 11 years ago, and, in the time since, some great 4X space games—including the recent GalCiv 3—have emerged.
Update: In addition to modern graphics, Wargaming are recording a new orchestral score by MOO's original composer, as well as investing the alien races with more personality via "well-known" voice actors and animations.
We'll have an interview with Wargaming and the Master of Orion project lead later this week, but for now we can say that this is a proper space 4X. It's not a free-to-play World of Spaceships/Clash of Clans version of Master of Orion. It will be the traditional single-payment space 4X of the type that fans have always known.
Additional reporting by Rob Zacny.
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