Electronic Arts assigned a team to port Wing Commander III to the system… and that’s where the trail goes cold. Supporting their first ‘grown up’ release seemed like a no-brainer. Sega had disrupted the console hardware industry just a few years earlier with the Sega Genesis, slicing up Nintendo’s dominant market share to a degree thought to be impossible. Instead, the Sega Saturn seemed like an extremely promising option. But in 1995, that outcome was not yet clear. Origin would go on to port Wing Commander IV to the system, insisting on an internal team to preserve the quality. The 3DO and Saturn, already launched at $700 and $400, could not compete. A dedicated EA Playstation team in California ported and tested the game (with some QA support from the Wing Commander veterans at Origin late in development.)Īt the first-ever Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in 1995, Sony announced the “price heard around the world,” sweeping the legs of the competition with the $299 price point for the PlayStation. Unlike Wing Commander 3 3DO, Wing Commander 3 PSX was not developed by Origin or in Texas.
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It was a much more literal port of the PC version, boasting better 3D graphics than the 3DO release while still including some of the extra cutscenes. The PlayStation version would be released on March 28, 1996. In early 1995, EA made the decision to contract out additional versions for the Sony and Sega consoles. The game was released on Jto excellent reviews (it remains one of the greatest PC conversions of all time)… and a looming recognition that they had backed the wrong horse. Work on the 3DO port of Wing Commander III began at Origin proper in Austin in late 1994, before the PC version had even shipped. and the Saturn.Įlectronic Arts was most eager to support the 3DO, the system being helmed by their founder and former CEO Trip Hawkins. That left three viable candidates: the Interactive Multiplayer, PlayStation.
Two options were impossible for technical reasons: the cartridge-based Jaguar and N64 did not have the storage capacity needed for Wing Commander III’s then-massive video sequences. Porting the game, then the most successful PC title of all time, to as many of these consoles as possible was a natural choice. In the midst of this fight, Origin Systems was setting the PC gaming world on fire with what they called the first true interactive movie, Wing Commander III. The unexpected magnitude of its success would make Sony a gaming powerhouse that continues to succeed today. The winner, of course, was the upstart PlayStation. Five contenders vie for the crown: the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, Atari Jaguar, Sega Saturn, Sony PlayStation and Nintendo 64. The stakes are much greater than just the current generation of console hardware what happens here will set a course for decades of game development. These are Thunderdome rules: five systems enter, one system leaves. The year is 1995 and it is the height of a pitched battle between console manufacturers.