I would say, it's not a good idea - these outsourcing. Because it is difficult to explain to other people what you want. It will be a lot of administrative work. And people get the best ideas often while working.
If it is to much work to make a game, they should hire a couple of people.
The only reason for outsourcing is on my mind, if they can save some money. Because the wages in China for example, are much lower.

CTR was Naughty Dog.

and they were succesfull, just crap.

There were five Crash games created by Naughty Dog including Crash Bash. They made the Crash games so much more detailed than the current developer, Vivendi(I think).

Probably because most companies today want to make a quick
game and throw it on the shelves for a quick profit income. While developers
years back actually had time and patience to sit down and work it out. And
it's actually the AI (artificial intelligence) that really ranks low on modern games, unlike how it was more balanced before.

That's just my way of putting a long story short.

That was the idea; Lorne was talking about possibly using a company in India.

Vivendi don't develop Crash, they just own the rights to him. They dish out the task of creating the games to companies like Traveller's Tales (hooray!) and Dimps (oh god no!). The relationship between OWI and whatever external developers they choose would be much the same, except Lorne would retain 100% control of the content.

And don't ever claim Naughty Dog made Crash Bash. That piece of utter tripe was the fault of Eurocom. Jeez, it was worse than Wrath of Cortex, for crying out loud.

I know, that's why I said it…

You've pretty much hammered the nail upon the head there, but there must have been a pipe behind the wall, because it's not the only reason to outsource development. Lorne had to waste time and administrative resources in order to closely oversee the technical development of the games. I'm not saying that OWI's programmers were bad in the least bit, but as a man of creativity, Lorne didn't want to continue that time- and effort-wasting, which would happen regardless of the number of programmers.

Although that was an animation company, and pertained to the film, not the game, but the same process applies.

Hmmm... I got the impression that he was investigating both options at the time. But that was a while ago so I shall bow towards your expertise.

:)

Hmm. Close enough.

;)

Mmm. . . Being honest I've only read half of this thread because I've gotta hit the sack real soon, but I did read the title ages ago and had a little think about this.

If Valve wasn't too busy with Half-Life, and I know there wouldn't be any chance in hell of this happening, but who better to continue the Oddworld games then other game artists who think about everything? Valve are very good at creating both natraul and industrial 3D environments, they take thier inspiration from the real world and mix thier own ideas into it. And when I last checked, the Steam engine is perfectly capable of 3rd-person games with a little extra programming. . .

The Oddworld games would probably end up being very Half-Lifey, maybe there'd be gaps or non-sensicle(SP) bits that aren't explained to you properly in the storyline, but you'd be certain all the characters would be well-played by proper voice actors, well-designed, have proper movements, the game world would look amazing, and they'd make the storyline gripping. :P Oh, and it'd have physics in. :P Just imagine it for a bit.

It'd never happen but I'd love to see the results.

Equally if OW was turned into an MMORPG, if Blizzard weren't too busy with WoW I'd love to see them make a well-thought out version of an Oddworld RPG. . . Except customer service would be crap and it'd be very overpriced. :S But the game would still be addictive and fun. :)

EDIT:
From the second page, Ubisoft aren't bad candidates either for making the OW games, provided they do as good a job as they did back on Beyond Good and Evil in 2003 - Parts of that game reminded me of Abe's Oddysee a little bit. They're good at creating atmosphere and lush 3D environments. . . Maybe thier non-seriously-violent style of combat (as in no gore or guts) would fit OW more, even if it would be unrealisitic. . . Though parts of the games would also be cheesy in parts. :P

Nooo microsoft look what that did to munchs oddysesye or however you spell it i was really excited bout those flying meetle things and maybe a appearance of the meechs and ubisoft made the game so badley the music of the game sounds like if you had shell shock i have to turn it off after a hour because it gives me a headache. so i think the people who did fable should make it like someone said earlier so then it could be online:)

what ubisoft game are you talking about?
I'm confused

Stranger06; you do realise that Fable is also published by Microsoft?

Mongoose Publishing, preferably an established system.
Oh fine, Vivendi.

Before OWF went back in time for 3 days, we had a little discussion here about Valve not being able to capture Oddworld's atmosphere, but someone else found the Half-Life 2: Episode 2 trailer. Then I found the Half-Life: Episode 1 Introduction . . . I'm not the only one who thinks Vortigaunts and Mudokons are similar, it seems. :P

But yeah, I still think Valve should do it - 3D Abe's Oddysee, Third person platformer or something in the Source engine. With physiscs. :P And HDR lighting! :D

lol, it'd be awesome if Valve and OWI worked side by side, and even if it's possible since ex Oddworld Inhabitants are now working at Valve according to Xaiver (I think), it'd never happen. :( Valve and OWI are both too busy doing thier own thing. . .

