Possibly some bad news, but probably just a misleading headline.

[Nate]

http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/70...C-In-2010.html

A couple years ago, fans of the legendary Oddworld game series got excited when Maxis co-founder Jeff Braun said he was involved with a new Oddworld game that featured a 3D animation system that will "look as good as a CG movie." Sadly, we may have to wait awhile for this title; according to Oddworld creator Lorne Lanning, a fifth game in the series is currently not the top priority for his company.

"There's a lot of things on the shelf right now," Lanning said when asked about the new game. "We had a few on the fire, and they're still on the shelf...there's a lot of shakeup going on [in the gaming industry] and in that turmoil, we didn't really want to put the Oddworld brand out there in the middle of it, so we're working on some other things that we'll be announcing shortly."

"We want to really aggressively experiment at this time, and we didn't want to really experiment aggressively with that brand," he added.

As for what Lanning plans to announce, he said, "What we're working on now is more of a platform issue, not an IP. I can't go into much more description than that."

It's not all bad news for fans of Oddworld, though. According to Lanning The Oddbox, a collection of all four of the Oddworld Xbox games, will be available on Steam for PCs in 2010.

I spoke to Lanning at the 3D Summit in Los Angeles yesterday, and promise to post the entire interview soon. Until then, how many other Oddworld fans are out there? Let us hear from you in the comments!

Here's what I think: this doesn't change anything. As far as we know, they weren't even working on anything to do with Oddworld. The interviewer probably assumed that Oddmobb were working on Oddworld games and asked him questions from that perspective. Lorne answered honestly, saying that Oddworld games won't happen until some time in the future.

On the other hand, all we do know is that they're working on the Antisocial network, and Lorne's comment "What we're working on now is more of a platform issue, not an IP" sounds like they're still working on it.

[Leto]

Man, ditch that Antisocial network. Arsebook.org already happened and it was an amusing look-at-it-once joke.

[Sekto Springs]

There's several antisocial networks already.
It's not really an innovative or interesting idea, it's just like "Oh, ha".

I'm not sure why Lorne is dedicating his time and energy to this.

[Nate]

Possibly because he's talking about something different to what you're imagining. Possibly.

[Sekto Springs]

I hope so.
I'll be pinching the bridge of my nose if he unveils this and it turns out to be nothing more than another Ruduzu or Twatter.

[AlexFili]

I personally believe that they should make some Oddworld games over PSN, Xbox Arcade or WiiWare. I think they'd be surprised at the revenue they could make.

[Zukan]

What I think is happening is, they're trying to finance their future products in a way that it isn't coming from some big name publisher, rather they're trying to find a way to fund their own IP's so they can have absolute control over their property. That's why they're experimenting with online networking and distribution as it's the "big new thing". They did the same when they first started Oddworld, Lorne and Sherry have always been interested in telling stories with rich characters, game development wasn't always on their minds, it just happened to be the "big new thing" and they knew there were lots of opportunities to grab in all that muddle. Opportunities you just couldn't find in more conventional systems like the Film industry. That's how Oddworld became a game.

If you've read up on any of the patents registered for Oddmobb you'll notice it's not at all some facebook ripoff they're dealing with. It's something much more advanced including "3D environments" and "user made content", which leads me to believe the Anti Social Network is something more akin to Second Life. I could totally be out wandering in the woods right now so don't take any of it seriously, but these are my thoughts on Oddmobb.

Either way, Oddmobb is getting closer to an official announcement, it's going to be interesting to see how it all ends up. I know a lot of you think Lorne has gone crazy and how Oddworld is dead, but I personally think these are really exciting times. I've always admired developers who dare to strive against norms and do something innovative. Here's hoping they score big once it's all said and done.

[crimsonxking]

Yeah, did anyone actually not know this already? There wasn't been an Oddworld game since 2005, and even that wasn't part of the main series, which hasn't seen action since 2001. If I am not mistaken, there was also been a "New Website Coming Soon" for about 4-5 years.

[Lord Stanley]

I don't see anything misleading with that article.

[shaman]

One large cup of piping - hot false hope please.

[STM]

I don't understand why someone with the creative abilities and perspective of Lanning is focusing his energies on something according to what I just realised and anti-social network is, is quite frankly, just a hate site and rant site

[Wil]

You haven't seen The Anti-Social Network, you don't know that's what it is.

[Xavier]

I have to admit I have my doubts about this too. But honestly I'll just be grateful if anything is released at all.

[STM]

Same really, anything remotely odd is good in my books.

[mr.odd]

I just hope we see another Oddworld game.

[Crashpunk]

You know when something is announced. The forums will go crazy. I myself can't wait for that!

[Phylum]

You know when something is announced.

No we don't. I have no idea what the point of this sentence is, but I'm going to try to get a grip on it.

1.

You know When something is announced, the forums will go crazy. I myself can't wait for that!

2.

You'll know when something is announced; the forums will go crazy. I myself can't wait for that!

< /dick >

I'm not entirely prepared to trust Lornes decision, although he's an ideas man; his creative mind ought to set whatever this turn out to be apart from anything trying to be similar.

[Taco]

It'd be great to at least see that website up. Every time I go on oddmobb.com and see that fucking "Your Website is Ready" message it feels like a kick in the face with a boot that has dogshit and spearmint gum stuck it its bottom.

I just want to see some activity from OWI/Oddmobb

[STM]

I think he should give writing an oddworld story a go, like a novel

[Amakir]

Antisocial network... What?