It wasn’t all that long ago that we got the Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition reveal. From the development team, Nightdive Studios, the Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition was revealed earlier this year with intentions of releasing the game before 2021 hits. Unfortunately, that’s not going to be the case as the development team revealed the reason behind the delay and the struggle they are having when it comes to obtaining the necessary information.
If you’re not familiar with Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition, this is a game based on the 1997 adventure title set within the Blade Runner universe. The game follows a protagonist named Ray McCoy who investigating androids hiding in the disguise of normal humans. The original adventure title was a success and it looks like we could find the Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition brings out not only veteran fans to replay the game but newcomers as well. Unfortunately, as mentioned above, the title is taking longer to develop than expected and it’s all based around the source code.
Normally, using the source code to make remastered editions would make the process much more simple, but because the source code has gone missing, Nightdive Studios has to reverse engineer the game which is vastly more challenging. This information came from Nightdive Studios CEO Stephen Kick when he spoke with Eurogamer. During the conversation it was revealed that the source code has been missing since the original development studio, Westwood, was purchased by EA in 1998.
That transition resulted in Westwood being moved into a new office where the contents of the Blade Runner source code has gone missing. While NightDive Studios believes that EA may have uncovered some material and source code for Blade Runner, the chances of being released to the team are pretty slim. While it’s possible that there’s a legal roadblock for the team, Stephen admits that he would have really enjoyed having the original audio tracks for the title. For now, it’s a long process in making a remastered version of Blade Runner, so don’t count Nightdive Studios out quite yet.
