Ubisoft Harpoon 4 source code

[Eyebiter]

http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2003/all/02/20/451086.jpg



It's been six years since Ubisoft canceled Harpoon 4. Back in late 2003 there were rumors a third party might license the H4 source code to continue development.


Was there any progress on that front? Or was the H4 source code too far gone to salvage?

[Herman]

According to the AGSI site, H4 was canceled in 2001 and then again in 2003 and the code was returned to them.

http://www.computerharpoon.com/about-agsi/history-of-harpoon.html

I've heard that it was such poor quality that they decided not to pursue the matter any further with UbiSoft.

[Seeadler]

H4 was originally developed by Ultimation Inc. the creators of SHII/DC and based on the engine of SHII/DC. Then Ubisoft has himself taken over the development and transfers the code to the later developers of SHIII in Romania.


Ubi Soft: The team taking over the development of Harpoon 4 is a Ubi Soft internal studio located in Romania. They recently launched Chessmaster for the PS2 and are responsible for future development of the entire Chessmaster franchise. They have also taken on the support of the Silent Hunter franchise. A large percent of the Romanian team are hardcore simulation gamers and they were thrilled to get the Harpoon project into their group.

A little later, the project was canceled. The code is probably still legally in the hands of Ubisoft.

[Sonarman]

Actually, I believe the game was originally being developed by Crusader studios (formerly they were known as Software Sorcery developers of Jutland/ Aegis Guardian of the Fleet / Sea Rogue/Fast Attack) then passed to Ultimation when Software Sorcery were dropped as the developer by SSI.

Interestingly James R Jones CEO of Crusader/Software Sorcery and an ex-US naval officer went on to develop the boringly titled naval game "Joint Chiefs Online" which I think promptly sank without a trace. You can still see a press release relating to that game here (http://www.mpogd.com/news/?ID=1572)

[GlobalExplorer]

I think I remember that at some point Ubisoft Romania refused to finish the code.

[Sonarman]

Looking back ...
Found a couple of old articles relating to the game over at Combatsim including one by our own Jim Cobb...

Article 1 (http://www.combatsim.com/memb123/htm/2002/08/harpoon4/)
Article 2 (http://www.combatsim.com/htm/may99/harpoon-pr1.htm#cont)

[Herman]

Ah, H4: The Game that Might have Been....

... instead, we have ANW. :wah:

[Robsoie]

Wow, i never saw any screenshot of the Harpoon 4, but those ones in combatsim article look frankly good.

I wonder what was so "poor quality" in this game that got it cancelled.

[Blacklight]

The closest we're going to get to what Harpoon4 was going to be is probably going to be Global Conflict Blue.