Star Control 3

This article discusses only the real-life events surrounding the release of the game, and does not cover the details about the game, such as the story or races.

Star Control 3, made by Legend Entertainment for Accolade, was supposed to be the successor to Star Control II. However, many fans of the series were disappointed by the game: it featured fewer and less distinct ships and races, less diverse modes of gameplay, and a less interesting story that conflicted with the established facts of the Star Control Universe and the ending of SC2. SC3 seemed to lack the creativity and the fun feel of the original, instead offering "features" that looked good on paper, but didn't make the game better.

Many fans pin this failure on the fact that the game was not made by Toys For Bob, the creators of Star Control and Star Control II. Some perceive Accolade as trying to capitalize on the Star Control name (for which they own the trademark) by selling an inferior game, while some think that Accolade didn't have the talent to make a game as good as SC2.

Regardless of the reason, most fans of Toys For Bob and SC2, including SC2's developers,¹ dismiss SC3 as being "untrue" to the series (the acronym "SCNot3" is often used on the discussion boards, referring to the fact that SC3 is not a sequel to SC2 as the name would imply), and feel that the story and races of SC3 should be ignored and a "true" sequel should be created. One such attempt is TimeWarp, currently in development.

Star Control 4 (aka StarCon) was reportedly in development by Infogrames (who purchased Accolade and the Star Control trademark) as a sequel to Star Control 3, but it appears as if development was halted.

Recently Toys for Bob have announced that they want their next game to be a Star Control game, a true sequel to Star Control II. They're asking for support from the public to convince Activision, of which they are a development studio. A petition site can be found here.

See also: Canon

Notes and references

¹From a mail by Paul Reiche III to a Star Control II player:

I like they folks at Legend very much. They took on SC3 largely because they liked SC I & II, so clearly they have excellent taste! Unfortunately, I think that the design for SC3 tried to cover too many bases, and as a result lacked focus and punch.

From a mail by Paul Reiche III to a Star Control II player:

No, we'd do a new and different SC3. I love the folks at Legend, and I appreciate all the work they did, but to take SC into the future we'd need to undo some of the plot stuff SC3 included.

From a mail by Fred Ford to a Star Control II player:

We have never considered Accolade evil. Just a little slow and unimaginative.

From a mail by Fred Ford to a Star Control II player:

Paul played it much more extensively than I did. But I can say that when you've planned to do a sequel of something you created and someone else does it first and differently, it leaves a funny taste in your mouth.

External links

• Star Control 3 on GOG.com
• Hardcore Gaming Retrospective