So, heading into last week, the question remained: would Gearbox treat Homeworld with the same level of reverence and respect given to the Borderlands franchise, or would it be another exercise in misdirection and disappointment like Duke Nukem Forever and Colonial Marines?Īs it turns out, the answer was neither. Initially, the collective gaming polity was thrilled at the prospect of getting Homeworld in a playable format once more, but that goodwill soon disintegrated following the Aliens: Colonial Marines debacle and the Homeworld Remastered Collection missing its original 2014 release date. The crowdfunded campaign eventually failed - despite raising around US$70,000 - although it wasn't revealed until a few months later that Gearbox, makers of the Borderlands series, had outbid the mobile app developer for the rights with a US$1.35 million offer.

The prospect of such an iconic series, still the only games to fully utilise the third axis in strategically meaningful and eye-catching way, being dismissed as creditor garbage was heartbreaking for many surely someone could do something with the rights? Something? Anything? Reports circulated that the Homeworld rights were going on the cheap were buoyed by a Kickstarter campaign asking for a minimum of US$50,000 to save the series from an irrelevant oblivion. But amongst the all kerfuffle, two items caught my eye: the sale of Relic Entertainment, the developer responsible for the Company of Heroes and Dawn of War strategy games, to SEGA for US$26.6 million, and the supposed availability of the rights to Homeworld, the contemplative space 3D real-time strategy that made Relic's name. It was a creditor-enforced auction of all the properties owned by THQ, a once-great publisher who enjoyed more than US$1 billion annual revenues and stocks reaching US$36.16 at its height. Only two years ago, the futures of the Saints Row franchise, South Park: The Stick of Truth, the rights to the rather unspectacular Homefront series and the ownership of Volition, Inc, the Saints Row, Red Faction and FreeSpace developers, were finally resolved in the fire sale to end all fire gaming sales.

Homeworld remastered collection