Syndicate reboot (finally) confirmed by EA and Starbreeze, coming 'early 2012' to 360, PS3, and PC [Update: New images!]

by Christopher Grant on Sep 12th 2011 8:45AM

EA and Starbreeze Studios' remake of PC gaming classic Syndicate has been one of the industry's worst-kept secrets. First unveiled as "Project Redlime," copyright filings fingered the actual product over a year ago. And this morning, after leaking details of the game on its own Origin service over the weekend, EA and Starbreeze are finally ready to "reveal" Syndicate to the world.

"We are excited to finally reveal what we've been working on the past couple years," Starbreeze CEO Mikael Nermark told a press release. "It's been a great experience working with EA, and an amazing opportunity for us to use our expertise in the first person shooter and action genres to bring back, and reignite, the signature action/espionage gameplay of Syndicate."

In Syndicate, you play "Miles Kilo, Eurocorp's latest prototype agent," tasked with navigating a "Machiavellian world run without government oversight with many syndicates vying for total dominance of their local market place," set in the year 2069. Helping you navigate that complex web of intrigue: GUNS!

"Our goal with Syndicate is to provide a challenging action shooter for today's gamers as well as fans of the original," says EA Partners' Jeff Gamon. But if you're worried you won't have enough guns, Syndicate offers "a separate and deep 4-player co-op mode featuring missions from the original cult classic." And while it may have taken EA and Starbreeze some time to officially announce the project, it isn't wasting time in getting it into our hands; Syndicate is expected to be released in "early 2012" for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

Syndicate (PC/360/PS3)

Source: EA

Tags: EA, Electronic-Arts, microsoft, pc, playstation, project-redlime, ps3, Starbreeze-Studios, Syndicate, xbox

Reader Comments (78)

New Syndicate = exciting!

@whylekat

And what´s exciting???? that a great game is going to be ANOTHER Doom???? i´m sure somebody already made a Syndicate mood for unreal or doom,for free, if this is what EA is planning for any remake then please.... don´t remake Dungeon Keeper.......

@whylekat

The original Syndicate gameplay was different and fun, to see it become just another FPS is just lazy.

@(Unverified)

I didn't know much about the game since I didn't have a chance to play it back in the day but when I looked it up recently, I found the concept of the game to be really interesting. The storytelling quite compelling even by today's standards too. It's a shame to see what a pretty unique game is reduced down today to attract new gamers, even though I consider myself to be in the that category. I don't get how making new Syndicate into an FPS is going to retain ANYTHING unique from the predecessor. I mean, I get Fallout 3. At least all of 1 & 2's concept of speech, exploration, perks, looting, gun play, etc was translated over even though its in First Person. But this? What a shame.

@whylekat
I agree, as someone who doesn't really like RTS type games and never played the original Syndicate, this looks awesome!

@(Unverified)

Also, EA Origin = FAIL. I WANT STEAM SUPPORT FOR EA GAMES!!!!

Reboot everything as a FPS EVERYTHING.
Hollywood and the Games industry are neck and neck in the Out of Ideas race.

@Gmail Calendar Rep
Next project:
-=SIMS=-, a first-person shooter reboot of the classic The Sims franchise.

Simtown is in danger, and it's up to Chuck Simson to save it, armed with his trusty SimPistol and SMG (SimMachine Gun) he must take down "The Player", an evil corporation that's been trapping Sims in small rooms and watching them pee themselves while their houses burn down.

@Mach2
Streets of Simcity: The 2012 reboot by Criterion , now includes out of the car FPS sequences

@Gmail Calendar Rep

What's the big deal? My entire life is a FPS minus the S. Well, that's unless it stands for "Shit".

@Mach2
Actually, dear games industry, please make that happen.

@Mach2

Chuck Simson: "Slimslur flo fur fla ga rarurahga magro...."
The Player: ".....NOGRATO GWAMA!"

And then a QTE pee sequenced starts.

I propose they rename it "FPSyndicate".

@Pure Black World Tendency
I'm getting used to the idea of it being FPS.

