It's been a long while since we heard anything about Oddworld Inhabitants' movie and game project, Citizen Siege. It's been two years, in fact. OWI has confirmed that the project is still in development - but unsurprisingly didn't provide any other details.

At least we know it hasn't turned into vaporware. That's something.

You won't understand why this is news unless you have respect for gaming history. Here's the story so far:

• Goodbye to the gaming industry. Way back in 2005, Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath by Oddworld Inhabitants (OWI) was released for the Xbox. It was the seventh title in the franchise. OWI's Lorne Lanning (who co-created the Oddworld universe with OWI CEO and co-founder Sherry McKenna in 1994) suddenly confirmed that OWI was quitting the videogames market. They were heading to film and TV.
• The big hit that EA ignored? Lorne Lanning wasn't happy because Oddworld was being praised but EA didn't seem interested in putting an effort into marketing it.
• Fans wanted more. Oddworld games had been released for the PSOne, PC, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Xbox, and Game Boy Advance. Announced and expected titles and spin-offs (like Oddworld: Hand of Odd, a real-time-strategy game, and The Brutal Ballad of Fangus Klot, a darker M-rated game) never materialized after OWI left the game industry.

Fast-forward to today. It looks like OWI has been lured back to the gaming industry. You can take the developer out of gaming, but you can't take gaming out of the developer! We're guessing the excitement over next-gen consoles has OWI excited, too. Now's a good time to get into gaming.

OWI's new project is Citizen Siege. This new original property is going to be a video game and a movie. The movie will have John H. Williams (the guy behind the "Shrek" movies) and will be directed by Lanning. The game is being seen by "a number of big-name publishers" according to GamesIndustry.biz.

Lanning mentioned Warhammer as a game with movie potential and admitted that many companies don't want to make game movies unless they want to "blow tons of money" like "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within." But Citizen Siege will fuse gaming and video - much like Oddworld did.

Here's something to think about. Lanning's words:

Oddworld has had the chance to create original property that was designed as a film and as a game experience simultaneously. So the two influence one another as they grow. This is an idea that's being talked about by media companies, but for the most part isn't really happening yet.