5 Lives Studios launched a Kickstarter campaign for Satellite Reign today, a spiritual successor to Bullfrog Productions' Syndicate series of real-time strategy games.
In Satellite Reign, players will command a team of four as they battle for control of a cyberpunk-inspired city. If funded, the class-based strategy game will allow for multiple play styles, including brute force combat, stealthy infiltration, hacking and even propaganda tactics.
The developers are hoping to raise £350,000 (approximately $534,100) in the next 30 days. Pledge tiers begin at £6 (approximately $9.16) and include access to the backer-only forums. A pledge of £13 (approximately $19.84) or more will net backers a digital copy of the game on Windows, Mac or Linux at its estimated release in Dec. 2014.
According to the Satellite Reign Kickstarter page, the Australian development team at 5 Lives Studios includes Syndicate Wars lead Mike Diskett as well as veterans of L.A. Noire and the Grand Theft Auto and Darksiders series.
"Kickstarter is continually proving itself to be a utopia for creativity," the Kickstarter page reads. "It gives developers like us the chance to get back to our roots, so we can make the games we want to play. We're free to explore and implement ideas without publishers demanding that we reshape our vision for broad, generic appeal."
The original Syndicate was an isometric real-time strategy game released in 1993. It was followed by several sequels and rebooted as a first-person shooter from Starbreeze Studios in 2012. You can watch 5 Lives Studios' Kickstarter pitch for its spiritual successor above.
Comments
Played the old Syndicate in black and white on a Mac back in the day. This looks pretty cool.
Side question: Have these claims of being the ‘spiritual successor’ to an old favorite ever left the company open to legal action from the original copyright holder?
By RoboticSpacePenguin on 06.28.13 3:23pm
Doubt it’s an issue. EA owns the System Shock name, yet Bioshock got away with nicking half of the title. As long as they don’t mention anything directly related to the Syndicate brand (Eurocorp, Church of the new Epoch, Persuadatron, etc.) they should be fine.
Even the name, Satellite Reign, is likely based off of a weapon from Syndicate Wars called Satellite Rain (and what a git of a weapon that was!).
By Kushan on 06.28.13 3:56pm
There’s no infringement. You can’t copyright the word “Syndicate” and trademark law allows for you to reference other people’s products in a comparative fashion. For instance, PepsiCo is allowed to reference Coca-Cola in the “Pepsi Challenge.” It would be absurd if copyright law allowed you to stop people from commenting about your product.
By BryanH on 06.28.13 4:41pm
Well, it does in Europe. You can’t compare your brand or mention your competitor’s brand in any promotional material. So, not so absurd I guess :/
By DaniOcean on 06.29.13 3:08pm
I nearly had a heart attack when I seen this go up earlier. Syndicate is one of my favourite game series and Syndicate Wars has a special place in my heart. I sunk so much time into that game, I can’t wait for this.
By Kushan on 06.28.13 3:56pm
Well, Paradox said they were also developing a successor called “Cartel”. There was a Rock Paper Shotgun article about it. Is that still a thing?
By Wuddel on 06.28.13 9:48pm