baby arm Posted March 1, 2008 Report Share Posted March 1, 2008 MicroProse (best known as publisher of strategy classics like X-Com, Civilization, Colonization, Master of Orion, etc) is back...but probably not in the way you'd expect. Classic Gaming has word on MicroProse's latest incarnation:This past Fall, Microprose was acquired by a team of video game industry veterans. Busily working all this time laying a solid operating foundation, Microprose is now ready to launch again! Choosing to start where the previous incarnation's legend left off, Microprose has decided to go right in to the high tech arena again with an exciting product line meant to promote high visibility of the Microprose name. Microprose's key products for its launch are all hardware based, grouped in easy to identify categories: CONNECT Series products, Game Controller products, POWERLINE Battery products, and REDLINE Cabling products.That's right, MicroProse has relaunched as a hardware focused company, which is a bit disappointing. However, all is not lost for strategy gamers if this blurb from the new official site is to be believed:Software development has also begun and an all new line of strategic simulations are on the horizon in the same spirit of quality and exciting gameplay that players expect from Microprose. EDIT: Further information spotted at Wikipedia: During the summer of 2007, Frederic Chesnais resigned as CEO of Atari Interactive, Inc. and acquired Microprose and several of its properties under his Interactive Game Group (I2G) Corporation. The company is divided into two new divisions - Microprose "Blue" which is its newly formed Consumer Electronics Division and Microprose "Red" which is busily writing new games and software. Microprose Blue has a full line up of Consumer Electronics, cabling, power products as well as a line of new game controllers. All of which will be available into retail channels in late spring/early summer 2008. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gimli Posted March 1, 2008 Report Share Posted March 1, 2008 Baby arm, it's April Fools, not March Fools. But wow, this is... well first EA makes a free game, then Microprose returns... I must be under some sort of drugs. I suspected someone was out to get me for a long time. (tinfoil hats not included) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted March 1, 2008 Report Share Posted March 1, 2008 And just where is the screenshot of Railroad Tycoon? Eh? EH?! This is very interesting and totally unexpected. I've not heard of anything like this happening before. Having said that - mixed feelings here as they did sell out to Hasbro in the first place, which in turn got bought out by Infogrames and things kind of hit rock-bottom around that point. If they do decide to get back into games again in a big way then we can only hope they return to their roots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gimli Posted March 1, 2008 Report Share Posted March 1, 2008 From Wikipedia: During the summer of 2007, Frederic Chesnais resigned as CEO of Atari Interactive, Inc. and acquired Microprose and several of its properties under his Interactive Game Group (I2G) Corporation. The company is divided into two new divisions - Microprose "Blue" which is its newly formed Consumer Electronics Division and Microprose "Red" which is busily writing new games and software. Microprose Blue has a full line up of Consumer Electronics, cabling, power products as well as a line of new game controllers. All of which will be available into retail channels in late spring/early summer 2008. Worth updating the news post? Also, this is awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted March 1, 2008 Report Share Posted March 1, 2008 New post updated - nice find, and already things are looking more promising with this information Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baby arm Posted March 1, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2008 New post updatedThank you, sir. Now we know we can safely ignore anything that mentions "MicroProse Blue" and just pay attention to their "MicroProse Red" projects.And just where is the screenshot of Railroad Tycoon? Eh? EH?!Sorry, I wasn't able to borrow my grandma's copy. That's right, Pete, I'm calling you an old woman for playing Railroad Tycoon. Oh snap etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azrael Strife Posted March 2, 2008 Report Share Posted March 2, 2008 Anyway, does anyone know if any of the old Microprose developers are going to be on the new Microprose Red dev team? because if none is, this is pretty much just another company of the bunch, until they prove they can make games Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted March 2, 2008 Report Share Posted March 2, 2008 Well the grand old tale of Microprose started off in the UK if memory serves, then it was UK and US, and then just US at the end I think. I'm assuming this company is US-based? Likely that would only leave the option of the Microprose US developers being part of the new company. Most that I knew of (not many, but a few) moved on to other things so I can't think who the new crowd might be. baby arm - RRT is better than X-COM... better than Half Life... better than Bioshock even! Oh look, here's the nurse to give me my shot I just loved toy trains okay? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gimli Posted March 2, 2008 Report Share Posted March 2, 2008 Nope, Wikipedia says they were US based and then expanded to Europe.The article is quite interesting and definitely worth a read. Also, there's a section called "A couple tidbits of MicroProse history NOT mentioned here" in the Microprose article discussion with some additional information by Kasey Chang (Microprose employee). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted March 2, 2008 Report Share Posted March 2, 2008 Kasey Chang was a Microprose employee? So how come his strategy guides for X-COM (which are in our downloads section) were unofficial then? Hang on, I guess unofficial, free guides don't make as much money as official, paid-for guides. I'll be quiet now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slaughter Posted March 2, 2008 Report Share Posted March 2, 2008 Colour me a cautious optimist! Thanks for the heads up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knan Posted March 2, 2008 Report Share Posted March 2, 2008 Sid Meier is rather American. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kratos Posted March 3, 2008 Report Share Posted March 3, 2008 I'm quite skeptical of MicroProse's return. Even if they did return...they sold the rights to their games (unless they want to buy them back...). So that means they will have to do an extreme job in making new original games. I doubt they have any of their original developers. It probably will be just like Azrael said, they will just be another company from the bunch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordFu Posted March 5, 2008 Report Share Posted March 5, 2008 https://www.microprosesystems.com/gameline-image1.gif Eh, that joystick looks pretty nice, really. I see they're jumping on the digital TV bandwagon. And, generic-looking cables? Meh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kratos Posted March 7, 2008 Report Share Posted March 7, 2008 They recognize and support Linux. Now that's something I didn't expect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gimli Posted March 22, 2008 Report Share Posted March 22, 2008 There's a bit more info on the discussion page of the Microprose article on Wikipedia. Namely this: Where is "Red" team's development studio? Answer: Several Independent Studios are being tapped for various projects -User:Microprose - 17:58, 17 March 2008 Frecklefoot - that's not true on the properties part, a number of the original properties were purchased with the name, F15-Strike Eagle being one of them. --Marty Goldberg (talk) 15:48, 19 March 2008 (UTC) Interesting about F15. I wonder if Codo is one of the tapped teams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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