Wargaming picked up the license to the Total Annihilation series in an auction of Atari’s properties. Now the World of Tanks publisher is in possession of the license to make the games and the studio headed up by the man who started the series, Chris Taylor.
Those facts strongly suggest that Gas Powered Games will soon be working on a new iteration of the series.
Total Annihilation wasn’t the only IP to have been sold off, though. Wargaming also picked up the civilization-like Master of Orion franchise.
According to the auction documents, Battlezone also has a new owner, Rebellion. Not sure what to think of that one, Rebellion have made some cracking games, like the original Alien vs Predator, but that was awhile ago. Since then they’ve been responsible for the pants Sniper Elite games, the recent (and not fab) Alien vs Predator reboot, as well as Judge Dredd vs Death. Battlezone’s an excellent series and in the right hands would make for a great game, I’m just not sure Rebellion’s it.
They also picked up the rights to Moonbase Commander.
Wargaming weren’t the only bidder on the Total Annihilation franchise: Uber Entertainment also put in a bid. Uber are the developers who brought us the Monday Night Combat series, a great first-person MOBA, but, more relevantly, they’re currently developing Planetary Annihilation, a spiritual successor to the Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander series. The studio is headed up by two people who have been working on those games since the beginning and, so, whoever won the bid, Wargaming or Uber, the series would have fallen into familiar hands.