Variety's Ben Fritz finally offers some news on the goings on at Oddworld. The company has just named Larry Shapiro, recently chief creative officer at Brash Entertainment, as the development studio's new president, while founder (and voice of about a million Oddworld characters) Lorne Lanning is moving from the pres role solely into the creative space at the studio. In the story, Fritz sets the record straight on the movie business.
It'll be a while until we find out exactly what Oddworld's up to now. But I do know it won't be the "Citizen Siege" animated movie that it was previously working on with Vanguard Entertainment. [CEO Sherry] McKenna told me there were "creative differences" and the rights are reverting back to Oddworld.
But for me, the more interesting quote comes from new-on-the-job Shapiro.
I have a great opportunity to add value to a company and to work with people who I am inspired by and who look to where the industry is going and not where its [sic] been...We intend to break the model of where games are today in a unique and entertaining way.
See, he used the word games! Video games. It would warm my heart to see Oddworld getting back to producing their unique brand of offbeat games, especially on the current hardware, which they have yet to tackle. Fritz wisely speculates the company won't be focusing on risky, expensive retail games this time around; after Stranger's Wrath treated them poorly, that's not at all surprising. I'd love to see what Oddworld would do in the downloadable space. Xbox Live Arcade, PSN, or Steam seem like great places for them to stretch their creative legs a little.
Do you remember Oddworld fondly? What would you want to see in a new game set in that universe?