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Hello Battlefrontians! MAY THE 4th be with you! This is very interesting, and a big thanks to “maul362″ for the heads up. In an in-depth article with Eurogamer, Free Radical Co-Founders David Doak and Steve Ellis, bear their teeth and tell us how LucasArts basically destroyed any hopes of them releasing Battlefront 3.
Battlefront 3 had started in mid-2006, and development continued until early 2008. Then things changed. “Steve and I began thinking that the dates were looking a bit tight for the first one,” says Doak, “so we thought we’d do what we had never done before and let LucasArts know our concerns. Because LucasArts had been so good to work with, we thought they’d see the sense of what we were saying. And that coincided with Jim Ward not being there one day.”
This is fairly accurate with all of the reported rumors and facts.
“The appointment of Darrell Rodriguez as president of LucasArts was announced on April 2nd 2008. He wasn’t the only new face. LucasArts was making sweeping changes as part of a new strategy, the first step of which was cutting their outgoings in half. Huge numbers of staff were fired, an entire layer of management was removed, and countless projects were canned. “For a long time we talked of LucasArts as the best relationship we’d ever had with a publisher,” says Ellis. “Then in 2008 that disappeared, they were all either fired or left. 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.”
That’s crazy..
“LucasArts hadn’t paid us for six months,” says Norgate “and were refusing to pass a milestone so we would limp along until the money finally ran out. They knew what they were doing, and six months of free work to pass on to Rebellion wasn’t to be sniffed at.” Part of the eventual agreement between LucasArts and Free Radical saw certain assets passed on to Rebellion Studios. For a time LucasArts was tempted by the thought of a hastily put together Battlefront 3, but nothing came of it. When presented with the allegations put forth by this investigation, LucasArts said simply that it does not comment on rumour and speculation.”
So by the sounds of it, like everything else in this world, it boils down to that dirty five letter word: M-O-N-E-Y.
Definitely a good read! Lets hear some thoughts and opinions!
Check out the full article here.
Free Radical Founders Tell Story of Battlefront 3 and more...,
Guys, if you think about it, LA is being “consequenced”.
Because, lets face it, every game by LA after TFU1, has sucked. They either make BF3, or die slowly(look what they’re choosing now). Also, regardless if they are being punished in any form, witholding money from a hardworking dev, is dead wrong. And I hope to see you crumble if you don’t admit and take full responsibility for that scam.
guys i have an app for windows phone 7 marketplace that shows this thread in a rss type feed on your windows 7 phone. type in starwars news app and then find the correct feed.
Ok are we ready to organize a boycott of Lucas Arts yet?
I don’t know a bout a boycott because what if they give us Republic Commando 2, Empire at War 2, KOTOR 3, X wing/Tie fighter, or Jedi academy? would you boycott one of them? now if they keep making Lego games(which i liked the first one but we don’t need more) or kinect games them I’m all for a boycott
Unless your just saying Lets start a boycott on all crappy not as good IPs that LA has then I could follow that…
We want battlefront 3, boycott all of their games is what I am saying and if they do go out of business then so be it jedi. I dont even care about any of thier other games. Republic commando was ok but nothing I would ever buy, maybe rent . We have been sqeaky for over 6 years and I am not seeing any greese. Look Lucas Arts is a crap company ,alot of people in the industry know this. I have a friend who has worked on video games. I have been saying for months that the game was not bf3 that spark was making because I have a very reliable source. You probably wont see swb3 until at least a couple years after the next gen consoles are out . The game has been put on the back burner. This company no longer cares about putting out good games. At some point or another you people are going to wish we got this boycott going!!! it is our only hope Obi Wan.
At this point, I think a boycott is our best hope for BF3. I can’t believe Lucasarts cancelled BF3 to make Kinect Star Wars! What a bunch of IDIOTS! Anyway, I think we should boycott all Lucasarts until we see a Battlefront 3.
you guys dont understand. if we boycott, they’re just going to half a** bf3 and be like “hey you people wanted it, so here it is”. then everyone will be like “oh this company sucks because bf3 sucked” then LA will laugh in our faces saying “hey you guys wanted it”. they said it isnt going to be ma,e so its NOT going to be made. i am beyond mad about it, but we’re just gunna hafta move on. a boycott wont do anything
Nah man, don’t boycott. We deserve this game! As my dad always says, “The squeaky wheel gets the grease”! =]
The squeaky wheel should get replaced.
That all depends on their “new” direction they’re headed in. They have some new games to announce which will most likely be Star Wars games, so I pray at E3 we are not disappointed once again.
I have completely given up on Battlefront 3. I’m just going to continue to use Star Wars mods on Unreal Tournament 3, it’s not the same, but Epic Games puts out a lot higher quality games than LA has been. I wish so bad that Rpic Games would make Battlefront 3.
I already read this before and I’m speakless. Of course, it’s because of money. Every company wants to make money with their own things… And there is the point. They did they cancell the game of Free Radical? They won no money they just lost money. Battlefront 3 and 4 would have been for sure the most sucessful star wars games of all time if they had sold the game…
It a big shame about Free Radical games.
Also LucasArts has Timesplitter 4 on conscience…
The worst thing is that these fans will never see a sequel to their game.
I hope LucasArts is making Battlefront 3 now and good or we all will storm their headquarter.
