Has Disney Killed BF3?

[Beniboybling]

Came across this article on Kotaku.com. Be warned, it sucks:

...In the coming months, up until just a couple of weeks ago, LucasArts staff were working on three projects: Star Wars: First Assault, Star Wars 1313, and a smaller project internally referred to as “Version Two,” according to two sources familiar with the situation.

 

In the video, you can see all sorts of vehicle combat: the player, looking from a first-person perspective, zips around in X-Wings and AT-AT Walkers while shooting down TIE Fighters and other Star Wars-y vehicles. The art isn't final, but the combat looks very cool: one section, for example, shows multiple players riding on hoverbikes and shooting lasers at everything in their paths.

 

First Assault, as we reported a few weeks ago, didn't have any vehicles. Version Two did.

 

This is because, according to multiple sources, developers at LucasArts planned to turn Version Two into Star Wars: Battlefront III, the highly-anticipated third game in the Battlefront shooter series that has shuffled from developer to developer over the past few years. This time, LucasArts hoped to make it themselves.

 

“[There’s] a very vocal audience that's clamoring for Battlefront III,” said a source. “We were hoping to eventually give it to them.”

 

You can read the full article here, and watch the video too. The gameplay looked awesome, and this only makes be more annoyed that Disney shut Lucasarts down, I'm aware of why they did it, and that Lucasarts wasn't the great video game making company it used to be. But it seemed to me that Lucasarts were just getting ready to get back in the game, and that Battlefront III may now never happen. We'll see.

 

On a brighter note:

The big rumor floating around LucasArts circles—something we have not been able to confirm, but that has been relayed to us by two different sources—is that EA was considering buying LucasArts, but that some combination of the SimCity debacle and CEO John Riccitiello’s departure put an end to those plans. We reached out to EA two days ago for comment on this, but they haven’t gotten back to us.

 

Keep your grubby mitts of Star Wars EA!

[Aurbere]

I have a feeling that, had these games been released, LucasArts would have had a second wind.

 

But we'll never know. Really looked forward to these games. Hopefully they haven't really been canned and some other developer picked them up.

[Selenial]

This thread brings a tear to my eye.... Still, they are leasing out some of the unfinished projects.... Right?

 

But on the lighter side, THANK THE LORD that the company responsible for This has not been allowed to get its grubby hands on lucasarts...

[Beniboybling]

This thread brings a tear to my eye.... Still, they are leasing out some of the unfinished projects.... Right?

 

But on the lighter side, THANK THE LORD that the company responsible for This has not been allowed to get its grubby hands on lucasarts...

Ha! Ha! That was funny, but EA do have a point lol.

[Selenial]

Ha! Ha! That was funny, but EA do have a point lol.

 

You'd think.

But its not a competition of the things other companies have been responsible for, but the way they handle their customers, and deal with them...

Also, things like the oil spill are accidents, EA CAN deal with this if they tried, but they honestly dont care ^^

[Beniboybling]

You'd think.

But its not a competition of the things other companies have been responsible for, but the way they handle their customers, and deal with them...

Also, things like the oil spill are accidents, EA CAN deal with this if they tried, but they honestly dont care ^^

Very true, and this statement proves that.

[Ventessel]

 

Keep your grubby mitts of Star Wars EA!

 

Interestingly, I just read an article over on Gamasutra that had an interview with one of BioWare's founders who recently retired.

 

He said that EA had been wonderful to work with on SWTOR and Mass Effect, and that they gave the game dev's unilateral creative freedom and didn't get in their way at all. Basically, they financed the game and trusted BioWare to produce a good, profitable product.

 

So if EA ended up buying the license to produce Battlefront 3, that means we would actually see a Battlefront 3 instead of these lame half-promises that LucasArts kept offering. I'm glad Disney made the decision to put the nail in LucasArts' coffin, they were pretty irritating and hadn't gotten their act together to make a good game in years.

 

Disney will not throw away the potential of Battlefront 3. The material exists and only needs to be refined and streamlined. We may not see the game for several years, but I imagine that just as Episode 3 was tied in with Battlefront 2, so may Episode 7 or 8 be. Things will be pretty frantic while getting Episode 7 together, but sometime between that and the release of Episode 8 I would expect to see a deal closed with a studio to develop Battlefront 3.

[Beniboybling]

Interestingly, I just read an article over on Gamasutra that had an interview with one of BioWare's founders who recently retired.

 

He said that EA had been wonderful to work with on SWTOR and Mass Effect, and that they gave the game dev's unilateral creative freedom and didn't get in their way at all. Basically, they financed the game and trusted BioWare to produce a good, profitable product.

 

So if EA ended up buying the license to produce Battlefront 3, that means we would actually see a Battlefront 3 instead of these lame half-promises that LucasArts kept offering. I'm glad Disney made the decision to put the nail in LucasArts' coffin, they were pretty irritating and hadn't gotten their act together to make a good game in years.

 

Disney will not throw away the potential of Battlefront 3. The material exists and only needs to be refined and streamlined. We may not see the game for several years, but I imagine that just as Episode 3 was tied in with Battlefront 2, so may Episode 7 or 8 be. Things will be pretty frantic while getting Episode 7 together, but sometime between that and the release of Episode 8 I would expect to see a deal closed with a studio to develop Battlefront 3.

Fortunately as you say, EA's involvement in SWTOR has been minimal. Although the growing influence of the Cartel Market has EA written all over it. However the more control they have, the suckier the product turns out. Case in point: SimCity - plagued by server woes and forced into 'always online', and now they have the audacity to introduce branded DLC content, revealing their grand scheme to convert SimCity into another one of their corporate schemes. Never would I advocate them taking control over Lucasarts.

 

But enough ranting, you make a fair point. But I can't help but feeling they've been cut down just as they were about to make a comeback. And I can't help but feeling that a lot of these moves made by Disney, axing the Clone Wars etc. are motivated primarily by greed. Yes the sequels are on there way but then again, it is really necessary to refocus the entirety of Lucasfilm into making these films? Remembering that A New Hope was made on a budget of $11 million in a pretty chaotic manner, and without the backing of the huge company Lucasfilm has become.

 

Instead it would seem that the purpose of these moves is to ensure that Disney can capitalize on the release of the Sequels, be it merchandise, advertising, tv series, spin-offs, videogames etc. Essentially they want to make loadsa money on their 'new franchise' and aren't really interested in the ongoing projects George Lucas left behind. In a nutshell they don't want it to get in the way.

 

If this wasn't the case, why are they laying these people off instead of redirecting them to the production of the sequels? Call me suspicious, but I reckon this is why. So naturally I'm suspicious towards any move by Disney to shutdown another project. So will BF3 ever happen? Or will Disney instead opt for sequel based videogames and more of Star Wars: Kinect?