LucasArts Can Fuck Off.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-05-04-free-radical-vs-the-monsters

http://kotaku.com/5907686/psychopaths-at-lucasarts-led-to-cancellation-of-star-wars-battlefront-iii-former-studio-exec-says



Excerpts from the eurogamer article.

The key idea of Battlefront 3 was that players could seamlessly transition from a small-scale gunfight into a space battle simply by climbing into a ship and taking off. "It was so ambitious because you had to populate an environment like that on a scale like that, so we had some tough nuts to crack," says Doak. "We were continually trying to improve that, and it was going well, in fact it was going so well that we were going to make two, and they were letting us do some really interesting stuff with the mythology."

And then we went from talking to people who were passionate about making games to talking to psychopaths who insisted on having an unpleasant lawyer in the room."

My role at Free Radical meant that I was simultaneously involved in these unpleasant "high level" discussions with psychopaths who wanted to destroy us, and then the next day sitting with our dev staff at their desks trying to boost people's morale. Helping them to pass milestones that I knew would subsequently be manipulated to cause them to fail. It was the most depressing and pointless thing that I have ever been involved in. The dream job which I once loved had become a nightmarish torture.

But LucasArts began to press hard on other, less quantifiable, issues. "Stalling tactics," says Graeme Norgate. "If a publisher wants to find something that is wrong with a milestone, it's very easy for them to do so as there are so many grey areas within a deliverable. If the contract says, 'Graphics for level X to be release quality,' who can say what's release quality? And there you have it."

"LucasArts hadn't paid us for six months," says Norgate "and were refusing to pass a milestone so we would limp along until the money finally ran out.


Yeah... fuck LucasArts to the deepest parts of hell. The worst decision they could have done. Maybe though that the game was having trouble in development, and was missing deadlines, but honestly, this game is a guaranteed money maker. But no, they cancelled it for shit reasons because of some supposed "new" CEO.

Could you imagined if this released in 2009? Seamless ground-to-space combat. Gorgeous graphics, and phenomenal multiplayer. All because LucasArts didn't want to make any money. Well at least we have Star Wars: Kinect and the Force Unleashed games right?

Still pissed that they cancelled the next-gen Indiana Jones game for the same reason. And why is there no sequel to Republic Commando?

Same reason, Free Radical filed bankruptcy and was bought out by Crytek. LucasArts still holds the IPs to the Star Wars franchise, so until they sell them off, there won't be a Republic Commando sequel, which also was an amazing game. Also, most of the original team disbanded, or some of the more important people that helped create Free Radical, the game if released today would probably be a lot different if under Cryteks wing. Still, I'd rather take a Battlefront than none at all.

Nintendo, you know what to do.

^
What he said and what da hell is Star Wars: Battlefront 3 files doin on Operation Racoon City?

Make a game featuring a character from one of their older IPs that hasn't been in any new titles in over 20+ years?

Yes (F-Zero!), but also buyout the rights to do a Battlefront. If they do that, they won the next-gen console wars, hands fucking down.

Considering how LucasArts refuses to man up and give me the M-rated Star Wars game I've been demanding for years, Nintendo wouldn't have to make any changes to the property to make it fit their "family friendly" gaming themes.

I see nothing wrong with that. Battlefront doesn't need to have a mature rating, and an M-rated Star Wars game in general would be hard to do. Mostly because the brand isn't M/R-rated to begin with.

LucasArts is dead, they don't even want to print money, and to think there is a chance of them creating an M-rated Star Wars game? HA! Too risky and wouldn't cater to the casuals, that's what they would say.

Fuck the casuals. They can play with their special-needs Rancor and dance around all they want, I just want to dice up stormtroopers and Ewoks alike as if I were a force-powered food processor.

Well The Force Unleashed was a step in the right direction, but I wouldn't get yourself hyped, it isn't happening anytime soon, if at all. And I don't blame companies going after the casual crowd. Seeing how the Wii performed, it's only natural to go where all the seagulls flock to. It's all about profit, and that is what kills me. As a business major myself, it is ludicrous to think that Battlefront wouldn't have made any money. Sure there was a chance, but they cancelled it because they said it wouldn't make any money. How did they come to that? Well most likely by looking at all the iOS/Android, Free-2-play games, and social games, it maybe went something like this:

CEO - "Hey? Look at how much money these games are racking in? *even though we have a franchise that fans have been clamoring over for years and would generate revenue within the first two months (I am a firm believer that it could)* Hey Free Radical? Drop everything on that Star Trek game you're doing, we need to make a Kinect game for it."

Free Radical - "Ah sir, we've been working on this for three years, everyone's passionate about it, the fans desperately want it, and the game would turn everyone into Scrooge McDuck incarnations. Oh and it's called Star Wars."

CEO - "I don't give a rats ass what it's called, I am here to make money, you are here to do as I say. So cancel everything and get started working on that Kinect game! And to make sure you do, I'm depriving you of your funds"

Free Radical - "Great job wasting three years worth of investments which has now become worthless, that's (guesstimating big time) 2.5 million dollars gone all because you know jack shit about how the gaming industry works, Mr. Fuck You."

CEO - "Your all fired! Get out of my office!"

Free Radical - "Yeah, well fuck you because we already quit!"

*LucasArts 12 years later bankruptcy* *Meanwhile, Crytek buys out Star Wars franchise from LucasArts and Free Radical team gets back together to go on to sell 14 million copies*

CEO - *Living in a trailer* "I should have listened..."

LucasArts has long been run by a bunch of chimps, I've been angry with them ever since they decided not to hand back the Sam & Max back to Steve Purcell. Obviously Purcell EVENTUALLY got it back, but there was a period where they were sitting on top of it doing nothing with it and fans were like "wanna give it to someone so they can make a Sam & Max game?" and LucasArts were just like... I don't know, staring out the window at pretty clouds.

But seeing them drop the ball on the few franchises they're continuing with is so pathetically tragic. Someone greenlit Star Wars Kinect. Someone with a human brain thought that a tacky set of toys, released for a niche and poorly-selling Xbox addon device, would not only make enough money to be a reasonable investment, but also not draw hatred and ire from critics and fans alike. That LucasArts isn't bankrupt yet is nothing short of a goddamn miracle.

Don't forget that the god gems of point-and-click games from the brilliant minds of Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert are held by them too. Grim Fandango, Secrets of Monkey Island (though it did get an XBLA release), Day of the Tentacle, and others. And yeah, I agree, LucasArts is goddamn lucky to still be around, but I'm not expecting them to be around in the next decade. Especially if they are going to be a fucking brick wall cock block and not release the games that would give them serious profit (which is every game that has been mentioned).

so what did I just read? did they comfirm star wars battlefront 3, and it is a making in progress? or did they do the confrming and blam!! just as they did that, they canceled it?

It's not happening, ever. Nor is Knights of the Old Republic or a Republic Commando sequel. Unless someone buys those IPs (LucasArts wouldn't hand them over without a fight, fucking twats), they are just going to rot until a better CEO comes along, preferably one with more common sense than the current one.

dam and here was I was playing battlefront 2 earier wondering how it would be to fight on a much grander scale with more tickets, AI, and vehicles.