![]() It's not a game of Worms with golf things in, it's actually a game of golf where you aim and fire." He added that "the old-school Worms charm and taking the mickey out of each other" is all still present.īut with these "ultimate expressions" released, where can the Worms franchise go next? Perrie teases a "really exciting" announcement next year, which is suggested to merge previous Worms gameplay styles into something new. "I think some initial responses was that Worms and golf is a strange combination," said Perrie, "but I think when you go a step further, golf is turn-based, Worms is turn-based, and the aiming and trajectory actually fits really well together. Team 17 has since released numerous downloadable Worms offerings, many of which have been described as the "ultimate expression" of previous works Worms: Reloaded and Worms 2: Armageddon are a culmination of their 2D efforts, while the recent Worms: Ultimate Mayhem on Xbox Live Arcade, PSN and PC is the same again but with the franchise's 3D editions. Worms was back console marketplaces like Xbox Live and PSN, Steam on PC and especially the arrival of iPhone and iPad's App Store meant that the franchise has seen a strong resurgence in recent years, and one that fans responded to favourably. You can just deliver that title to the cost to what it takes to develop it." Dennis added that the franchise and studio had "come full circle", with Team 17 back to being both publisher and developer, and as Perrie describes, once again the "masters of their own destiny". "The wonderful thing about digital distribution is because you haven't got the overhead of publishing or hoops to jump through, you haven't got distribution costs, publishing or sometimes marketing costs. "Digital has really meant that games like Worms can survive and absolutely prosper, and can sit alongside someone getting ready to play Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3," said Perrie. ![]() ![]() While Xbox Live Arcade is a thriving destination today, at the system's release in 2007 it was an unknown quantity, but Team 17 decided to self-finance and self-publish the title for the console's launch period, a gamble which paid off dividends. The Xbox Live Arcade marketplace could mean that smaller titles such as Worms could be sold to consumers online, without the need for a publisher and at a far smaller cost to the developer than a boxed product. Worms' fortunes changed with the release of Xbox 360 and the advent of digital distribution. Portable platforms easily became a natural fit for a 2D franchise, but it was still notably absent from the forefront of the gaming landscape for a number of years. Dennis said Team 17 was "knocking along quite nicely" during that time, thanks to successful handheld releases such as Worms: Open Warfare and Worms: Battle Islands, the former of which was praised and highlighted by Sony for making use of the PSP's many features. "It was that gap, about looking at flashier visuals, and if you compare a screenshot of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas against Worms: World Party, you'd be like, well, that's absolutely different."ĭespite the reduction in new Worms releases, the studio didn't suffer as a result. "If you look at, say, Worms Reloaded on PC, that was the first PC 2D Worms game for ten years, and you look at how many PS2s in the world, there's not a Worms 2D game in that time," he recalled. Head of marketing Alan Perrie said this reluctance from publishers was something that you can "sort of understand", looking back. And maybe, to those publishers at the time, Worms, a kind of old, retro 2D game, maybe didn't seem to be an obvious fit for those consoles." "At the time, certainly in the early 2000s, publishers were having a great deal of success with 3D products, like Tomb Raider, that were forging ahead in creating a mass culture of gaming on the original PlayStation. "The reason because publishers didn't see that 2D game as a viable option on a mainstream console," said John Dennis, Team 17's head of design. Despite its continued successes during that period, Worms soon burrowed underground and out of sight for a few years, notably during last-generation systems such as PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox, because publishers didn't see it succeeding on systems whose owners that were seemingly only focused on fancy 3D visuals and blockbuster franchises. Universally praised by the gaming press and fans alike following its Amiga debut, it was a smash hit that was followed by a variety of sequels on PC, from the likes of Worms 2 to fan favourites Worms Armageddon and Worms: World Party.
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