Re: Reality Studios Acquisition
Posted: 2011-03-31 18:25
Congratulations Guys'[R-DEV wrote:AncientMan;1571056']Today we have some very exciting news to share regarding the future of the Project Reality! Following some recent developments in the Project Reality: BF2 modification, and some closed door talks with Electronic Arts, we are proud to announce the acquisition of Reality Studios by EA Games!
What must surely come as a shock to our community, especially after EA's lack of serious community involvement with Battlefield modding teams, it has in fact been a decision brewing over many years. And with the recent breakthrough of 128 player support in Project Reality: BF2, something that has not been done before on a Battlefield game, EA saw promise in our work, and seized the opportunity to aquire our award winning team.
So what does this mean?
This means a few things for Project Reality and the Reality Studios Team:We understand that many community members will be disappointed by this news, in particular the cancellation of Project Reality: ARMA 2 and the Vietnam expansion of Project Reality: BF2, however we must devote our resources to more viable commercial projects. We would like to stress that Project Reality is not over, there is still Project Reality 2 to look forward to, especially now with it now being the major focus for Reality Studios.
- A few select members of Reality Studios will be working directly with Digital Illusions CE on the upcoming game, Battlefield 3. Among the various tasks these people will be working on is implementation 128 player support on PC, as well as modification tools and scripts. Although previously announced that Battlefield 3 will be limited to 64 players on PC, and modification tools were unlikely, while true when announced, this acquisition has given DICE the opportunity to explore and develop these areas of the game before BF3 ships. We will also be advising existing DICE developers and helping to tweak the well known Battlefield gameplay to promote a more real and deadly environment. Realistic weapon handling and ballistics is one of the major points covered, as well as heavy focus on teamwork. The members of this offshoot team will be made public upon some final negotiations with EA and DICE, however we can confirm that [R-DEV]Chuc has already been hard at work developing some concept art for Battlefield 3.
- Remaining Project Reality: BF2 developers will be working on the next and final version to this long running modification, v0.96. This version will contain mostly bugfixes and some performance tweaks, as well as a few new assets for everyone to put to good use on the battlefield. It will not contain any new community factions, Vietnam, or 128 player support, as unfortunately this requires far too much work with the now small and limited team. Some may be confused as to why we do not call this final version v1.0, but as we have always said when asked, 1.0 is just a number, and we do not believe that it represents anything that previous version numbers have not.
- Unfortunately, Project Reality: ARMA 2 is now cancelled. The work already done on what was a promising modification will instead be used as an internal testing tool for features in Battlefield 3 and Project Reality 2. We would like to thank Bohemia Interactive for their excellent support, and implementation of requested features. Although we will now not be using these added features, we hope that other modifications can benefit instead.
- Project Reality 2 is still going ahead! Members from the ARMA 2 team, and BF2 team once work is complete on v0.96, will be joining the PR2 team to give it a massive boost in manpower. As well as this, veteran developers from Electronic Arts will be joining the team to offer skills and advice for this ambitious project. More news regarding this transition will be announced in the next few weeks, but needless to say, this has massively reduced the length of time required to complete an initial release.
We would like to thank all previous Project Reality developers. Each and every developer, no matter the role, has participated in some way to help Project Reality be what it has become today. Also, to other modification teams and modding enthusists for Battlefield 2 and ARMA 2, we hope that the modding community still remains strong and we wish you luck in your future endeavours. Finally, we would like to thank the community. Without you, the Project Reality name would not be as strong as it is now, and for that, we thank you for your previous and current support, and look forward to your future support for Project Reality 2 as well.
- The Reality Studios Team
Well Done!I am so proud of you all *sheds tear* Yeah this is probably April Fools LOL, Every YEAR!
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