A remaster of Wing Commander 3 appears to be underway, following the discovery of the game’s original full-motion video (FMV) source tapes within Electronic Arts’ archive.
The project is being led by EA producer Jim Vessella, who revealed details during a presentation at the Portland Gaming Expo. According to a report for PC Gamer, Vessella uncovered the footage while digitising EA’s video archive.
Re-release of Wing Commander III coming out with video taken from the original tapes courtesy of a restoration project led by Jim Vessella who has been digitizing the EA video archive
JV / Bluesky
The remaster, titled Wing Commander 3: Heart of the Tiger—30th Anniversary Edition, will feature both source and upscaled versions of the game’s FMVs. A projector slide detailing the edition was shared on Bluesky by Steve Lin, a board member of the Wing Commander community.
A slide from Vessella’s presentation at the Portland Gaming Expo details the remaster’s features
The accompanying slide also lists “Kilrathi Saga integration”—presumably meaning it will bundle in Wing Commanders 1 & 2 and their various expansion packs. The edition is set to run at 60 FPS, with controller support, and will be released on Steam, GOG, and the EA app.
Alongside Wing Commander 4, Wing Commander 3—originally released in 1994—is generally regarded as one of the strongest entries in the series. It heightened the games’ cinematic flair with a voice cast including Mark Hamill and John Rhys-Davies, both of whom also appear in Cloud Imperium Games’ Squadron 42.
The edition is called Wing Commander 3: Heart of the Tiger—30th Anniversary Edition
Vessella’s ability to retrieve the original footage is notable given that Wing Commander 3 was among the few games of its era to feature fully voiced cutscenes. The remaster arrives less than 24 hours after Cloud Imperium Games revealed details about Squadron 42.
The project stands out as an unusual development for EA, which has not shown much interest in reviving or revisiting its older titles. Despite being well-received, EA’s remake did not sell well enough to warrant the same treatment for a sequel, and the publisher has in recent years concentrated resources around major releases.
Whether this is a passion project that Vessella managed to get approved, or the beginning of something larger remains unclear. Either way, it marks one of EA’s more encouraging moves regarding its back catalog.
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