Anyone know what this "Homeworld: Emergence" game I just found on GOG is?

[Bleedingyamato]

I've heard of the Homeworld 1&2 RTS games and there's some other Homeworld game (Deserts of Kharak I think?) though idk anything about that either.  

 

Now I just got an email from GOG about this new Homeworld game "Emergence" but idk what this is.

 

Some reviews on GOG mention it being the first Homeworld game but that mskes no sense because the Homeworld Remastered Collection has a game called Homeworld.

 

 

So I'm trying to figure out what Emergence is.  

 

Is it a later game made after HW2?

 

Where does it fall in the timeline of the series story?  

 

Etc.?

 

 

Edit: https://www.gog.com/game/homeworld_emergence?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Homeworld -- EN&utm_content=Homeworld -- EN+Version+A+CID_210f8cdcd81bd1e674e9bd08ac11f6fd&utm_source=newsletter_cm

 

 

Edited June 22, 2017 by Bleedingyamato
Added link to GOG for game being asked about.

[Seamonster420]

Homeworld emergence is a rebranding of an expansion for the original Homeworld called "Cataclysm". I have no idea why they decided to change the name, but I remember Cataclysm being really good so I'd check it out. Deserts of Kharak on the other hand is a recent release, a prequel to the original homeworld and a very mediocre game IMO.

[Bleedingyamato]

1 hour ago, Seamonster420 said:

Homeworld emergence is a rebranding of an expansion for the original Homeworld called "Cataclysm". I have no idea why they decided to change the name, but I remember Cataclysm being really good so I'd check it out. Deserts of Kharak on the other hand is a recent release, a prequel to the original homeworld and a very mediocre game IMO.

This wasn't included in the Homeworld collection?  

[fables22d]

GOG rep here - Just wanted to clear this up: Homeworld: Emergence was originally released as Homeworld: Cataclysm. "Cataclysm" is now a registered trademark of Blizzard Enterntainment, Inc., and the game has been renamed to avoid confusion. Other than that, the game is identical to the game released in 2000. Hope this helps  

[typographie]

3 hours ago, fables22d said:

"Cataclysm" is now a registered trademark of Blizzard Enterntainment, Inc., and the game has been renamed to avoid confusion.

Yeah, I can see how that could end up being very expensive "confusion" indeed.

 

So… Blizzard Entertainment managed to trademark a word used in an expansion for their game after another expansion for a decade-older game already used the same exact word in (as far as I can tell) precisely the same way. And the older game is the one that feels compelled to change? This is why I'd make a terrible lawyer.

[Seamonster420]

23 hours ago, Bleedingyamato said:

This wasn't included in the Homeworld collection?  

Nope, I seem to recall Cataclysm being developed by a different company other than Relic studios so they probably just couldn't get the rights to it or something. This version on GoG doesn't look to have the hd graphics either, just incase that matters to you.

 

edit: After a quick google search I've discovered that the reason Cataclysm wasn't included in the Homeworld Remastered Collection is because the actual source code was lost for a time.

[Bleedingyamato]

13 hours ago, typographie said:

Yeah, I can see how that could end up being very expensive "confusion" indeed.

 

So… Blizzard Entertainment managed to trademark a word used in an expansion for their game after another expansion for a decade-older game already used the same exact word in (as far as I can tell) precisely the same way. And the older game is the one that feels compelled to change? This is why I'd make a terrible lawyer.

I guess I would be a terrible one too since I can't understand how a single word that isn't the entire title of anything Blizzard or whoever made the Homeworld games has created should be any issue at all.  

 

24 minutes ago, Seamonster420 said:

Nope, I seem to recall Cataclysm being developed by a different company other than Relic studios so they probably just couldn't get the rights to it or something. This version on GoG doesn't look to have the hd graphics either, just incase that matters to you.

I assume you mean there wasn't an hd remastered version of Cataclysm?

 

That's ok.  Gameplay is more important to me than graphics.

[Seamonster420]

1 hour ago, Bleedingyamato said:

I assume you mean there wasn't an hd remastered version of Cataclysm?

Judging by the screenshots this is not a remastered version, no. To my knowledge there is no remastered version. Hopefully they added the ability to put it in 16:9 aspect ratio, otherwise it'll be stuck in 4:3. Still a fantastic game in any case.

[Bleedingyamato]

26 minutes ago, Seamonster420 said:

Judging by the screenshots this is not a remastered version, no. To my knowledge there is no remastered version. Hopefully they added the ability to put it in 16:9 aspect ratio, otherwise it'll be stuck in 4:3. Still a fantastic game in any case.

I'll probably get it at some point.  It might not be now depending on how much I spend during the Steam sale.  

[typographie]

According to this article, the Remastered version does indeed lack the Cataclysm/Emergence expansion.

Quote

How come Gearbox didn’t fancy up Cataclysm when they remastered Homeworlds 1 and 2? Because they didn’t know where/if anyone had its source code.

 

“It really comes down to finding the original source code,” Gearbox’s Brian Martel told The Escapist in 2015. “If somebody out there has it, we would take it and make sure we at least released the classic version.”

 

[Bleedingyamato]

27 minutes ago, typographie said:

According to this article, the Remastered version does indeed lack the Cataclysm/Emergence expansion.

 

How would a developer lose the source code to any of its games?    That seems important not to lose.  

[typographie]

22 hours ago, Bleedingyamato said:

How would a developer lose the source code to any of its games?    That seems important not to lose.  

Relic didn't have the source code because Relic didn't develop the Cataclysm expansion. From another paragraph of that link,

"Cataclysm wasn’t made by Relic but rather Barking Dog Studios, who went on to make Bully and become Rockstar Vancouver then, er, be shut down and merged into Rockstar Toronto."

[Bleedingyamato]

18 minutes ago, typographie said:

Relic didn't have the source code because Relic didn't develop the Cataclysm expansion. From another paragraph of that link,

"Cataclysm wasn’t made by Relic but rather Barking Dog Studios, who went on to make Bully and become Rockstar Vancouver then, er, be shut down and merged into Rockstar Toronto."

Ah.  They couldn't ask those Rockstar guys if they still have the source code?

[typographie]

5 hours ago, Bleedingyamato said:

Ah.  They couldn't ask those Rockstar guys if they still have the source code?

I don't know what actually happened in this case, but I can speculate that it was probably a lot more complicated than that.

 

With really old software that's been sitting around for a 17 years, it may be quite hard for even the company that owns it to track it down. In such a long time span, it's entirely possible that no one who worked on the game is even with the company anymore. There may also have been a legal dimension to it, as Rockstar or someone likely ended up with the IP rights to it, or maybe they sold the rights to another party years ago. Plus, Gearbox is a competitor, so even if they had it handy they may not have just wanted to hand it over.

[Bleedingyamato]

1 hour ago, typographie said:

I don't know what actually happened in this case, but I can speculate that it was probably a lot more complicated than that.

 

With really old software that's been sitting around for a 17 years, it may be quite hard for even the company that owns it to track it down. In such a long time span, it's entirely possible that no one who worked on the game is even with the company anymore. There may also have been a legal dimension to it, as Rockstar or someone likely ended up with the IP rights to it, or maybe they sold the rights to another party years ago. Plus, Gearbox is a competitor, so even if they had it handy they may not have just wanted to hand it over.

Why can't everyone just get along and share?  ? lol