Anyone here remember Xinos? :) Me and him had a little joke together on MSN about this, that we should both invite Gabe Newal and Lorne Lanning to a fake meeting, and see what'd happen. :D But yeah.

Pretty much all this topic was missing.

Twinsanity sucked canal water.

Go back to your toilet humour.

Back, old bean? I never left it.

I don't think oddworld games will ever be made again but if they make one for the movie I think I would like to see Majesco make them because they did some great games in the past and they really need a big seller.

OWI tried to do something with Majesco, but they finally cancelled the game
it was Fangus

Holy Balls! One, Two, Middlesboogie, you haven't been here in ages!
Another company, just off the top of my head, Swingin' Ape. Always thought they did a good job.
Fangus should have been made. Sell the rights to a publisher for cash, thats what I would have done.

I'm of two minds on how easily OWI could outsource a new game. Although I think having a "creative core" that stands independently of technical problems and day-to-day minutiae would be advantageous, OWI has always made sure that their story-telling wasn't hindered by rough gameplay, and it seems to me that quality control could become a major issue, even when dealing with a good, professional developer. And as someone said earlier in the thread, a lot of the companies that have already been named are more interested in creating their own IP than in creating a game they would have little to no content control over.

On the other hand, developers bid for the right to make games for movies all the time. If the Oddworld movie is successful, I don't think finding the right developer will be a problem. Who it will be, I couldn't guess. Mostly because I don't follow that too closely.

It seems to me that an mmorpg is unlikely, considering the character-driven nature of the games up to this point. Although it would be fun to mess around in the Oddworld universe, I'm perfectly willing NOT to have the universe watered down by unimaginative for-profit-only projects, however. I don't think that's really going to be a big problem, but I thought I'd mention it.

As for Fangus; even though it was being developed on the same engine as SW, and Stranger was a great game, I'm pretty pleased they dropped the idea. The concept art on Xav's site seems to intimate that there were people in it, which OWI had said would never occur. I get that they wanted a bunch of bipedal humanoids in order to set Stranger apart in SW, but even so, the character designs were weaker than in AO. Fangus looked to continue that trend, which I found potentially disastrous.

Finally, I think Ubisoft Montreal makes great games. The Prince of Persia series was great (despite some glitches) and the Assassin game they're working on now looks really interesting. I wouldn't have been upset if Splinter Cell was never conceived, but that's just because I think military games are jacked. (For my own taste)

hi guys im realise im new so please forgive my newbieness
now i played abe and munch and even stranger
i loved the 2 original abe games, and although the music of munch was iritating i did love him and his freedom fuzzles
stranger was good it had that oddworld feel to it but in a way it was and wasnt oddworld
would i want new oddworld games?? hell yes ...but i dont thiink people would put the love in them that munch and abe had and in a only slightly lesser degree also stranger had also . so id rather owi would do them

a mmorpg would be good but remember people like combat. yup the opressed vs the opressors blizzard would be good..... but ive never sen them use a licence that wasnt theres

sony ...no theyve not handeled a project like it and i think they wouldnt know how too... nintendo only if they gave it the attention it deserved

and finaly obsidion doing an oddworld rpg? not if its like kotor2 it was a shadow of the original half hearted and bad

long live oddworld when we play it its not gone remember that guys

Daxter, they all care about money...nintendo included.

someone up there mentioned Pandemic and I'd tend to agree. If OWI is going to turn over the reins to someone else I think Pandemic would be a good choice because I think they would be well suited to remain true to the old games. I can't really back this up as the only game I've played from Pandemic was "Destroy All Humans" but I dunno...it's just a feeling I get from them is all lol.

The other good thing about Pandemic is that it's so much easier for me to stalk them, being Australian-based.

In fact, they should go for Atari Melbourne-House as it's right round the corner from me. :D

Hmmm... if someone were to make Oddworld games, I'd vote for Bungie or Bethesda softworks. they did a good job on The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, so I think they could handle it.
Or maybe nintendo of some kind, so they could put it on the DS... *wishful thinking stops suddenly.*

Im still crying over it.

sorry but why bungie?
I just can't see them make something else then halo right now. They never did anything close to Oddworld, did they?

I agree, bungie isn't creative enough to make any oddworld games. I nominate Blizzard, or Valve, because I just love the valve graphics.

I said Bungie because I thought they might be able to make a good sequel to stranger's wrath. and Halo 3 is going to look goodm,so I wonder what they could do with Oddworld. (after they finish their project with Halo)

bungie are definatly creative guys... just look at the huge backstory there's in their games.

simply I'm not sure they could get the oddworld style