Stargate MMO on the way

By Ellie Gibson Published 1 February, 2006

So cheer up, SG-1 fans.

Just a week after Australian developer Perception cancelled its almost-finished Stargate SG-1 game, a new MMORPG based on the hit TV series has been announced.

Stargate Worlds is being produced by MGM Interactive and Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment for the PC. We're promised lots of exploration and adventure plus a bit of ranged combat, "set in worlds of historical human time periods, alien environments and outer space locations."

You'll join other players to form a team of soldiers and scientists, travelling through the Stargate to forge alliances, set up trade deals and investigate ancient mysteries. Plus you'll be tasked with defending earth from hostile forces such as the Goa'uld and Ori.

"We chose to entrust the franchise to Cheyenne because we are confident in their ability to create a triple A Stargate MMO," said MGM bigwig Travis Rutherford.

"Together we can give both the Stargate fans and gaming enthusiasts what they want by combining a strong brand, cutting edge technology, exceptional art, usability, and a fantastic game playing experience."

A release date for Stargate Worlds has yet to be announced.

It's no Babylon 5 though, is it.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (40) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Scurrminator #1 6 years ago

    nope, babylon 5 was shit.
    This could be good, as long as it aint a fuckin'nother RPG, i want a decent FPS one

  • Aretak #2 6 years ago

    Babylon 5 was indeed poor. Why it gets so much praise on t'internet is beyond me...

  • shamblemonkee #3 6 years ago

    ohmygodshutupyoudontknownuffinkanythingtodowithstargateisgoi ngtoberubbash

  • Eldritch #4 6 years ago

    Stargate and Babylon 5 were pants, are pants and will be pants.

  • Dizzy #5 6 years ago

    Meh?

  • Blerk #6 6 years ago

    Begone, B5-haters.

    /waves hand


    Anyway, I can imagine this being a reasonable starting point for a MMORPG. But.... I'm still not interested. I want Daryoon's Xcom-a-like.

    Anyone else think that boss Ori bloke looks and sounds just like Julian Clary, btw?

  • jozz #7 6 years ago

    .....orsumthingornuffin :p

    I do like Stargate, but as much as the series lends itself to the MMO genre, you can assume that alot of the action prevelant in the series will be lost to the confines of a slow and most likely crappy (my opinion) RPG style turned based system. Don't get me wrong, I fully understand that traditional RPGs have a system like this, and it works for them, but there is a time and setting for those kinda systems. I for one would much prefer a more hands-on approach for a TV series that has such an interesting array of modern/Alien weaponry featured in the show. Where the amount of hitpoints you do depends on your SKILL and not how much time you've put into the game.

    More Huxely than FFXI, basically.

  • reality_cheque #8 6 years ago

    I'll have a look I suppose being as I have everything else Stargate related... but I think I'll end up sticking with the pen and paper roleplaying game (which is fucking awesome btw)

  • Psi #9 6 years ago

    farscape rules you frelling idiots!

  • Eldritch #10 6 years ago

    Babylon 5 was a poor man's Deep Space Nine.
    Stargate Atlantis is a poor man's Babylon 5.

    Blakes 7 ownz.

  • Enki #11 6 years ago

    Stop making MMORPGs unless it NEEDS to be an MMORPG games developers. It seems that the idea of making continuos money of people has bitten deep into their brains, and we wont be ridding of it soon. Realistically, people only have room for one or maybe 2 MMORPGs in their life, but i'll happily play a more standard single or multiplay title as and when I feel like it.

    MMOs seem to lead to many poor ideas about game design, firstly making it take a long time for the SAKE of it taking a long time. They bump out the 'content' to make you play for 100s of hours simply cos then they get more money from you. Then they start not putting in almost required features in the first release. How many MMORPGs are in development at the moment with elements the fans consider critical on the development board as "to be included in a future patch". No, if you plan to include it in the game, do it from the beginning. Save your later releases and updates for NEW stuff that isn't immediately obvious.

    Would you buy a FPS off the shelf if it insisted that "Multiplayer will come in a future update"? I have no problems with MMORPG games in general, but a glut of them is only going to saturate the market to the point where server populations are low, and the whole point of the game is lost.

    Not that any of this matters, because i'm sure that a game of this scale from a brand new company named after Stargate material with no prior games to their name will probably be delayed for years and then never get released.

    EDIT : Also, Fireball XL5. Respect it. And Firefly.
    Edited by 1 at 01/02/06 @ 12:46

  • Ginger #12 6 years ago

    Umm DS9 was a total rip off of the principles of B5. Still, both were good so can't we all just get along?

