Disney Games just released a trailer stating what we already knew for months: that what became TRON RUN/r, would also be released on the Playstation 4 and Xbox One consoles. (I can also see the game ending up on mobile devices, like the iPad.)

The game has been available for PC on Steam in Early Access, for almost two months, in an incomplete form for $10. But now we've learned that the complete game will be released on February 16, 2016 at $20.

TRON RUN/r official trailer

A page on the Disney Games web site reveals there will be 32 levels in total, and some sort of multiplayer functionality called Stream mode (though it's not clear if this is one-on-one head-on, or simply leaderboards). In addition to what's already there in the Steam Early Access version (running on foot doing Disc battles, and Light Cycle racing). There will also be sections where you grind on rails and battle Light Tanks, and most likely Light Runner racing (the vehicle that Quorra drove in TRON Legacy).

Much of the new content coming to the full release was already uncovered by myself a month ago, in a couple of posts — Post 1 and Post 2 — on tumblr.

For more background on the somewhat rocky path that TRON RUN/r took to release, I did a video (below). There's also a previous article showing concept art and how TRON RUN/r was stealth marketed up until now.

TRON RUN/r video about rumors, speculation, and some facts


January 27th UPDATE 1: A written article and video from IGN seems to confirm that despite the earlier rumored involvement of Skrillex for the TRON RUN/r soundtrack, he did not end up contributing. The video also confirms that those who buy the Steam Early Access version of TRON RUN/r for $10 will get the full game (as per the official Steam Early Access policy), instead of the $20 being charged for the console releases.

IGN TRON RUN/r video


February 1st UPDATE 2: According to the Steam discussion forums, where someone has said he was able to play the February 16, 2016 release of TRON RUN/r at PAX South, the Stream mode where you can "challenge friends" is just racing separately and comparing scores on a leaderboard. Not proper player vs. player (PvP) competition. Rather disappointing news.

Also, the Light Runner and new characters I discovered hidden in the Steam Early Access version of the game will apparently not be there for the Feb. 16th release. It looks like they will arrive later, as DLC. There are also supposed to be more Companions (those floating assistants that look like a Bit, or Byte) in the future. On the plus side, there is now a female counterpart character you can play as, and you can change your character's color.

Note that these latest details are all second-hand, unconfirmed information, though. So let's wait and see what the situation is when the game actually releases.

Thanks to Debonair Kitty on the Steam forums for the news!


March 19th UPDATE 3: It looks like TRON RUN/r is getting Linux and Mac versions. The Linux version will probably also work on Valve’s SteamOS.

http://steamdb.info/app/392000/history/?changeid=1833113

The Linux/Mac ports are apparently being handled by Tin Giant Games.

Thanks to flesk on the Steam discussion forums, for making me aware of this.


March 21st UPDATE 4: The Mac and Linux/SteamOS versions have just been added to the TRON RUN/r store page.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/392000

Thanks to the SteamPlay cross-buy feature, if you already bought the Windows version of the game you get the Mac and Linux/SteamOS versions free.


March 22nd UPDATE 5: The Mac and Linux/SteamOS versions have been temporarily removed from the TRON RUN/r store page.

But you can clearly see the Mac, Linux/SteamOS, and SteamPlay logos on this archived version of the store page.

The Mac and Linux/SteamOS versions will return, but why did they go live if they weren't ready yet?

Today I stumbled across a very illuminating report published by the California Polytechnic State University, shared under Digital Commons. Which is a way of promoting free access to content and information.

It seems that the Walt Disney Imagineering team, responsible for the rides and attractions at Disney’s theme parks, decided to add their report about the TRON Roller Coaster’s early planning and design to the University’s digital archive, and the University has now shared it with the public.



The coaster was originally called TRON 2.0: The Experience, hinting at how long it’s been in development. I’ve only skimmed through the lengthy, very technical document the Imagineering team published. But key takeaways are the following.

• The coaster was tentatively proposed to first be built in Magic Kingdom Florida, becoming part of the Autopia attraction. With a possibility of it also being built at Disneyland in California. Obviously, plans changed. The upcoming Disneyland Shanghai park in China got the coaster first. Interestingly, the U.S. design differs quite a bit compared to what we're seeing from the China design.



