Lit A/V The Force Awakens and the EU [TAGGED spoilers.]

Actually, it's only been eight years, almost exactly. 2005, Republic Commando, developed in-house. Before that, though, I have no idea how far back you have to go to find anything solid developed in-house. Probably the last millennium.

 

That's an odd comment. The Old Republic wasn't developed by Lucasarts in house, and wasn't at all poorly received. I agree with the overall sentiment, though.

 

Kotaku

 

It'll be their loss if it isn't picked up. The early reception has been immensely positive; it was looking to be a big seller.

And besides, getting 1313 back on track would be a great gesture to the fans that could only work in Disney's benefit. With just that one move, they could make a rather sweeping statement, that they're not just here to clean house, but fully intend to take advantage of the Star Wars license and do everything they can to release quality products, regardless of when they began development. And it will almost certainly be profitable. It's a win-win situation.

 

Well, I'd agree up to a point - the game was criminally short and ended on a cliffhanger... it was clearly designed for DLCs or a sequel that never arose.

 

Yeah, that's maddening, but I wouldn't hold LA's inexplicable failure to follow through with a sequel against the game itself. It was a great, fun game, certainly worth time and money. It was no Jedi Knight, but as LucasArts' last gasp at quality, it's not a bad end of the era when they made good games, and I think it pretty definitively is the end of that era.

 

It's not really accurate to compare the creative position J.J. Abrams will now hold with that which George Lucas did, either, but that's just nitpicking.

 

As far as 1313 goes, I won't be surprised if they hand the game over to a third party to rework into an EP7 tie-in. Saves needing to spend money and provides one of the requisite video game deluge that every blockbuster gets nowadays.

And what's this I have been reading about EP7 being delayed to 2019? I've read several comments to that effect in the last 24 hours, but can't seem to work out where the rumour is coming from.

 

Look, I understand that you are frustrated with the current artistic output from Hollywood over the last decade, but their is no damn good reason to demolish Los Angeles because of Hollywood's failings.

 

Some of you don't seem to be aware that LucasArts NEVER worked in isolation. Shutting it down isn't like throwing away a bad apple or removing a malfunctioning appendix. It was always working in concert with the rest of LFL, and had been working with other gaming companies for years. 100% in-house development or not, its employees weren't just sitting on their butts all these years doing nada.

So I'm sure we'll be hearing about repercussions along these lines for a while: http://variety.com/2013/digital/news/lucasarts-shutdown-triggers-layoffs-at-ilm-1200332765/

 

In particular, even the X-Wing series was done in partnership with Larry Holland's Totally Games studio after TIE FIGHTER.

 

So that's why Disney tried to shoot Lucasarts but hit ILM... there was nothing in there to be hit to start with It went right through to the next in line!

 

well potentially this is a good move. Better games ahead i hope.

 

Their card was marked the moment they chose not to make TIE Fighter: Empire.

 

What about not making a KOTOR 3? Not to mention I believe LEC was pretty much the reason KOTOR 2 released unfinished.

 

The main problem was that Lucasarts was originally a pioneering game company which turned out some of the best cult classic games of its time... which then was retooled to be a money-making machine. I doubt it's a coincidence that it's decline coincided with the PT; certainly the first game of theirs I played and absolutely, completely loathed (to my great surprise) would be the awful by-the-numbers tie-in game for the Phantom Menace.

Fair enough - I did enjoy playing it, and that was one of the last Lucasarts titles that had that distinction.

 

Now we'll never know what happens to Darth Vader if there is no TFU 3!!

 

Maybe TFU II is no longer canon.

 

The first view of Coruscant was the only reason I played the game to that point. The only reason I finished it was because I wanted to see the horribly broken "boss battle" with Darth Maul that you could end in 5 seconds by Force Pushing him into a pit. (Whereupon he magically splits in half).
The lack of any real Force powers, the annoying voices... oh, and the 'no-win' situations that the game puts you in, like if you kill a single person in Tatooine - which was irritating in of itself, but when you add that the game deliberately provokes you by having a bar drunk attack you for no reason and not stop punching you unless you kill him...

 

Well, ****. It looks like 1313 was basically going to be Bounty Hunter 2, with young Boba Fett. And TCW tie-ins, apparently, since that's definitely Highsinger in that screenshot/concept art.