Tropico publisher Kalypso acquires rights to classic stealth-tactics series Commandos
Is planning "completely new games".
Tropico publisher Kalypso Media has announced that it's acquired the rights to classic WW2 real-time stealth-tactics series Commandos.
Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines, the first game in the series, launched a slightly frightening 20 years ago, back in 1998 - and, as I'm sure you're all fascinated to hear, was the third game I ever bought for my first PC, a beastly 486DX2, with 8MB of RAM, and a positively cavernous 280MB hard-drive.
Commandos challenges players to perform the likes of sabotage and assassination missions, directing their six-strong commando team across a variety of pre-rendered isometric locations - using stealth where possible and only breaking out the guns when absolutely necessary. It's very good, very tough, and my overriding memory is that it made me swear an awful lot.
Kalypso has secured all rights to the Commandos IP, including Commandos 2: Men of Courage (which introduced a 3D engine), Commandos 3: Destination Berlin, and Commandos: Strike Force (a first-person variant of the established formula). The publisher notes that it plans to make "completely new [Commandos] games for all platforms", as well as adapting existing titles for "contemporary technologies and platforms."
"We're incredibly excited about the opportunities," it said in its acquisition announcement, "and will begin speaking to potential development studios in the near future."
Kalypso has also snagged the rights to Commandos developer Pyro Studios' Imperial Glory and Praetorians: "We have great respect for what the Pyro Studios team have accomplished and created throughout the history of the studio. Therefore, we see it as our responsibility to want to revive and further develop these beloved games for the fans around the world."