The studio behind this one is independent from them now, but still contains some developers who also worked on Ascend. I know from hanging around the forums at the height of that game that there was at least 2 headstrong devs in the company that legitimately wanted to do the game justice (and one of the best updates to the game was headed up by them), but they ultimately were at the mercy of the execs. I’m hoping without the same constraints, they might deliver a kick ass game without the bullshit.