• Three possible designs were proposed. Light Plane (sic) aka Light Jet, Light Car (sic) aka Light Runner, and Suspended Rail. The Light Car/Runner design was ultimately chosen. Though, it apparently changed to Light Cycles for the Shanghai coaster.


• The report hints that a TRON Roller Coaster may still be built in the U.S. eventually, but China was clearly selected to be first.
  
  

  “... plans for a TRON-themed roller coaster were announced during the summer of 2015 in preparation of the new Disneyland Shanghai theme park. This further confirmed the notion that TRON could work as a marketable subject for WDI to install seamlessly into one of its theme parks.”

  
  In other words, the Coaster in Shanghai paves the way for further development at another location, in the future.

TRON 2.0: The Experience Roller Coaster concept art



July 16th UPDATE: There is now a rumor circulating that a TRON roller coaster — similar to the Light Cycle coaster in Disneyland Shanghai — will be built to replace the Body Wars ride in the closed down Wonders of Life Pavilion, at EPCOT's Future World in Disney World Florida. Florida was the Disney Imagineering planning document's proposed first pick, as a location for building a TRON roller coaster in the United States.

Thanks to TransAm_Paul and UnitedTronArmy on Twitter for making me aware of this rumor!

March 21st, 2017 UPDATE: So, I have no idea how accurate this source of news is. But based on the source’s Twitter timeline, it seems pretty legit. (Thanks to UnitedTronArmy for making me aware of it!)

https://twitter.com/yourWDWguy/status/843913197170122752

This individual is stating that the Tomorrowland Speedway ride – at Magic Kingdom, in Walt Disney World Florida – may be replaced by a TRON roller coaster, by the 50th Anniversary of the park. Which would be in 2021.

It’s also stated that whether or not the coaster is built, depends on reception of a TRON 3 film. Huh.

This lines up with earlier information, that always places the coaster as being built at WDW in Florida. In fact, this latest rumor places the coaster almost exactly where the info I had in this article, over a year ago, said it would be.

Shortly after the TRON Legacy teaser trailer debuted at the 2008 San Diego Comicon, it turns out that Disney put out the word to game developers, that they wanted to see their pitches for a game based on the upcoming TRON Legacy sequel film.

Which is surprising to me, considering that — at that point — Disney was in the process of expanding their Disney Interactive Studios division considerably, and had started or acquired multiple game studios already. (They've since closed many of those studios, and scaled back their ambitions in a dramatic fashion.)

Nevertheless, Day 1 Studios (now a division of Wargaming, the company that created the game World of Tanks) stepped forward and created a prototype game with the working title of TR2N Liberation. (Since the title for the sequel hadn't been decided yet, at that point in 2008, it was still being referred to as TR2N.)

Footage of the prototype can be seen in the video below. It was clearly in a very early stage, and apparently done in only a few weeks. You could race against an opponent Light Cycle on a track, and later do simple Disc combat against that same opponent. (It's not clear whether the opponent was meant to only be controlled by another player, or could be an AI to create a Single Player experience for both game modes. Though probably the former, due to the lack of time Disney afforded development.)

TR2N Liberation Prototype game footage

After seeing the footage, it seems to me that the recently announced TRON RUN/r game on Steam is going to be very similar in a number of ways, and may have actually borrowed ideas from this unreleased prototype.

Ultimately, Disney decided to give the TRON Legacy video game project to Propaganda Games, and we got TRON Evolution instead. (Very likely because Disney happened to own Propaganda.)

There would have been a certain irony if Day 1 Studios had been the company responsible for a TRON Legacy game. When Monolith Productions was unable to commit to the development of F.E.A.R. 3 — another follow-up to their successful F.E.A.R. series of games — Day 1 Studios took over and developed F.E.A.R. 3. History would have repeated itself, if Day 1 Studios had developed the next TRON game after Monolith Productions.

For more details, and the original source of the information (that this article is based on), visit the TR2N: Liberation article on the Unseen64 site. Unseen64 specializes in documenting cancelled games.

Thanks to mister-julius and inevitablesurrender on tumblr for making me aware of this!

March 21st, 2017 UPDATE: I'm very late to the party, but I wanted to add this additional video that Did You Know Gaming/VGFacts/Unseen64 did on the cancelled TR2N Liberation. Which goes into additional detail about what happened with the project.

Did You Know Gaming TR2N Liberation video