LucasArts Run by "Psychopaths"

[connerthekewlkid]

And i will start by saying "The bullshit is strong with this one".

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/04/27/this-is-what-happened-to-star-wars-battlefront-3/

Essentially everything in there is false.

The game was never canned after being completed, the game was never even near completion. I was working for the QA company that was testing the game and it was a fucking disaster. Nothing worked. LucasArts didn't can a completed game and a sequel to their most successful franchise up to that point, they took the project away from a vastly incompetent developer who had near the end of the project reduced the game to 3 class, and 5 or 6 maps with a 2 hour long campaign and was still mostly unplayable.

You can look at the videos in this thread: http://www.giantbomb.com/forums/off-topic/31/new-star-wars-battlefront-3-footage-shows-first-3-missions/542545/

This is as good as this game ever got and that's what this guy calls a "completed" game.

Lots of good tester lost a job that day and for a relatively small company that was a huge deal for us at the time.

I guess i've got no way to prove what i'm saying, you're just gonna have to trust a random stranger on the internet. But why would i get worked up for a 4 year old cancelled game anyway?

 

[Kajin]

This... This is just sad...

 

[Dragonpit]

LucasArts on one side, EA on the other.

Bioware is so fucked.

How in the name of all that's hellish and unholy did they manage to get The Old Republic out between the two publishers?

The answer: It's Star Wars.

 

[boag]

Hear that? It's the flavor of the month train pulling up, ready to take half this thread to the "We hate LucasArts" stop. Lots of return passengers from the EA stop, I see.

I love how this site works.

o hai again, doing the broad sweeping generalizations thing again I see, good luck with that, im sure the big Corporation will thank you for White Knighting them.

I couldn't care less about "the big corporations." You don't have to like something to point out how stupid people are for blindly hating it.

I do hope you see the irony of your post.

 

[Grey Day for Elcia]

Hear that? It's the flavor of the month train pulling up, ready to take half this thread to the "We hate LucasArts" stop. Lots of return passengers from the EA stop, I see.

I love how this site works.

o hai again, doing the broad sweeping generalizations thing again I see, good luck with that, im sure the big Corporation will thank you for White Knighting them.

I couldn't care less about "the big corporations." You don't have to like something to point out how stupid people are for blindly hating it.

I do hope you see the irony of your post.

There is no irony there. But it's nice to see you've entirely given up trying to argue--saves me the time of pointing out your every flaw in logic.

 

[Char-Nobyl]

So... Lucasarts played a big hand in the demise of the developers of Timesplitters? And the death of Battlefront 3?

All my hate... they get all my fucking hate.

Activision and EA to a lesser extent as well. Mainly because it's just par for the goddamn course with them.

And by effect, they're probably also the reason why Timesplitters 4 isn't in development anymore [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/345587/timesplitters-4-is-not-in-development-crytek-confirms/]. It was announced in 2007, and not even a month ago, we find out that it's not happening after all.

Battlefront 2 sold more than three million copies on the PS2 alone. If Lucasarts' bottom line was really about money, then why in the hell would they destroy a development-in-progress? Using an unbelievably conservative sales estimate of eight million copies across three platforms at roughly $60 apiece, they would've gotten nearly half a billion dollars in sales revenues. Would they have spent even a quarter of that on this supposedly too expensive development?

 

[Wicky_42]

"But won't someone think of the publishers?"
"Big corporations have to make money too!"

yay, another reason to immediately deride people when they try rolling out those angles again!

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

This doesn't make any sense?

Destroy the chances for creating a garenteed sell with large critical reception to make The Force Unleashed instead?

...

Oh wait, somehow that piece of trash sold extremely well...

Why did that piece of @#%^ sell well?

 

[Matt Dellar]

Last Star Wars game I played was Jedi Knight 3. I was waiting for a fourth, but it doesn't look likely anymore.

Well, who's up for a full-scale indie revolution?

 

[Sylveria]

Wait, publishers are evil, underhanded, and abusive toward developers? When did this start? And where are the thousands of white-knights defending said publisher? Oh wait, this is The Escapist, it crawls with them.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

So THAT'S why LucasArts turned into EA...

 

[mrhappy1489]

The actual eurogamer article, was probably one of the best articles I have ever read, gaming related or not. It was heart rending and tragic to see what happened to Free Radical and honestly, it makes me loose a lot of respect that I once had for the gaming industry. To be brutally honest, I don't believe that an industry exists in this world that is more corrupt and soul destroying than the gaming industry. People like Valve, Mojang, Bethesda are falling by the wayside and I don't think it will be long until indie development is the only route for anyone who wants to do what they want. Farewell Free Radical, you will be weeped for.

 

[217not237]

Damn, I misread this as "Psychonauts" and got my hopes up that LucasArts brought Tim Schafer back in... If only, if only.

 

[Durgiun]

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.

Does it involve ships and the high seas?

 

[cefm]

Mmmmmmm, something fishy in that story. A developer and publisher need to work together as a team toward a common goal, or it will never be successful. The dev here (Free Radical) seems to be telling only their side of the story. If the publisher truly believed that the game was costing too much to develop, then I'm sure they told the dev about their concerns - if the dev decided to throw the contract back in their faces instead of actually trying to work with them to address the problem......then I'm not surprised the publisher lawyered up and screwed them right back.

When the client says "this costs too much and we're going to lose money/never finish", the response isn't to say "we have a contract and we're meeting our milestones, so piss off", the appropriate response is to work out with the client a path forward that both can agree on.

 

[Atmos Duality]

I've heard about LucasArts legal paranoia for years now.

Knew some beta-testers and journalists who went to Lucas Ranch, and they said it was run like an elaborate corporate prison complex. They either security or a lawyer with them at all times watching them like a hawk. Everything was methodical and scheduled to the minute, including the questions they were allowed to ask, or the terms in the contract they were allowed to negotiate.

It's a legal minefield run with ruthless efficiency.

Honestly, as depressing and horrifying as this article sounds, it fits in exactly with what I'd heard about LucasArts before.

TOR came about because they were dealing with other giants who were as money-obsessed as they were (EA), but based on how that transaction worked out, I think even EA fears LucasArts to some degree.

 

[Kinguendo]

Its like a knife... right in my heart.

 

[Mysticgamer]

Why are people surprised? Since the 2000s LucasArts is hands down the worst AAA company.

We're surprised because we remember when they had games like Full Throttle, Day of the Tenacle, Sam & Max Hit the Road and a dozen different games that weren't Starwars extended universe shit then suddenly we blinked and now there's nothing but Star Wars extended Universe shit on their site.

 

[Imbechile]

Why are people surprised? Since the 2000s LucasArts is hands down the worst AAA company.

We're surprised because we remember when they had games like Full Throttle, Day of the Tenacle, Sam & Max Hit the Road and a dozen different games that weren't Starwars extended universe shit then suddenly we blinked and now there's nothing but Star Wars extended Universe shit on their site.

Those days are unfortunately long gone.
LucasArts started to decline around the start of the new millenium. They've already released so much shit in these 10+ years that I'm asking why the surprise and shock all of the sudden?

 

[drzoidbergmd]

This. This is why we can't have nice things.