tron-evolution posts

Publisher Disney Interactive is in the middle of a large layoff but the company is being silent on exactly how large the company's restructuring will be like. Reports on the net, including our sister site Joystiq, suggest that the company could be cutting as much as half of its team members.

The company has a number of in-house game developers and already one of them, Propaganda Games, has been closed. Another online report suggests that Junction Point Studios, founded by industry legend Warren Spector, have had "minimal" numbers of layoffs in this restructuring. The fate of Disney's other in-house developers, including Black Rock Studios (makers of last year's racing game Split/Second) remains unknown at this time.

Yet another major game developer with PC ties is closing its doors. Our sister site Joystiq confirmed today with publisher Disney Interactive Studios that it was closing its in-house development team at Vancouver-based Propaganda Games.

Formed in 2005, the developer only released two games, both of which were released to the PC platform; the 2008 first person shooter revival of the Turok franchise and Tron Evolution, the movie-based third person action game that was released just last December to poor reviews and sales. The writing was on the wall last fall when Disney Interactive cut half of the studio's staff and canceled another long-in-development game, Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned.

A few things become painfully apparent soon after starting Tron: Evolution. First and foremost being that trying to dodge target seeking discs is an exercise in futility. Another is that players should be prepared to plummet to their doom... a lot. The game tells an original story that sets up the events of the upcoming movie. Players take the role of the System Monitor, a security program written by Kevin Flynn to help preserve order in the Tron world. In doing so, the character uncovers a conspiracy to exterminate a group of sentient programs and take over the entire computer world known as the Grid.

Check out all Tron: Evolution downloads

While there are other PC games planned for released later in December this is the final week of the year that we will see multiple major game releases. That includes a huge MMO expansion, the next game in a very popular casual puzzle game series and a game based on a much beloved movie franchise.

World of Warcraft Cataclysm - Blizzard is doing something a little different for its third expansion pack for its massively popular MMO game series. In addition to adding two new playable races, new quests and dungeons, a raise in the level cap and more, some of the earlier game zones are getting a makeover with new quests replacing some old ones as well as other changes.

As we get closer to the release of Tron Evolution, the movie-based third person action game is already prepping for extra downloadable content. IGN reports that the Propaganda Games-developed title will have a code in the retail game box that will enable players to download free extras when the game ships on December 7.

On that date, two new multiplayer maps (Codestream Nexus and User's Plaza) will be available for download via the retail code. That will increase the total number of multiplayer maps in the game from four to six levels. In addition the code will give folks a way to grab a new multiplayer skin that looks like Sam Flynn, the lead character of the upcoming movie Tron Legacy.That will be made available the week of December 13.

In the next couple of months we will be bombarded with tons of tie-ins for the upcoming movie Tron Legacy. The long awaited sequel to Disney's Tron about living and playing inside a computer world is due out in mid-December (along with a prequel game, Tron Evolution).. But in November and December the Tron digital universe will invade another well known pop culture universe.

Marvel Comics, which was acquired by Disney about a year ago, will have Tron-inspired variant covers for 10 of its comic books that will ship to comic book shops in November and December. Yes, you will be able to see Tron-ified versions of Spider-Man, Wolverine and Iron Man, among other characters, on some of your favorite comics. Keep in mind that these are variant covers which means they won't actually tie into the storylines inside the comics. They will likely also be harder to get a hold of than the normal issues. Our sister site Comics Alliance has images of all 10 of the Tron variants along with issue numbers and release dates. It's not a full blast Marvel-Tron crossover but it's still pretty cool.

It's not a good day at Propaganda Games. The Vancouver-based development studio owned by Disney Interactive is experiencing mass layoffs following the cancellation of one of the studio's two games, the movie-based RPG Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned. The game was first announced back in May 2009 and was due for release sometime in 2011 until today's cancellation announcement.

According to Kotaku, as many as 100 people have been let go at Propaganda Games this week. While not stating exact numbers, Disney Interactive did confirm that the company's development teams have been consolidated from two teams to just one. The remaining team members are completing work on the upcoming Tron Evolution which is still scheduled to be released on December 7.

In 1982, Disney took a bold risk with the release of the movie Tron, a film set largely inside a fictional world in the computer and made largely with CGI. It was different and new and at the time the movie didn't get a huge box office reception. However the legacy of that movie, and of the arcade games it spawned, have influenced the world at large, and game and computer programmers in particular, for years to come.

While developer Monolith released Tron 2.0 in 2003 for PC owners as a sequel to the movie, Disney decided later to create a true movie sequel in Tron Legacy which is due in theaters on December 17. On December 7, Disney Interactive and developer Propaganda Games will release Tron Evolution for the PC and other platforms. This action-adventure game serves as a prequel to the new movie. Big Download got one of the game's designers Dan Bourdage to give us some more info on the game including some PC specific features.

The light cycles are getting closed to being revved up again. Publisher Disney Interactive has just announced that Tron Evolution, a prequel game to the upcoming film Tron Legacy, will ship for the PC and other platforms on December 7. That's just 10 days before Tron Legacy heads to movie theaters.

Our sister site Joystiq reports that Tron Evolution will be getting a Collector's Edition,. That edition will cost a whopping $139 and, among other things comes with a toy version of the movie's iconic light cycle. Unfortunately the Collector's Edition is only slated for the PS3 and Xbox 360 ports. At least PC gamers will be getting some Tron-based gaming mice and keyboards.

Earlier this year we reported a sighting of an upcoming Tron graphic novel on Amazon.com. Now it looks like Marvel Comics will in fact be publishing the graphic novel as part of a two part mini-series that begins in October. Tron: The Betrayal is still going to be a prequel to the upcoming Disney movie Tron Legacy that's due in theaters in December.

Of course Tron Legacy, the sequel to a 1980's movie about a man sucked into a computer and forced to play games, is getting its own game tie-in, Tron Evolution. That game, which also serves as a prequel to Tron Legacy, is still due for release for the PC and other platforms later this fall.