Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee HD announced

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 29 April, 2011

Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD delayed.

Just Add Water has delayed the PlayStation 3 launch of Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD to the summer.

It had been intended for launch this week.

However, JAW has announced a HD remake of Munch's Oddysee, due for release on PS3 in October alongside a PlayStation 3 Oddboxx promotion containing all four Oddworld games.

JAW delayed the launch of Stranger's Wrath HD, originally released on Xbox in 2005, because of the late finish of the PC version and the addition of new features.

"Stranger's coming out this summer," JAW boss Stewart Gilray told Eurogamer tonight at the GameCityNights event in Nottingham. "We thought, why don't we just make up the set and do Munch HD as well?"

Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee was the third game made by Lorne Lanning and Oddworld Inhabitants. It was released exclusively on the Xbox as a launch title in 2001 in the US and 2002 in the UK.

JAW is currently in talks with Microsoft about the launch of Xbox 360 versions of both games. "There is hope," Gilray said.

"There are various things with Microsoft," he revealed. "We originally faced this 2GB limit. They said to be on XBLA you have to be smaller than 2GB. But, Games on Demand, any size you want. Not sure how that works, but that's what they've told us. So they originally knocked us back for XBLA for Stranger HD, not just in size. They actually turned the project down."

Why?

"I'd rather not say why. We're talking to them now and we're making progress with them on that. They've been more forthcoming recently than they were in December last year. That's perhaps because when I told Lorne at Oddworld that Microsoft said no, they went, 'They said what!?' And they called up their friends at Microsoft and said, 'What!?' Lorne is Lorne. He's a bit of a formidable force in some respects.

"We've got various avenues open to us."

If Stranger's Wrath HD does release on Xbox 360, "it'll be about a month after" the PlayStation 3 release, Gilray said.

"Ultimately we want to do on Xbox what we're doing on PS3, and that is to be self-publishing. We don't want to have to go via another party, be it Microsoft Game Studios or another publisher. Right now, the way Microsoft works is you can't publish on Xbox 360 digitally unless you've published three disc products before – unless you're via MGS, like Trials HD did."

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (19) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Frosty840 #1 1 year ago

    What's that you say, Oddworld Inhabitants? An utter slap in the face to all the people who bought the versions of the Oddworld games you've just put out for the PC, which are mostly in an entirely unplayable state, even months after release?

    I'll take a double helping, thanks!

    Man, it's awesome being a PC gamer, these days.

    Fuck absolutely everything about this story.

  • captain_Carl #2 1 year ago

    Good going Microsoft...

  • BBIAJ #3 1 year ago

    WTF Microsoft, sort your bloody shit out!

  • Paul_cz #4 1 year ago

    So uh, is Stranger finally playable on PC with wireless x360 controller, or does it still require some ini tweaking? Just asking, it has been months since I gave them my money.

  • KDR_11k #5 1 year ago

    I got pretty far in Stranger's Wrath on the PC, outside of one (easily avoidable) major game logic glitch near the start it was unproblematic with the current version.

  • RodHull #6 1 year ago

    Good old Microsoft, making it nice and easy for developers to release games on your platform.

  • Triggerhappytel #7 1 year ago

    I'm glad this series is getting another chance. I always felt it deserved better sales than it got; far more interesting and innovative than most franchises out there.

  • MaoZedong #8 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 09:40:08 17-12-2011

  • ZeroAX #9 1 year ago

    Yes, by blackmailing developers into making their games exclusively for the xbox and windows platforms.

    Remember Machinarium? Didn't get the go ahead from MS cause it was also released on Mac.

    And 3 disk based games before you can self-publish your games? Fuck this. No wonder Steam and IOS/Android are doing so much better indie wise.

  • Vin #10 1 year ago

    Quality control reasons I'd wager, for the MS denial. It got a shitty release on Steam going back a few months, remember.

  • Weezer #11 1 year ago

    Stranger's Wrath was cruelly overlooked on Xbox. I don't know howntheu did it, but it had the best graphics engine of any game I played on that machine - it looked amazing, and wasn't that far off next-gen quality. My only issue was that towards the end it got stupidly hard. To the point where finishing it was only really possible (for me) with a cheat on - and even then it took ages!

    But I hope they make a decent job of the conversion so more people can play what was a brilliantly unique and challenging shoot 'em up!

  • Subdominator #12 1 year ago

    I was very happy when OI decided to revive Oddworld after the hiatus. Looking back now with these new infos all I can say is that JAW is underwhelming at best, the return of Oddworld that could've been a glorious one was marked by devastating QA, big-mouth developers and broken promises plus a lack of communication on the side of OI. They should've just let Oddworld stay in its grave, and I was a huge huge fan once.

  • SomaticSense #13 1 year ago

    "Right now, the way Microsoft works is you can't publish on Xbox 360 digitally unless you've published three disc products before – unless you're via MGS, like Trials HD did."

    What the fuck is that shit? What utterly stupid criteria.

    If that's the stupid, pathetic reason as to why I won't be able to finally finish off Stranger's Wrath, then I'm mightily pissed off. Fuck you MS.

  • menage #14 1 year ago

    "PlayStation 3 Oddboxx promotion containing all four Oddworld games."

    No shit, really?? SOLD! (if working properly)

    "Right now, the way Microsoft works is you can't publish on Xbox 360 digitally unless you've published three disc products before – unless you're via MGS, like Trials HD did."

    Huh, what about games like Alien Hominid? Or are we talking publishers who have released 3 disc games?

    ----

    Now I'm confused. Seeing as the next article says they haven't decided on which game to HD, does this mean these are just ports without any upscaling or touch up whatsoever? Just 4:3 PS1/Xbox games put on a disc? Never mind then.

    Edited by menage at 29/04/11 @ 11:25

  • Kazzahdrane #15 1 year ago

    This "3 disc games before you can self-publish on Arcade" rules sounds very strange I've never heard of it before. Trying to think of an example that breaks it...

    @ZeroAX: I don't have any evidence for this, but imo the Machinarium guys pretty much outright lied about Microsoft's refusal for the game, or at least were deliberately misleading by omission. If you go back and read the interviews carefully, their problem was that they wanted MGS to publish the game on 360 so they (the devs) would get a bigger cut (MGS take a much smaller cut than the 3rd party publishers). However, Microsoft weren't interested, presumably because they didn't see the game as filling a space they wanted the Xbox 360 to be in. The devs couldn't afford to go with a 3rd-party publisher so start spouting these tales of MS "refusing" the game. Nonsense!

  • HyperTails #16 1 year ago

    This sucks for people that peole that want it. Microsoft need to sort themselves out over this, they can act really stupid.

  • andrewsqual #17 1 year ago

    Great it will be a Games on Demand like Code Veronica and RE4. So 2500 to 400 MS Points then. Good going Microsoft. Now fuck all PS3 owners over also by making sure you give JAW enough money to secure that they price the PS3 versions the same. Oh wait Jaw isn't scumbags like Capcom so hopefully PS3 users are safe from this standard practice.

  • shave_my_donkey #18 1 year ago

    wait i thought live was a better service than psn

  • Stuz359 #19 1 year ago

    Strangers Wrath really deserved a wider audience as it was released at the arse end of the original Xbox.