But man, this:
In Syndicate, you play "Miles Kilo, Eurocorp's latest prototype agent,"

I don't want to be some emo agent with amnesia fighting to regain my humanity.

I want to be the damn corporation. I want to order my puny agent slaves to kill, steal, control minds, and obey my every whim to ensure my corporation's global domination.

While I'm not quick to jump on the "ZOMG ITS NOT STRATEGY WTF?!" I will say that it is a little disheartening to see that apparently all these companies can think to do with classic games or franchises is turn them into shooters. They all wonder why their FPS didn't do as well when there are literally tons coming out all the time.

Maybe they'll do something interesting with it?

Jesus wept.

You're doing it all wrong! It was never about GUNS!!!

If the amount of shooter ips weren't enough, now we are turning non-shooter ips into shooters themselves.

Ugh..

@xiLeShadow While I support making multiple game types in the same universe (warhammer 40K space marine is a good example) I think its odd to take such a beloved game in Syndicate and the first thing you do with it is turn it into a shooter. Feels like the creatively bankrupt way to bring a game into modern day.

@sammo21
I agree with you, but this game does sound pretty cool :p

I'm very skeptical of this game. I have little faith in EA or Starbreeze's ability to capture the essence of what made Syndicate special, in the same way Bethesda captured the essence of Fallout.
Moreover, give that the script writer from Crysis 2 is working on the project. I'm scared that the story will just as incoherent.
This is purely a wait and see for me.

@bigE The only essence I got from both Fallout games were jank, bugs, glitches, and terrible graphics.

I had written a long rant, but then it finally dawned on me: This IP raping is done on purpose to attract a mote of extra attention. If it was a brand new IP, the story would be 'EA have some new IP' and no one would take much notice until much nearer release. But this way round, the story becomes a huge controversy with people crying about their beloved game being turned into yet another pointless FPS.

It's intentional, they are trying to hurt you on purpose to get attention.

Developers are just really losing it. They just think its simpler to make an FPS so it can sell better. plus they want to put it on console so of course strategy is a no-no, and of course it'll have some BS multiplayer.

@(Unverified) You know that the original Syndicate was on consoles too, right?

I won't care if it's an FPS so long as you can do all the multitude of crap you were ae to do in the original.

The logo could really use some V-Sync...

Yet another "action-shooter".....

FUUUUUUUU

Why do they keep raping all the good games and turning them into shooters?

X-Com was fine as a tactical strategy game.

I have the same feelings about Syndicate.

Never heard of Syndicate, but this sounds pretty cool. I love shooters.

@ItsameMatt03

You are the target audience for EA's project.

Let there be harmony and breaking of bread.

@ItsameMatt03

What's the big deal? Would it be so wrong if I said "I love RPGs" in the next Final Fantasy XIII-2 article? I don't get all you gamers. It's like you try so hard to go against the mainstream.

I should be the target for a lot of game projects except for strategy games which is the really the only genre I don't care for.

@ItsameMatt03

you don't care for strategy... you got my downvote for sure

@ItsameMatt03

I love EA.

i'm sad... was really hoping to see the brilliant missions and free strategic element of syndicate come back to life. maybe they do something great with it like they try with UFO, but as long as this stands as a FPS-Game, this definately won't bring back syndicate the way i always wanted it to comeback

and YES, complaining about this series beeing dumbed down to a shooter is absolutely legitimate. syndicate had something gameplaywise, very few games could offer at that time. it was a peter molyneux game back in the days where his games were what made him great.

sorrrrrry for bad english

Crap.

I honestly think that this, as a FPS, will fall on its face and destroy the possibility of us ever getting a true follow-up to those amazing games.

no amiga release?

...at this rate, I'd expect the next Final Fantasy game to be a FPS.

*cough* dirge of cerberus *cough*

@Scuffles Pretty sure that was third person. It wasn't as bad as some people make it out.

i just hope it doesn't have head bobbing/camera shaking

"Our goal with Syndicate is to provide a challenging action shooter for today's gamers"

Translation: Making anything other than an FPS is hard because that is what we have honed our code monkeys to churn out and now its all they know.

