LucasArts Run by "Psychopaths"

[SnakeoilSage]

All that's needed now is for THX to fumble and produce a movie that sounds like it's being played down fifty feet of garden hose and Lucas' legacy officially curls itself around a Glock.

 

[nathan-dts]

So LucasArts pretty much killed one of my favourite developers ever?
Never buying a fucking product from them ever again.

 

[Brad Shepard]

I don't think that's a condition exclusive to LucusArts, I think it's a pandemic that has infected the whole industry.

I cant agree more, this is very true, One company does it, the next sees they can save money and does it too, and so on and so forth... makes me sick.

 

[Xenominim]

Then there was a new guy called Darrell Rodriguez, who had been brought in to do a job and it was more to do with cost control than making any games. And the games that we were making for them were costly."

In his very short months with LucasArts, Rodriguez actually made a deal with TellTale Games to make the Monkey Island Episodes and he also greenlighted the Money Island 1+2: Special Editions and brought Loom, The Dig and Indiana Jones to Steam (he also greenlighted Lucidity - hey you can't get all of them right ). In fact he brought a lot of the LucasArts Lineup to Steam during that time (April 2008 - May 2010): http://store.steampowered.com/search/?sort_by=Released&sort_order=ASC&term=lucasarts

Here's the thing though, everything you cite seems to match up perfectly with the article. The new Monkey Island games from Telltale are FAR cheaper than Battlefront 3 would be to develop, and re-releasing old games on Steam again is extremely cost effective without them putting out any sort of cash. Does that make them bad decisions, no certainly not, but it does kind of reinforce the image that the article paints, this guy was just trying to make as much money with as little risk as he possibly could.

 

[rayen020]

... it's things like this that make me wonder how we get good games at all ever...

Spoiler: rant

and to a larger extent it's a worring trend in business. It led to the housing bubble, it led to the financial collapse, it's destroying the EU, and i keep looking at it saying, "what the fuck is wrong with you people?"

All thse investors and executives trying to perserve their bottom line by sacrifiving their bottom line! Or more accurately rich people trying to stay rich in the short term by screwing everyone in the long term. but why should they care? they have their golden parachutes, more money than i can expect to make in my lifetime, and the ability to not care about anyone else.

This thing with lucasarts, and apparently EA and Activision as well is just depressing. Sadly as many have said its business as usual in the gaming industry.

Spoiler: secondary rant

Oh and we could change it. hell yeah we could change it. we won't, but we could. yeah we could put gamestop out of business, along with EA, Activision, and lucasarts. We could fix DRM and change this crap. it's as easy as voting with your wallet, and to a larger extent actually voting for our government officials and their economic plans. it's as easy as missing that next AAA release.

Oh i'm saying there won't be pain, a few beloved franchises will have to die. What has happened with free radical will have to be repeated a couple of times. people will lose their jobs and suffer some hardship. but historically, what kind of social upheavel for the better has come without hardship? stagnation and damnation is easy. progress for the better is hard.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I don't think that's a condition exclusive to LucusArts, I think it's a pandemic that has infected the whole industry.

I cant agree more, this is very true, One company does it, the next sees they can save money and does it too, and so on and so forth... makes me sick.

Yeah, and the 2 biggest offenders are EA and Activision. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if one of them was Patient Zero. The really sad part is both of them used to produce really good stuff, so did LucasArts.

 

[Brad Shepard]

I don't think that's a condition exclusive to LucusArts, I think it's a pandemic that has infected the whole industry.

I cant agree more, this is very true, One company does it, the next sees they can save money and does it too, and so on and so forth... makes me sick.

Yeah, and the 2 biggest offenders are EA and Activision. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if one of them was Patient Zero. The really sad part is both of them used to produce really good stuff, so did LucasArts.

Well, EA started the whole "Project 10 dollar" thing, locking parts of the retail game because people did not buy it new, yea... Prototype 2 locks the challenges and even the avatar awards for those who did not buy new.

 

[Thoric485]

Cancelling a project is one thing, leading on a developer to work meaninglessly until they run out of cash and have to close doors is just fucking evil.

 

[SlashmanSG]

I had been getting the feeling LucasArts was being stupid lately, but not to this extent. I have put in at least 300 hours into Battlefront 2, and always had a shred of hope for a 3rd, even though I knew it had been cancelled or at least "put on hold" a few years ago. Guess that dream has died.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

Hah, nice article, you should read it before putting it all on LucasArts.

Meanwhile, Second Sight had finally entered full production. The project had changed hands from Eidos to Activision, and Free Radical were about to taste business Bobby Kotick style. "We got some way through it with Activision," says Ellis. "Then they had a day in November 2003 where they made big changes. They decided they didn't like UK development anymore, they didn't like external development anymore, and they didn't like developer-owned IP anymore. Bad for us, because we ticked every box! On that day I think they canned ten projects and in the process put some companies out of business."

