Disney Delays Star Wars 1313

[Marshall Honorof]

Disney Delays Star Wars 1313

Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm may spell trouble for 1313.

Disney acquired Lucasfilm [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/previews/9709-E3-Preview-Star-Wars-1313] back in November. LucasArts insists that the game is still in the pipeline, but even if it releases, the game may not come out during its original late 2013 window.

The news comes by way of three independent, unnamed sources, all close to LucasArts. These sources state that progress on 1313 has been frozen since November, the game's future is uncertain, and that it will most likely not make a showing at E3 this year. LucasArts did not dismiss any particular one of these assertions, simply stating, "LucasArts has been working diligently to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities that the new Star Wars movies present. Star Wars 1313 continues production."

If the game is indeed on hold, the statement from LucasArts could shed some light on why. Now that Disney can leverage LucasArts, directing its efforts towards games that tie in with the upcoming Star Wars movies makes sense. In fact, once all the dust has settled, it's not clear at all what will become of the existing Expanded Universe continuity [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/the-big-picture/6910-Continuity-Wars], so investing a lot of time and money in a game set there may be counterintuitive.

Whatever happens to 1313, Star Wars games are probably about to undergo a renaissance thanks to the slew of new films. As licensed games go, Star Wars titles have generally represented the upper echelons, so it's now Disney's responsibility to ensure that they continue to do so.

Source: Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5987674/the-strange-status-of-star-wars-1313-a-hot-game-with-an-uncertain-future]

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[Ruley]

I sense a disturbance in the force...

OT: the delay is upsetting but i don't think Disney will drop the most promising star wars game of the current generation but they may tactically hold it for the PS4 and Xbox 720. I just hope they don't try to shoehorn in any of their new ideas into this game, unless justifiable other than the reason of making more money.

 

[Smiley Face]

As much sense as it makes for Disney to exercise control of emerging potential Star Wars canon... Dammit, I really wanted to play that game, you know, soon. Hope the Development hell doesn't last. It doesn't bode well for the eventual quality of the game.

I'm not well versed on my video game history, so can anyone think of a good example of something emerging on top from development hell?

 

[Playful Pony]

Please don't take this from us... I was hoping for the first enjoyable Star Wars game since Jedi Academy, and this is one was looking so promising! I was carefully optimistic that Disney could be a good thing for Star Wars, but that optimism has been getting some dents lately. I really hope this game gets a chance to be released, unless they turn it into something bland, boring and horrible first...

 

[AdmiralCheez]

Figures. The one Star Wars game in a long time that I actually started to look forward to, and it gets the Battlefront 3 treatment. Although why they would allow the game to make so much progress in development just to put it on hold doesn't make sense to me, especially when the LucasArts takeover was apparently in talks for over a year.

If it turns out they're just holding it for the release on the next console generation, I'll be really disappointed, since I really don't want or need another console sitting around the house. And I really don't think it'll run on my quickly-becoming-outdated laptop.

 

[Therumancer]

Well, as I told people when I played Star Wars Galaxies, the Expanded Universe was little more than professional fan fiction to begin with. Nobody should be surprised that it's going the way of the dodo, it was a giant mess to begin with specifically because of the arguements it could generate, and it's not the first allegedly "canon" continuation or expansion of the universe to get axed. We had the whole children's book sequel series "The Glove Of Darth Vader", "Courtship Of Princess Leia", etc... that got axed for the EU, and perhaps more infamously before the current EU the very popular at the time "Dark Horse Comics" continuity which actually lead to court battles. Not even "Shadows Of The Empire" remained in the official continuity despite initial promises.

Some of the EU was good, some was bad, people spent unprecedented amounts of money on what they got invested in as being official, and in the end they will be somewhat POed, but it's not like it should have been unexpected.

To sort of summarize why I actually think getting rid of the EU is good, watch (or start) a discussion about Mandalorians in a Star Wars fan forum. Pretty quickly the name Karen Traviss (I think I have the name right) will come up, along with arguements over whether Mandalorians were badass space vikings and semi-amoral mercenaries and slavers, or a bunch of peaceful farmers with a strong martial tradition in their backround who got justifiably slotted off. You probably won't win that one, before even getting into people who wrote for the universe but never really understood the central themes at work to begin with, which I've gone into detail about before.

As far as the fate of "1313" goes, it pretty much struck me as another Star Wars-themed shooter, basically "Dark Forces/Jedi Knight", or "Republic Commando" for a new generation. In the overall scheme of things I have a hard time feeling sorry for it with all the other FPS games out there, especially seeing as they have been pretty bad at supporting those kinds of franchises to begin with (the never appearing Republic Commando sequel for example). Besides I'm sure when the movies come out, a Star Wars based shooter will be close to the top of their video game priority list, I wouldn't be surprised if assets developed for "1313" are simply folded over into that.

 

[Blindrooster]

Snip

The continuity may have been a mess and all over the place,and you're right, it was mostly really good fan fiction. But damnit it was OUR extended Universe. The fans got to continue it with the books and comics (some of which were better than others) and with games like Galaxies. (R.I.P) That's what made it so amazing, you got to make the universe your own perception. That's always been one of the amazing things about Star Wars. Now whatever stories and books you may like about the EU are about to become irrelevant as there will be new canon that will contradict whatever we believe happend in the EU as of now. Makes me sad....