I have a nice comment for LucasArts. I know I’m going to catch a lot of flack for this but: “F*ck You! Greedy bastards! Really? I thought you cared about your fans! I would think you guys would press forward and present the world with what would have been the best Star Wars game to date! But no, you and your money dreams. Wouldn’t you think that if you put out a high quality game you would get high quality money for it? I mean really? So they decide to put out cheap sh*t like Force Unleashed II and Lego Star Wars III. I won’t even mention this upcoming Kinect game.” Peace out.
The problem is how the Development process works. As he said, they hadn’t been paid in 6 months. Development wasn’t finished, and it wasn’t going to launch soon. 6 months pay + Pre-Launch/Post-Launch Marketing means a lot of money to shell out, at a period where they didn’t want to. He was hired to cut back, and that’s what he did. Rebellion may have been hoping to pick up SWBF (as proven by the Screens we saw) but I think it was more of them hoping, and LA vaguely considering it, then remembering the same issues as with Free Radical would still stand. We saw Loading Screens from Rebellion after all, nothing actually concrete.
Yes, its a stupid move considering the Millions they could have made after Launch, but first they’d have had to shell out Millions they didn’t want to, so he did what he had to do. Anyway, the Rodriguez period is over, he quit in 2010.
Personally I’d be surprised if they’re not planning something for it. Maybe internally, maybe not. Either way, as people continue to point out, LA seems to be all about money lately, so yes, I’m quite sure they can see the obvious allure of Millions upon Millions in profit from another Star Wars Battlefront Game. Have they really abandoned the fans? I wonder. As I said, (potential) SWBF profits would definitely attract them much more than the Development Costs.
TFU wasn’t great Gameplay-wise, yes, but it had a great Storyline. TFU II was obviously just riding on the back of TFU’s success, but still a nice (albeit small) addition to the Storyline. Personally looking forward to the inevitable TFU III.
Epic Games make SWBF3? Yeah, no. The last time Epic Games made a REAL Video Game was UT2004, and that was almost 8 years ago. UT3 was an aping of the entire Franchise, some sort of a terrible mix of Gears of War and 21st Century FPS Games, and Bulletstorm was fun, but mediocre. Gears of War had a good Cover-Shooting System, but otherwise its nothing like SWBF.
Top Studio they could offer SWBF3 to right now would probably be Crytek UK (formerly Free Radical). With a slightly similar Team, already slightly experienced with working on Star Wars already, we could get something even better. Plus, they’d be working with CryEngine 3, so stunning Visuals would be guaranteed (and without the high licensing fee). Unfortunately after their terrible Crysis 2 CoD Multiplayer I’d think twice about it first. They’re also working on Homefront 2 right now, so it would be a while before they even started Development. Second option would be recruit former DICE Developers and work on it internally. They’ve bought several Unreal Engine 3 licenses I believe as they have plans to do stuff.
Right now we know they’re doing this Aerial Combat FPS which is definitely not Indiana Jones. Could be a new X-Wing, but description sounds weird. Don’t think they’d take SWBF to First-Person, and no mention of Ground Combat. They’re also working on an Open-World RPG but unless its TFU3 I think that’s an Indiana Jones Game. They’re also rumoured to be showcasing some sort of a Wii U MMO at E3, but it seems that’s all they’re working on right now.
Sad we’ll never see the Free Radical Game though. Along with losing another PC-Lead Game, we lost what seems like it would have been an interesting Campaign – http://images.eurogamer.net/2012/articles//a/1/4/8/0/4/2/6/1__2_.jpg.jpg – Got it off the EuroGamer Article, guess he was going to be an Antagonist Sith on Dagobah. Much better than 501st Legion from SWBF2.
Epic Games would be the PERFECT company to make SWBF3. They already have plenty of experience in 3rd-Person Shooters(Gears of War) and Massive Vehicle-Based Multiplayer(Unreal Tournament). Not to mention how much more hype the game would receive. I don’t care what anyone says, Unreal Tournament 3 was the most balanced shooter ever made, in my opinion, there was no single overpowering way to be successful unlike most popular shooters today.
Lucasarts and Epic Games do have a multi-year agreement. Pretty old news but its still some sort of hope.
http://www.lucasarts.com/company/release/
At least everything that LA has done is coming back to bite them in the ass. They’ve been going downhill for a long time.
if anyone is interested the latest episode of all gen gamers podcast (a great podcast) they had a guest on who worked on battlefront 3 it was very interesting
Here are my opinions:
First, I would like to extend my gratitude towards these people from Free Radical. They were doing a good job on the game, and this brings me to my next point:
It is quite apparent from the story that all LA wanted was money. They didn’t care about their fans, Free Radical, half of their own employees, and companies that were making other untold projects that were cancelled. If you are looking to save money, you might have to spend some first. This is a prime example of greed in a large company, and once Free Radical was gone they had no chance of getting this game off the ground. It shocks me in some ways and doesn’t surprise me in others, because people here will remember that is when LA was releasing their second-rate games – the ones that were not cancelled. TFU was a pretty bad game, and the Rebellion-finished Battlefronts obviously had a low budget. Again, thank you to the people from Free Radical, who obviously care a lot more about the fans than LA.
Oh good, can we stop blaming George Lucas now? >.>
Does that guy even still work there anyway? IIRC LA has been doing cuts almost every year for the last few years.
idk if George Lucas is actuallyu involved in LucasArts or not, but I know he doesn’t give a crap about fans. if he did, he would’ve made more Star Wars movies instead of editing the old ones over and over and over…
Unless this has already been covered on gamespot in 2011 there was an article about lucas arts hiring devs for an fps game with aerial combat.