Gas Powered's Chris Taylor would love to revisit Total Annihilation - sees problems in doing so

Gas Powered Games' Chris Taylor has revealed his desire to work on a sequel to Total Annihilation. Speaking to VG247 , Taylor said he'd love to revisit the RTS series, but admitted he was unsure if people wanted a direct sequel to a game nearly two decades old. Given that plenty of developers have secured millions on Kickstarter using exactly that tactic, I'd suggest that they probably do. Especially when it involves giant mechs.

"I would love to yes, but the problem is you can't just make a sequel to a game that's 17 or 16 years old," Taylor said. "You have to update and evolve it to fit into the current situation in the market. But it's a really complex question to answer because, do people want something that's been evolved, or do they want to just go back in time and imagine that it's 1998, and we're beginning work on Total Annihilation 2? Do they want that game?

"What do they want in terms of mechanics, do they want a boxed product experience? But yes, it would be wonderful to do something with it."

Taylor also talked about returning to GPG's once planned strategy Kicks and Castles, a game he describes as "basically Total Annihilation with Supreme Commander in the Medieval era." (So, wooden mechs?) Taylor explained that, at the time it was being developed, GPG was struggling to find an eager publisher. "The publishing industry was going through a very tough time, and it kind of still is in some ways, so to make an investment on a game like Kings and Castles was highly risky. We saw a lot of that, and that's frankly what made business hard for many people, and many businesses closed too."

"We're happy to see the stability of PC gaming come back through several world-leading companies like Wargaming, and we hope it'll just continue to get better and better."

Gas Powered, under new owners Wargaming.net, are currently working on an unnamed "free-to-play triple-A MMO".

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.