Only a few months ago a classic game from the nineties made its way over to GOG. Straight out of 1997 Westwood Studios video game adaptation of Blade Runner made a resurgence. This is not the end of that tale though. A partnership of three companies will culminate in a remastered, or “enhanced”, edition of the popular game. Firstly, on the rights holder side we have Alcon Entertainment maker of Blade Runner 2049. Next, we have Nightdive Studios who have experience with remaking classics games using their inhouse KEX engine. Last, but not least, there’s Genuine Entertainment. CEO and creative director, Joe Lefavi actually brokered the deal that Genuine Entertainment will in turn co-produce.
Hollywood Insider spoke with Nightdive’s head of business development Larry Kuperman. He acknowledged the tragic loss of the original 1997 code and elaborated on the current effort. Nightdive Studios has experience in restoring older games for current technology. Using their KEX game engine they have already brought back properties such as Turok and System Shock. In fact they are currently working on a System Shock 2 Enhanced Edition as well. With great effort they have used their game engine to reverse engineer the code. The goal is to create a “polished and premium restoration” while releasing it later this year.
Modern Features for Blade Runner Enhanced Edition
- Updated character models
- Updated animations and cutscenes
- Widescreen resolution support
- Keyboard and controller customization
- Original foreign language translations have been sourced
Westwood Studios
Unlike other remakes that get shut down due to rights issues it appears this project will be able to move forward. Original developer Westwood Studios is not out of the picture either. Founded in 1985 they have more iconic properties making a comeback. Announced, via their Facebook page, Command and Conquer is getting the remaster treatment. Along the way Earthbreakers, a project inspired by C&C, is getting released as well.