Wing Commander: Prophecy

Development

This is the first Wing Commander which was not directed by Chris Roberts.

Extras

Included with some boxes was the Wing Commander Universe map/poster. There is no indication of it being included anywhere on the cover and it may be a bonus only for the first batch of copies. The German "Electronic Arts CD ROM Classics" re-release also contains the map.

Multiplayer

Wing Commander: Prophecy was never intended to have multiplayer. This is according to Billy Cain, who made the statement during a presentation entitled "Developers are from Jupiter, Marketers are from Saturn: Learn the Secret Codes for Working with a Marketing Team" at Game Developers' Conference (GDC) 2005. According to Cain, at some point, the marketing department asked that multiplayer be added as a feature to the game, and pre-emptively began mentioning it in project advertisements. However the development team had never had any time, or even intention to implement multiplayer features of any kind. As a result, Wing Commander: Prophecy shipped for PC without multiplayer.

Soundtrack

There was a soundtrack available for this game released by EDEL Ameria Records (http://www.edel.de). Billing itself as "music inspired by the game", the CD features licensed material from Industrial/ dance bands like KMFDM, Rammstein, Fear Factory, Juno Reactor, Junkie XL, Paradise Lost, Eskimos & Egypt, Brooklyn Bounce and completely original material from Die Krupps, Das Ich, Project Pitchfork and Cobalt 60.

The in-game techno music are actually completely original "instrumental" tracks composed specifically for the game by Cobalt 60. But they do not appear in the soundtrack CD, they can only be found in the Secret Ops Prophecy (TerminalMix) which plays when you finish the game, and Darwin Was Right, which is actually one of the simulator/secret ops tracks, but re-mixed, extended, and with lyrics.

Trilogy

Origin intended Wing Commander Prophecy to have two sequels within the same story continuum named Revelation and Apocalypse.

Awards

• Computer Gaming World
  • March 1998 (Issue #164) – Space Sim Game of the Year
• PC Player (Germany)
  • Issue 01/1999 – Best Space Action Game in 1998

Information also contributed by Evil Azrael, Karthik KANE, Timo Takalo and WildKard.