"It was a troubled development," says Doak. "Because that's when we found out how Activision worked. Bobby Kotick really loves developers! He wouldn't even speak to us, and we never spoke to him. He's quite happy to have some people put us out of business, but only does calls with investors. That was like the night of the long knives. We stood up to Activision, we had good legal counsel and they told us the right things to say. It looked like it was going to put us under for a bit, but didn't."

Classic Activision xD

Free Radical's other project at this time was the last TimeSplitters game, Future Perfect. After TimeSplitters 2 EA had come sniffing around, and Free Radical was ready to listen. "EA Partners was this part of EA that was involved with third-party things," says Doak. "It was a bit like being groomed, you know. Here's all these friendly avuncular people that will give you all the love and attention you need to get your game out, and then after a while they go away and all the bad guys come around and it's like you're in borstal. Getting held down, beaten around the head with a cue ball in a sock."

"In retrospect, what happened after TimeSplitters 2 was that EA saw the Metacritic and came to us," says Ellis. "I don't actually think they'd looked at the game very much." The publisher demanded Future Perfect have a strong lead character in order that it appeal to the US market. "EA turned up with this stuff that was supposed to help us," says Doak. "And it was just big boards with pictures of Vin Diesel on them. Wesley Snipes was on one in his Blade outfit." Future Perfect ended up with Cortez, a cowardly and dumb marine whose catchphrase falls flat every time: "It's time to split!"

Future Perfect had the longest development of any TimeSplitters game, and there was a sting in the tail. "We had quite a frank conversation with EA," says Ellis. "Where they told us they weren't going to bother trying to market it very much. Because at the time they had their GoldenEye game [GoldenEye: Rogue Agent], and they said that for every dollar they spent on marketing that game they would get more dollars back. It didn't match up with their original promises."

"Throughout the development of Future Perfect we had EA people all the time coming to us saying 'yeah your game's alright, but not as good as this GoldenEye we're making.'" says Doak. "Continuously! 'Yeah I saw GoldenEye, it's awesome, you Brits had better raise your game!' And we asked to see it. 'No, no, you can't see it'. We killed ourselves getting Future Perfect done, only to find that they had made a total balls of GoldenEye to the extent they had to throw more money at it to market it, the money that they might have spent on Future Perfect. I mean, it's like fiction that it's a GoldenEye game, isn't it? I don't think the irony of what they were doing ever occurred to EA."

GoldenEye: Rogue Agent came out late in 2004 to a muted response, receiving a flat 60 on Metacritic. Future Perfect was released in March 2005, and while it received a warmer reception EA didn't push it, and it didn't achieve better sales than the series had under Eidos. "The problem is they never really got it," says Ellis. "That summarises it. And because they never really got it they tried to change it into something that they did get."

Classic EA xD

This... is disgusting. It's vile. They are bullies and hypocrites. If this is what is considered business, then I have seen more functional and fair systems in place at Playgrounds for infants.

EA, Activision, Lucasarts, Microsoft, Sony... they will be the death of the industry as we know it. They lack the foresight and ingenuity to make it out of the next decade. Mark my words, they will fall and they will fall hard.

 

[Dastardly]

This is the kind of thing that happens when a property gets so huge that "protecting" it is infinitely more important than doing anything with it. It's why companies like Disney sue the entire world at least twice a year, while most of what they do is churn out crap (or re-sell their old glory on blu-ray).

 

[w00tage]

Please people, don't act surprised at this. We've already been told that this is how publishers act on a regular basis by Brian Fargo. There is only one way to fight this bullshit. You know which way I'm talking about.

Kickstarter for Battlefront 3? To be executed by the former members of Free Radical?

 

[Freechoice]

LucasArts on one side, EA on the other.

Bioware is so fucked.

I feel like satirical porn of that would be very sad, yet strangely comical.

 

[V da Mighty Taco]

Please people, don't act surprised at this. We've already been told that this is how publishers act on a regular basis by Brian Fargo. There is only one way to fight this bullshit. You know which way I'm talking about.

Kickstarter for Battlefront 3? To be executed by the former members of Free Radical?

Fuck, I'd pitch in for that and I've never even contributed to a Kickstarter before. Unfortunately, I think Battlefront 3's IP rights still belong to LucasArts and I get the feeling that they won't let that happen even though they don't intend to actually make use of the Battlefront IP.

 

[The_Emperor]

when he says psychopaths hes probs not kidding, many psychopaths excel at running companies because they experience little emotion, making money hand over fist requires you to see your customers as cattle and most companies do.

the monetary system destroys everything it touches.

 

[MammothBlade]

Oh well, guess it came full circle.

I'm not surprised really, Lucas Arts has been going downhill for a while now and makes some very short-sighted business decisions.

However, I have a feeling that people aren't getting both sides of the story, even if they are money grubbing douchebags.

 

[RJ Dalton]

I had no idea that LucasArts was staffed by complete money-obsessed bastards . . .
Oh, wait. Yes, I did.

 

[F'Angus]

This sucks.. LucasArts suck... This is a disgusting way to do business