Trion Worlds remastering Defiance without TV show
MMO publisher will bring free-to-play shooter to PC and current gen consoles despite lack of key selling point
Trion Worlds remains determined to explore the potential for its Defiance sci-fi IP with news of an upcoming remaster.
Defiance 2050 will launch this summer on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and will be a remaster of the original action MMO that launched back in 2013.
However, the new game will lack its predecessor's major selling point from five years ago: a companion TV series that expanded the overall story.
The premise was that in-game events would be updated after each episode of Defiance aired on the SyFy channel to reflect changes in the narrative. Similarly, each episode was written to account for what had transpired in the game. There was even talk of notable players' escapades being written into later seasons of the show.
We discussed this groundbreaking and ambitious deal with Trion Worlds back in 2013.
While the TV show was pitched as integral to the ongoing evolution of the Defiance game, it was cancelled by SyFy after three seasons due to low ratings. However, Trion Worlds continued to operate the game.
It's unclear from the initial announcement whether the events of the TV show have been incorporated into the game, or whether Trion Worlds is finding an alternative way to make the show available.
While the in-game story has been advanced from the year 2046 to the titular 2050, Trion Worlds has made it clear this is not a sequel but a remaster. The game will be based on both the story and gameplay of the original, rebuilt for current gen devices.
"Defiance 2050 is more than just a simple graphical remaster, as the game's systems have gotten major improvements to create the definitive version of the game," the company wrote. "Today's consoles and PCs enable the dev team to implement features and upgrades that fans of the game have been clamouring for, while advancements in hardware allow for action on an even larger scale than before, with more players able to take to the battlefield in white-knuckled combat."
The game will also be free-to-play. The original was launched as a subscription-based MMO but (as with so many MMOs over the past decade) switched to a freemium model after just a year on sale.
Trion Worlds will be running a closed beta ahead of the launch. While the publisher no doubt hopes to reach a new audience with the remaster, producer Matt Pettit says Defiance 2050 has "been created with the original game's community in mind."