Wing Commander IV and the FMV future that never quite was

According to Ars Technica, Wing Commander IV represents an ambitious bet on the future of gaming. Back in nineteen ninety-six, director Chris Roberts packed the space combat simulation with full-motion video — cinematic sequences that felt like a preview of where games were heading. But that vision never quite panned out. As three-dimensional graphics technology matured, the pre-rendered full-motion video approach fell out of favor. Today, the game stands as a nostalgic artifact, a reminder that not every future imagined by creators actually comes to pass.

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