Also about delaying my next Star Wars game, Fuck you Disney. (This statement may be redacted should a Battlefront 3 ever see the light of day)

 

[Tiamat666]

As far as the fate of "1313" goes, it pretty much struck me as another Star Wars-themed shooter, basically "Dark Forces/Jedi Knight", or "Republic Commando" for a new generation. In the overall scheme of things I have a hard time feeling sorry for it...

What's wrong with Dark Forces, Jedi Knight and Republic Commando? All of these games were great and far from being "regular shooters"?

1313 sounded quite interesting, so there is only one appropriate [a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHAnW21MkpY"]reaction to this development[/a].

But what the world -really- needs is another X-Wing / TIE Fighter.

 

[lancar]

Jedi Knight 2 and Jedi Academy are two of my favourite games of ye olden days, so I was looking forward to see what 1313 had to offer. The prospect of not having everything revolve around Jedi for once was interesting, too.

Oh well, gotta wait and see I suppose.

 

[Cat of Doom]

Yay, looks like the most interesting looking star wars game since Jedi academy is going the way of battlefront III. Not a single good star wars game throughout the 360/ps3 generation. Lego star wars, the force unleashed and The WOW clone/ rail shooter that is the old republic can go suck a fat one.

Oh well star citizen should be able to cater to my star fighter simulating needs. Hopefully.

 

[Daaaah Whoosh]

Good, interesting idea that gaming as a whole industry would benefit from?

Better put it in development hell. Need moar CoD clones.

I would enjoy seeing Battlefront 3, that's the closest thing Star Wars has to CoD.

This game, however, reminds me of Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, which I recall being a pretty fun game. I do hope that we at least get something dark from LucasArts, rather than based-on-movie and gimmicky motion-controlled kids' games.

 

[Tradjus]

They're delaying it so that they can jam in the requisite level of cheery wholesome family friendly fun that Disney is known for. Now, instead of blood exploding out of people when you shoot them, glitter will! It'll be like a fun kid's party! Also, instead of Hookers, there are fun dancing clowns in all of the spaceports, and they serve Grape Juice instead of alcohol!

 

[Ishal]

Well, as I told people when I played Star Wars Galaxies, the Expanded Universe was little more than professional fan fiction to begin with. Nobody should be surprised that it's going the way of the dodo, it was a giant mess to begin with specifically because of the arguements it could generate, and it's not the first allegedly "canon" continuation or expansion of the universe to get axed. We had the whole children's book sequel series "The Glove Of Darth Vader", "Courtship Of Princess Leia", etc... that got axed for the EU, and perhaps more infamously before the current EU the very popular at the time "Dark Horse Comics" continuity which actually lead to court battles. Not even "Shadows Of The Empire" remained in the official continuity despite initial promises.

Some of the EU was good, some was bad, people spent unprecedented amounts of money on what they got invested in as being official, and in the end they will be somewhat POed, but it's not like it should have been unexpected.

To sort of summarize why I actually think getting rid of the EU is good, watch (or start) a discussion about Mandalorians in a Star Wars fan forum. Pretty quickly the name Karen Traviss (I think I have the name right) will come up, along with arguements over whether Mandalorians were badass space vikings and semi-amoral mercenaries and slavers, or a bunch of peaceful farmers with a strong martial tradition in their backround who got justifiably slotted off. You probably won't win that one, before even getting into people who wrote for the universe but never really understood the central themes at work to begin with, which I've gone into detail about before.

As far as the fate of "1313" goes, it pretty much struck me as another Star Wars-themed shooter, basically "Dark Forces/Jedi Knight", or "Republic Commando" for a new generation. In the overall scheme of things I have a hard time feeling sorry for it with all the other FPS games out there, especially seeing as they have been pretty bad at supporting those kinds of franchises to begin with (the never appearing Republic Commando sequel for example). Besides I'm sure when the movies come out, a Star Wars based shooter will be close to the top of their video game priority list, I wouldn't be surprised if assets developed for "1313" are simply folded over into that.

I think at this point people can pick and choose what they consider canon especially if they like Star Wars enough to venture past the 6 movies and the cartoons. Best stuff out there would probably be Dark Forces and the KoToR games (II specifically since it dissected the force and jedi/sith so well). Ultimately something will be retconned and some people will be angry.. but thats life eh?

The thing I took from the past few years of Star Wars is that even though the prequels were bad they didn't stop good stuff from being made. (KoToR I & II). The next 5 big Star Wars things could be crap but as long as something good (1313?) is made, I'll give those 5 a pass. I just can't invested in it anymore.

 

[kael013]

I've got a bad feeling about this... -well, that's how I feel whenever Star Wars and Disney are brought up in the same discussion, but this is worse.

Honestly though, this isn't surprising. A company puts a game that most likely doesn't line up with their company image on "postponement" (read: development hell) so they can funnel the money is was using into projects that it approves of more. It has happened before and it will happen again, but it's always sad to see it happen to games with potential.

 

[VoidWanderer]

The only way this is acceptable is if they develop and release Battlfront 3.

There, I said it!