I’ve been reading past post on the subject in this subreddit. IMO, even if paradox wanted to buy the IP from EA, which isn’t far fetched seeing as how the rolled the dice making vampire the masquerade bloodlines 2, EA is probably too greedy knowing that a rival company could greatly profit while having triumph studios in their back pocket.
I think the most realistic scenario, is an Indy studio with the intention on making another overlord game buys the IP from EA. This isn’t a rival to EA, they would probably bank on the studio to fail and not lose out on the deal. Unless EA is planning on making future titles of the series, what’s the point of them holding onto it if an Indy studio wants it.
I don’t think crowdfunding a go fund me type thing is going to work. There doesn’t seem to be any clear structure or organization behind that. It has to be a group of serious game developers that has a goal in mind for the game. That also have the financial capability to kickstart themselves. I’d also imagine EA would want some sort of contract that would prohibit reselling the IP after acquisition for X amount of time, to prevent rival companies from getting ahold of it.
As far as finances go, I think the hard part for this hypothetical Indy studio would simply be acquiring the necessary funds to purchase the IP, assuming EA is willing to make the deal. After that, I think the next logical step is making a remaster for overlord 1 and 2. I think that would be a generally straight forward, budget way of getting the ball rolling. I think both those releases would generate enough revenue to kickstart the 3rd game we’ve all been waiting for, for this Indy studio.
I’m not a legal expert. I’m not a game developer. I’m just a guy that loves overlord and would dream to see something like this happen, if even possible. I apologize if I sound silly lol but would love to read yalls thoughts
I hate to sound very negative, but realistically the IP is just dead and buried, I wouldn't expect anything new. Of course I would be overjoyed if a new game (or even a remake/remaster) happened, but I just don't see any team which would justify the investment into Overlord
I think it depends on how much the IP would actually cost for starters. It’s been speculation but I don’t think anyone really knows. If it’s in the millions than you’re probably right. But if it’s less than say 500k than it’s not that far fetched. You just need a group of developers who love the game and also conveniently have the financial backing to get started on the acquisition and remasters.
IP is one thing, but development isn't going to be cheap either, remake or not. This year's indie of the year Expedition 33 cost 10 million to make, and while I think Overlord could be made for cheaper, that's still likely a significant cost to invest in development. They could come out with a cheaper spin off game, but then it's a repeat of Fellowship of Evil which pretty much everyone disliked.
Eh debatable- the DS and WII spin-offs did fairly well (for DS and WII games), while Fellowship of Evil just wasn’t a good game to begin with.
Dark Legend at least to me is kind of closer to the mainline games, just made to fit the Wii but I get your point. As for the DS game, I honestly forgot it even exists lol, but if it did well then my mistake. Regardless, I don't think Overlord coming back more than decade later with another spin off would inspire much confidence in the franchise moving forward, it has to be a game with the gameplay evolved from the mainline games
I think a team of 5 quality developers using unreal engine could remaster raising hell In about 2 years, with a budget around 500k or less.
Why somebody would even care about a niche game that came out almost 20 years ago and was considered ok or at best a nice but repetitive game? The game also was based on fantasy references, without almost nothing original, except for gameplay. If someone would want to make a sequel they could simply make another game about being a fantasy villain
Unfortunately, we don't really have anything to offer, we are a very small fanbase in the grand scheme of things, I love Overlord, I still replay it time and again, but unfortunately our time in the sun appears to be finished
Would if indy studio got rights to it i hope they would get Rihanna Pratchett (Sir Terry Pratchett's Daughter) and a writer on the games to do a bit of work on it as they have the Discworld esk sense of humour
Yeah, there's no shot Overlord is ever getting anything again, the best we can ever hope for is a remaster to gauge audience interest but even that would be a miracle considering the last outing was a disaster both critically and likely financially.
It'll probably join the ranks of other forgotten IPs, I mean Turok was a relatively big deal back in the early 90s, people loved that game franchise but the last big outing for it was Turok (2008) and the latest release was 2019 as part of a contest for people to develop stuff based on pre-existing IPs Universal owned that was already delisted in 2022. Just a quick google search on Turok: Escape from Lost Valley shows that it had such a horrible reception that one review from Metro calls it the worst game of 2019. There is apparently a new Turok in the works at least but look at that time gap, almost a full decade since they last made a big appearance and it took a lucky win from a contest literally designed to gauge audience interest for them to even consider making another Turok.
I strongly doubt we'll get a second shot, the dev team got their shot at the game after nearly a decade and they released the turd that was Fellowship of Evil, if that was the best thing they could produce to show not only consumers but the corpos that this was a franchise worth saving? It deserves to stay dead frankly.
Man I loved Turok so much growing up 😂😭
The most realistic way the franchise, or at least its legacy, lives on is if fans literally make their own unique version of the IP that fills the void (kind of like how PoE was made by a bunch of Diablo fans who were disappointed in Blizzard's misshandling of the IP)
Which, apparently, is alredy happening with a fan project that's been often discussed on here.
Oh that’s interesting I didn’t realize there was a fan project currently underway
The project is called Conqueror. They have a Discord server where they show updates, but it occasionally gets posted here too.
The plan seems to be to release a working demo by summer next year.
Hey that’s really cool thanks for the heads up!!
Sadly, as someone else have said...
At this point Overlord is more or less dead.
The series is extremely unlikely to be picked up, being relatively niche to start with.
Combined with being old and having a small fanbase, it most likely will never see the light of day.
To be honest if Lion head studios did go under for what ever reason I would love them to get the Overlord IP they would do a great job making the game and making improvements to as well.
Paradox could easily afford it if they really want it but I’m skeptical EA would be willing to release the IP to paradox. They like keeping their great treasure horde of IPs like Smaug
But they’re are not the only studio or developer or publisher too do that I’m not saying it right at all, but all of them pretty much do it but I just don’t think it right too call out one and not call all of them out .
If a remaster appears on the PS store for both 1&2 for £40. I would pre-order.