Battlefront III Died Just Inches From the Finish Line

[Andy Shandy]

Oh it's just cruel to tell us that D:

So close and yet so far.

 

[Agow95]

I hate these stories about SW:BF3, every time we find out they were closer to finish than we had previously believed, next time it's gonna be "They were in stores ready to be released, but then we were told to burn them"

 

[gigastar]

Well, at least now with Lucasarts under Disney's rather expansive heel there could be a chance of it being revived.

 

[MorganL4]

That is crushing. I was never a massive fan of Battlefront seeing as I couldn't play online at the time. But knowing a game was 99% finished before being axed is a massive shame. All that work and money for nothing.

You should pick up Battlefront 2, you can get it for 10 bucks nowadays, and the single player is actually quite fun.... As is the split-screen multiplayer, the online game was the worst part IMO.


So, I know they said financial troubles were the cause, but if the game was 99% done, they couldn't get a loan to say open an extra month or so to kick it out the door and recoup losses, I mean the battlefront name was (and still is) huge


It sounds more like LucasArts wanted the thing canned and forced the shutdown... But why?

 

[Starke]

damn, they are torturing fans and pointing fingers to lucasarts like a abuse victim.

yeah, we got it. lucasarts are the bad guys.

just take what you had/have, reskin it under a "new" ip and get it out with crowdfunding.

The almost certainly can't. Lucas/Disney would sue them out of existence for infringing on their IP (the code itself).

 

[Gabanuka]

I'm not sure if I wanted to know this information.

I was happier knowing that there was a game planned that never saw the light of day, now that I know this I'm not sure what to believe anymore.

 

[Aeshi]

Because the fact that Battlefront III didn't get released wasn't painful enough?

 

[GenGenners]

I miss Free Radical

 

[Jamous]

Why. Why would you post this? Just why? Why spread the horror even further than it already has been? Damn you all to hell you infernal bastards! D:
I'm sorry; that was inappropriate. It just hurts so much. But hey, we've always got some pointless optimism that someone might resurrect it because it was so close to being finished right? RIGHT!?!?

 

[Malisteen]

I guess Battlefront III was the sequel we deserved, but not the one we need right now.

 

[thethird0611]

This is just wrongggggggggg.

Someone has to have all the data for the game, Disney should hop back up on it and release it!

At least thats what I tell myself.

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

This is somewhat old news but is never the less sad to hear again. I have so many fond memories of BFII, and BFIII was looking incredible. The full story on how Free Radical got screwed over by LucasArts is a sad one, and unfortunately, all too common where LucasArts is concerned.

 

[Playful Pony]

Will you please stop trying to make us cry over spilled milk?! We know and we're pissed about it, but what can we do!

 

[crazyrabbits]

Someone has to have all the data for the game.

There's an internal beta out there somewhere. A playthrough online (I forget where I saw) showed off an hour of footage from the beta. It was incredible - you could seamlessly exit a capital ship and fly down to a planet before getting out and taking part in a ground war.

Really, this is just par for the course for Lucasarts. After I heard them can most of TFU2's dev team, I knew it was the beginning of the end for them. They won't recover until the entire management side is purged.

 

[elilupe]

Whenever I see anything about this almost-game, I have a short moment of silence for its unjust death.

 

[GaltarDude1138]

Obligatory:


But still, man oh man, the game's probably still in some LucasArts server somewhere, right? Disney, you guys can release it, right? You guys like money after all, right? Throw us a bone or something! Hell, you could make it a tie-in to the new movies coming out for Chrissakes! Just add some levels based on battles in the upcoming movie and BAM you got a game that quite literally prints money!


...one can only hope, I suppose...

 

[gigastrike]

I'm pretty sure I've heard this before...a while ago.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

You should link back to that old article you guys ran about what happened between LucasArts and the devs. It was some really messy stuff. LucasArts is a bunch of heartless bastards.

From the sounds of things about this development cycle, Free Radical started work when Hayden Blackman was still in charge of Lucasarts. I really respect him. He's a great storyteller, and he had a real enthusiasm for the Star Wars Universe.

...Which is why when he stepped down from the company, everything went to shit, with the Rogue Squadron sequel getting canned, Battlefront 3 resulting in Free Radical being ground into dust, and Blackman's own pet project, the Force Unleashed Trilogy, getting cut down to two games, and the second one having half its content removed before shoving it out the door.

And for everyone saying "Now that Disney is in control, maybe we'll see something new!", forget about it.

Disney is just the parent company. The senior staff of Lucasarts has not been fired or moved. They just answer to Disney rather than Lucas. Nothing will change until they get rid of the senior staff.

 

[Zeraki]

Oh man it got the Star Fox 2 treatment... that's just brutal. I wonder if we're going to see a leaked version of the game come out, or if it's just gone for good.