Oddworld compilation hits PCs this month

Oddworld Inhabitants games are about to get a little more common. The company has announced the Oddboxx, a PC compilation of all four of its previously released games.

Set for release by the end of the year on Steam, the Oddboxx will include a pair of games previously released on the PC--Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus--as well as the developer's two original Xbox exclusives, Munch's Oddysee and Stranger's Wrath. The package will also include "a few new additions and enhancements," though Oddworld Inhabitants hasn't indicated just what those will be. Despite the name, the Oddboxx is not planned to see a retail release.

The Oddboxx will mark the first multiplatform launch for Stranger's Wrath, but the first- and third-person shooter was already headed to new territory. In September, developer Just Add Water announced that it was working on an updated version of the game for the PlayStation 3, complete with support for the Move motion-sensing controller. That project is set for release around Easter of next year.

The Oddworld series was first launched in 1997 and is best known for its juvenile sense of humor, socially conscious themes, and platforming gameplay. Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus were released on the PlayStation and PC, and in 2000, the studio signed a deal with Microsoft to publish titles exclusively for the Xbox. Oddworld produced Munch's Oddysee as a launch title, but the partnership with the console maker dissolved before Stranger's Wrath was finished. Electronic Arts picked the game up in 2004 as part of its EA Partners program and launched it the next year, but Oddworld Inhabitants confirmed its withdrawal from game development soon thereafter.