  • Scurrminator #13 6 years ago

    both B5 and DS9 were pitched at the same time so they both ripped off each other to be honest, but wereas B5 got worse as it went on, DS9 got a lot better.
    SG1 used to be good, don't watch it anymore

  • reality_cheque #14 6 years ago

    @Enki: Totally agree with you, I hate monthly fees because if I don't have time to play it for a month, I feel like I've wasted money. Which is why I play Guild Wars, because if I don't feel like playing it, no harm has been done to my poor repressed wallet.

    SciFi Wars! :)
    ---------------
    Farscape - annoyed me, but that was because if you didn't see it in order it made about as much sense as a Hello Kitty FPS.

    Babylon 5 - I think I like this mainly because it was made on an amiga. And the shadows are cool. Should have ended after the shadow war.

    DS9 - Yes it's a bit weak, but it's not a B5 rip off. The ending was rather pants though, far too rushed.

    Stargate - All good, except for one or two episodes, although I've only seen series 1-7 because I don't have TV.

    SG: Atlantis - I like it, but you can't really judge a series before series 3 imo.

    Blake 7 - Err, yeah. In the same category as the original TNG and other 60s sci-fi. (ie big pile of stinking poo)

    Firefly - On disc 2 at the moment, and loving it :D

  • jack_klugman #15 6 years ago

    Science fiction is a poor man's television!

  • Concept #16 6 years ago

    I don't understand the Babylon 5 hating in this thread. Completely beyond me.

    It was the best sci-fi series in years.

  • jack_klugman #17 6 years ago

    It certainly distracted from the post Next Generation decline of Star Trek in the interim years before Firefly, Farscape and Battlestar Galactica.

  • Kafeen #18 6 years ago

    Bit like a poor man's Star Wars Galaxies then?

    *Shudders*

  • reality_cheque #19 6 years ago

    B5 was ok, but when they mashed the plot for series 4 and 5 into series 4 AND THEN DID SERIES 5 ANYWAY they took the biscuit, and ran away jumping over sharks like an insane jumping thing with a biscuit in its hand.

    Don't get me started on the spin-offs.

  • jack_klugman #20 6 years ago

    For me Babylon 5 ended at the finale of season 4, though never again attained the quality or excitement of the last half of season 3.

  • Eldritch #21 6 years ago

    "I don't have TV"

    So how do you cheque reality then? :D

  • reality_cheque #22 6 years ago

    Eurogamer is my sole link to reality :p

    My name is shortened from "bouncedrealitycheque", which to me is when you think lifes handed you a pile of money but when you look it turns out to be mouldy chocolate coins made ;)

    I don't need TV anyway, I rent lots of dvds. And I mean LOTS. (sometimes numbering in the 10+ a week if I don't get any sci-fi series discs, and it would be more if they could deliver faster! Although I don't know what I'll do when I run out of trek to watch. Perhaps get a life, but I doubt it)

  • BootLace #23 6 years ago

    "B5 was ok, but when they mashed the plot for series 4 and 5 into series 4 AND THEN DID SERIES 5 ANYWAY they took the biscuit".

    I think it needs to be remembered that it wasn't the makers fault. They had a 5 season story arc, but were told in season 4 that the 5th had been cancelled. Crusade allegedly became pretty good towards the end, the mess at the beginning being attributed again to the studio's intervention. Forcing bad ordering and even a new episode I think, just so they could tick off their "space battle", "explosion", etc check boxes.

    I have to admit, the acting and production values were always a little ropey in B5, but the strength of the storyline always made up for it. I can't help feeling we might not have got the quality of Farscape, Firefly or the new Battlestar Galactica if B5 had never happened.

    Anyway, we need more games with spaceships, something with a good single player / offline mode would be especially nice :).

  • reality_cheque #24 6 years ago

    OK, so you've got a 5 series story arc. You get told to make it in 4 series - fine, it'll be a little rushed but you got your story in there which is the main thing.

    Then they say "Make a 5th series". I'd say "No, there is not any story left, but you can fund the spin off series if you like" and walk away if they didn't want to. JMS didn't, therefore the crap 5th series is, imo, all his fault. He owns the story, he doesn't have to make more if he doesn't want to.

  • jimmyboo #25 6 years ago

    I have every expectation that this... will be shite. Assuming, of course, it ever sees the critical light of day.

    And, as for the Sci-Fi wars...

    I never really got into B5. I watched a few episodes, but it didn't do anything for me *shrugs*.

    DS9, while starting out pretty weak, went from strength to strength. The religious overtones were brilliantly executed, IMHO.

    Stargate? Love it. Nuff said. Same for Firefly.

    My fav Sci-Fi at the mo is the new Battlestar Galactica. That show is DA BOMB!

