Click to enlarge

Continuing the rounds at MWSF, IMG had the opportunity to sit down with several members of Aspyr, including Glenda Adams, Brad Oliver, and Beth Oliver. Aspyr has had a terrific year, with one of their recent accomplishments being the shipment of 13 titles last quarter, including the much-wanted Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy.

Aspyr plans on producing even more this year. Chief among their recent announcements is the coming of Call of Duty, the WWII first-person shooter that has received critical acclaim on the PC side. We got a chance to look at a First Playable copy of this one, in which the player was put through a training mission designed to help familiarize the player with the controls. The multiplayer aspect is also up and running, and Aspyr estimates the current release date to be sometime around April.

Also shown was Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. The 3rd-person action title is also currently at First Playable and is being ported by Beenox. Other upcoming titles include Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell and Command & Conquer: Generals, both of which are slated for release sometime next quarter.

On the demo front, both Jedi Academy and Wakeboarding Unleashed demos will be out sometime in the next few weeks.

For those looking to run some dedicated Mac servers, Brad Oliver is working on one run entirely from the command line for Jedi Academy. He will also be looking into applying the work to other Quake III-based titles.

As for Aspyr's future, Glenda Adams notes that she is quite optimistic, pointing to the inclusion of an in-house development team as being one of the key points of success. Having this in-house development allows for greater control and flexibility over the porting process and allows Aspyr to sidestep legal issues that inevitably come up with dealing with a contracted porting house. One of the examples of this increased efficiency is Jedi Academy, which made it from start to finish in little over 6 weeks. Glenda also mentioned that Aspyr is looking to double their development team in the upcoming months in order to tackle an even greater number of titles.

Aspyr also intends to announce 3 more new titles over the course of MWSF. IMG will be sure to bring the news on these as soon as we hear word.

Aspyr Media (add to watch list)

MWSF 2004 (add to watch list)

Search for other Mac games news stories or browse our Mac Games News Archive.