RIP LucasArts

[Kit Fisto]

They have some good points. I will keep that in mind during there next "Battlefront Update"...

[Unit 33]

http://kotaku.com/the-last-months-of-lucasarts-472038151

Ohoh!
Check out the video here, in which is the second version of First Assault which looks a lot more like the battlefront we all know and love.
Too bad it's dead.

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."

But over the past few months, morale has been low at LucasArts. Due to the freeze on all hiring and game announcements, staff at the company had no idea whether their games would ever actually come out.

In January, a month after the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, Disney's Iger came out and said they would be taking a close look at the violence in their video games.

This was a red flag for the developers at LucasArts. Here they are, working on a first-person shooter and a violent action-adventure game, and Disney says they're re-evaluating the amount of violence in their games? Not a great sign.

"It was very clear that we were kind of the redheaded stepchild," said a source. "We kinda came along with the hot mom being the film properties."


The Studio Behind Epic Mickey Has Shut Down
Following rumors yesterday, Junction Point, the development studio behind Epic Mickey and its... Read...
Next, Disney closed Junction Point, the studio behind Epic Mickey and its sequel. This was another ominous sign for LucasArts staff, a source said. "We understand that Epic Mickey 2 didn't sell that well, but I mean, they tried to make a musical," the source said. "We didn't know what was happening there either."

There were two more events that led LucasArts employees to believe that the end was near, a source told me.


Leaked Footage Of Star Wars' Newest Take On Battlefield And Call of Duty [UPDATE]
Over the past few days, I've been talking to multiple sources about Star Wars: First Assault,... Read...
The first was in March, when Kotaku leaked details and videos from Star Wars: First Assault, which still hadn't been announced.

"When Disney didn't make lemonade out of lemons there, they didn't use that as a marketing opportunity. They didn't do anything," a source said. That's when they knew things were bad.

The day after Kotaku put up video footage from First Assault, LucasArts had a meeting, that source said.

"They said 'Okay, look, if anything else happens, we're gonna take legal action, we're gonna find you,'" the source said. "Nobody wants Lucas and Disney lawyers coming after them... nobody could even publicly acknowledge that the stuff [Kotaku was] showing was tied to us in any way."

The second point when LucasArts employees knew that something had gone wrong was just before GDC, when, according to a source, they were given strict guidelines about what they could and could not say. First Assault developers were allowed to say they were working on a first-person shooter in the Star Wars universe, that source told me, but they couldn't name the game, even though it was already out there.

By this point, rumors had already been circulating that LucasArts might shut down. According to one source present at the pre-GDC meeting, executives acknowledged that rumor but wouldn't confirm or deny it.

"Luckily, many of us saw the writing on the wall and took GDC as an opportunity," said the source.

Last week, Disney shut down LucasArts. Although LucasFilm says they could license out games like Star Wars 1313 or First Assault to be finished by other developers, I've talked to three sources who don't think that's likely.

"Disney says they're shopping [First Assault] around to other outlets to see if they want to finish it, but we don't think that's gonna happen," a source said.

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.

UPDATE: EA has responded with a statement from labels president Frank Gibeau: "The entire game industry is in transition as we build more efficient organizations to deliver games on popular new platforms like mobile and consoles. EA is not currently considering any major acquisitions."

The shutdown of LucasArts has left the fate of Star Wars video games unclear. Will Disney license Star Wars to other publishers? Will they publish games made by external developers? Will we see more games like Star Wars Kinect? One thing's for sure: it won't be business as usual.

[tirpider]

It seems everything that's ever been said about BF3 is that it's canceled.
It's getting old.

It's like all those AC/DC songs, with a hard hitting intro riff that seems to last the entire song.  They spend 3 or so min. declaring that they are about to rock, but never quite get to the rocking part before the song ends.  Like they forgot it along the way, or left it backstage.....

[Giftheck]

It's more or less the fact that every entity that has tried to touch Battlefront III has collapsed into a manging pile of heap. It's something I'm used to by now: we'll never, ever get BFIII.

[RepComm]

It's more or less the fact that every entity that has tried to touch Battlefront III has collapsed into a manging pile of heap. It's something I'm used to by now: we'll never, ever get BFIII.

I'm sure, deep down inside, everyone figured that would happen...
The coolest things always die first.

[«ΙΞ¢KØ»]

well i think i always thought deep down that it might possibly happen some day. Especially with the new movies coming out.

This video looked awesome though, a lot more swbf 1 in it than 2. It looked a lot more promising than the last video posted for first assault (i tried going back to that last article and video to look at comparisons, but found that Disney/Lucas Arts had it pulled down).

[Carbon27]

Wait, what if we can do all sorts of cool stuff we couldn't before, we could make SWBF3 OURSELVES!

[RepComm]

Wait, what if we can do all sorts of cool stuff we couldn't before, we could make SWBF3 OURSELVES!

Believe it or not, I am trying to make an engine in GML that will run it's own type of 3D files, since the ones it has built in are far too primitive to use (like rotations and animation), but if I can -eventually- get the huge project done, perhaps it could be a SWBFIII (0.2) ?

I am still learning advanced GML though, so it will most likely be a few years to get it out, and that is assuming I don't just give up on it...

[tirpider]

There are certainly many promising engines to chose from (for making a BF3 game.)  Unity, that Cube engine, heck, even the JK code Raven just released.  All sorts of ready made frameworks on sourceforge and other code repository sites.

Need a team to work on it though and some sort of lead to wrangle it all together.

I would suggest that formal programming knowledge would be helpful, but I'm more of a jump-in-and-break-it-then-fix-it kind of guy.

-edit
GML, that's programming.
I think your right about it taking a while on that route.  The last version of GM I touched was before YoYo had it, and 3d was just not possible with it.

[Led]

There have been several "Let's make SWBF3 ourselves!" groups over the years.  There is one on GT right now.

The most successful of these has been, in my opinion, the COD4 group, a link to which I posted before but have forgotten about.

[Kit Fisto]

For those who "Just want to get the facts" and none of this BS news here is an interview with IGN.com's Mitch Dyer on the newest Rebel Force Radio episode. It aired before the new First Assult video but it will help you hear from a professional on the matter.

Here is a link to download on:
iTunes
It's titled Rebel Force Radio: April 5, 2013


Or listen to it directly on your browser
HERE


Let it load for a little bit, press play, and skip too 1:27:00 or around there.



Here is where I got the download options: http://www.shotglassdigital.com/release/april-5-2013/


I hope this helps people out.