....... Its sad when its gotten to the point that a game gets extra points with me, just for not being an FPS.

I don't even want to imagine what gaming is like 20 years from now if they are still in this rot, we will likely have FPS reboots of games that already had FPS reboots 20 years prior.

Yeah! Next game they'll turn into an FPS will be Doom!

Wait.

Is everyone forgetting that Starbreeze is a developer who is adept at creating solid, competent FPSs? It's not as if Visceral is making a top down twin-stick Barbie dance party music game.

Nobody else bitches as much as gamers when we don't get what we want.

@Emokitteh

Dev/Pubs bitch more when they don't get any money because they didn't give us what we wanted .......

Mostly about piracy because their mom told them their game was awesome so everyone must be playing it even if they aren't buying it.

@Emokitteh THIS!

Starbreeze is one of the finest studios out there, they've made anything but traditional first person games up to this point. They're pioneers and could bring a lot of cool things to the table.

I couldn't be more excited for this game. Not just because I'm a HUGE Starbreeze fan, but because Syndicate is one of my favorite games of all time. And even though this isn't going to be exactly like it, it's going to be a great game. It's not like it's going to be just another FPS CoD clone. Syndicate translates well into a first person perspective.

I'd wager most of you whiners commenting here haven't even played Syndicate, and are only jumping in to complain about what you think will be just another first person shooter. I have a lot of faith that Starbreeze will blow all of our minds, again.

Such a shame that PC=Origin.
I dont want another download client on my computer. Steams way or the highway.

I have no problem with it being a FPS. Just the fact that there is no business in this game about mega corporations ruling the world. The internet happened since 1993, and I can think of a thousand ways to incorporate that into a game like Syndicate and they make no use of that at all.

Think about ThemePark meets PlanetSide meets CoD meets Assasins Creed BroHood-MP.

with an fps model they won't be able to allow you to make the enormous mob of persuadertronned civilians with uzis. I swear that turned the hapless citizens into a pack of locusts once enough of the were armed.

"selected"

What's with all of these video game characters disintegrating on our box covers these days? EA's sports titles, Street Fighter, Red Faction, Just Cause, and now Syndicate...is it just becoming that much harder to maintain structural integrity?

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Syndicate

Syndicate reboot (finally) confirmed by EA and Starbreeze, coming 'early 2012' to 360, PS3, and PC [Update: New images!]

Syndicate (PC/360/PS3)

Reader Comments (78)

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 8:52AM whylekat said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 10:45AM Hunter141072 said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 11:29AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 2:19PM philmcfail said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 3:04PM The Cole Train said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 3:35PM KamiKaji said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 8:52AM Gmail Calendar Rep said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 9:12AM Mach2 said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 9:27AM Gmail Calendar Rep said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 9:34AM CaptainProtonX said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 9:36AM Dumac said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 9:40AM CaptainProtonX said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 8:55AM Pure Black World Tendency said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 12:47PM chargen said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 8:55AM sammo21 said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 8:56AM chauncy said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 8:57AM MystileArmor said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 8:59AM xiLeShadow said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 9:09AM sammo21 said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 11:34AM iceytoa1 said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 9:07AM bigE said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 9:09AM sammo21 said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 9:10AM Dick Socrates said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 9:10AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 10:46AM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 9:11AM TheRedComet said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 9:15AM Megasoum said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 9:16AM PandaNuclear said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 9:17AM ItsameMatt03 said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 9:36AM CaptainProtonX said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 10:46AM ItsameMatt03 said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 11:27AM pedasn said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 11:58AM ItsameMatt03 said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 9:18AM pedasn said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 9:19AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 9:22AM yar said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 9:23AM ShadowXIII said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 9:31AM Scuffles said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 10:53AM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 9:27AM GuardianLegend said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 9:28AM Scuffles said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 9:29AM Gmail Calendar Rep said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 9:35AM Red Runner said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 9:37AM Emokitteh said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 9:42AM Scuffles said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 7:23PM Epoque said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 9:45AM Rain said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 9:52AM Wuddel said

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