  • reality_cheque #26 6 years ago

    I'm starting to get an idea for a game - a sci-fi RTS where the different factions are made up of the good guys from different sci-fi shows :D Geeks can stop arguing the point and try to smash their opposition instead.

    Of course firefly would be the broken team, as Serenity doesn't have any guns...

  • jack_klugman #27 6 years ago

    The story arc in DS9 was very poorly imagined and executed and always felt as though it was made up as it went along (which... frankly is almost certainly the truth). Its strength lay in the earlier episodes some of which retained the quality of late TNG. Voyager deteriorated rapidly following the arrival of the Borg, which isn't to say the Borg were the problem, but I remember it being around that time that I lost interest.

  • Sko #28 6 years ago

    I'd rather 10-20 MMORPGs be in dev and for a couple to turn out to be worthwhile than only a couple be in dev and them both be lacklustre due to the lack of competition.

    So, gather your team and journey through the Stargates eh? MMORPG translation, the entire game is instance based. ;)

  • Eldritch #29 6 years ago

    Voyager was about as good as the van of the same name in European crash tests.

    To me, Stargate Atlantis is the new SeaQuest. Go figure.

    I'm currently watching the old Star Trek series on DVD, and I must say, despite it being dated regarding fashion, hem lines, costumes, wigs etc. it's still very watchable. Then again, is anybody going to watch Babylon 5 or Stargate 40 years from now?

    And, anyway, remember: Han shoots first. Always has, always will.

  • jack_klugman #30 6 years ago

    Babylon 5 is a priceless piece of documented history. It's what the early nineties would have looked like had they occured in high orbit.

  • Eldritch #31 6 years ago

    B5's only merit is that it delayed Bruce Boxleitner's inevitable unemployment by a few years. And it had that bloke who looked a bit like Bruce Willis when you had three pints and dimmed the light.

  • jack_klugman #32 6 years ago

    It also had awesome space battles o'death. And that bird off Lost innit.

  • Daryoon #33 6 years ago

    Poor B5, like FFIX it suffers terrible hatred even though it's critically acclaimed! I only started watching it at the beginning of series 4, I was a Star Trek man before that, so when the cliffhanger wasn't convieniently wrapped up in one episode - or two - or even three - I was both shocked and excited.

    Serialised TV >>> Episodic TV.

    That's why the Mysterious Cities of Gold remains the best animated show from the 80s!

    SG-1 had a nice balance, and the middle few seasons were decent, but then they killed off Daniel Jackson and completely wasted the potential they had with the whole Anubis thing.

    Then they ditched MacGyver, wrapped up the series main plots in a travesty of storytelling, and introduced new villains who....were evil aliens pretending to be gods.

    ANYWAY. SG will doubtful fit the MMORPG template, much like the other franchises that have been showhorned into it to make a quick bit of cash. However, what would make a decent SG game, and what would make a popular SG game are two different things.

    If I had the knowledge I would seriously consider a fan project to make the Stargate X-com...

  • Ryuken #34 6 years ago

    Hmm, I always liked the (darker) atmosphere from the Stargate movie a lot more than that of the series. I hope these guys can return the more gritty Egyptian/sci-fi mix, hopefully set in some big PlanetSide-esque worlds you can conquer and where not only fights can help you further but diplomacy too and such.

    Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment's background looks pretty good too (folks coming from Blizzard, Westwood, id, etc.). Who knows (in a year or three)?

  • Xerx3s #35 6 years ago

    Farscape was better :| They should make a MMO on that universe.

  • Scimarad #36 6 years ago

    Nah, I thought the SG film was arse apart from the effects(at the time) and a bit of a waste of the premise. Although the series has gone on too long I still think they made much better use of premise than the film ever tried too.

    The way I always thought of SG1 was that it was rarely outstandingly brilliant or utterly compulsive but it was reliably good. Oh, and Peter Deluise does a very amusing commentary...
    Edited by 1 at 02/02/06 @ 08:08

  • thegamesthething #37 6 years ago

    "Blakes 7 ownz."

    Blakes MMO then? half a dozen 30-something brits, called Avon, Avon1, Avontoo, Avon99, Avon4Evah and some sad bastard called Tarrant

    I'd play it

  • shamblemonkee #38 6 years ago

    I could never take anyone called Avon seriously.........

    I mean...... Avon......

    http://www.bafhs.org.uk/images/avon%20area%20map.jpg

  • darkbhudda #39 6 years ago

    All the scifi TV haters...

    Are you waiting for the Desperate Housewives MMORPG, or do you use The Sims and just act like 2 year olds?

  • reality_cheque #40 6 years ago

    Are you waiting for the Desperate Housewives MMORPG,

    ROFLOL :D