My friend Solus is not one for long posts. He is, rather, a man of action, as evidenced by the fact that he's already made those phone calls. Apperently the head of the legal department won't be back till Tuesday, but he did confuse the THQ receptionist.
Given this, allow me to elucidate Solus's plans a little bit:
THQ is not in the best financial straights, and Freespace as a franchise doesn't have quite the promise of huge bucks as it once did- and this is before considering the fact that the entire space dogfight genere has been a dark horse since after the Wing Commander era. Witness the thread right below this one about how "Space games being dead." Getting THQ to part with the Freespace franchise for a low amount, or even a percentage of any profits, is not entirely out of the question.
Volition is another matter; the denizens of this forum are probably more familiar then I on how willing they would be to divulge to the new devteam their FS3 plots and preliminary writings.
As for the devteam: the making of Freespace 3 is not likely to be a tremendous financial success, but it
would garner some attention, especially seeing as it'd essentially be an indie team taking over a well known, if "old school," franchise. FS has always had a legend bigger then it's actual profit potential. That kind of thing appeals directly to advanced university students in the field of game design, and perhaps recent grads, hoping to make their names known and break into the industry. They would certainly have the skills, and the motivation to work on a project that would garner them recognition, which would probably be more incentive then the inevitable contract for a percentage of any potential earnings.
If some reasonably dedicated volunteers with the proper motivation could be pulled together, a website for co-ordination and PR assembled, and a legal company made, getting attention from (some of the smaller) gaming magazines might not be out of the question.
Actually
making the game is, of course, a whole can of worms on it's own. But lets take this brainstorm one step at a time.
Those of you who have actually made game mods are likely executing epic facepalms at the moment, since you know just how hard it is to keep a mod project alive, to say nothing of a devteam for a whole new product. Your input in this matter I expect to be
especially crucial. Managing a project is just as vital as finding talent.
