Disney and star wars do not mix. Disney has a habit of buying up and destroying good products. Remember what happened to Indiana Jones when Disney helped out? Imagine how bad it will be when Disney is responsible for the whole thing.
Star Wars 1313 on hold?
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Sources say development on LucasArts' action shooter has been frozen since Disney acquired the Star Wars brand in October.
Three independent sources have told Kotaku that development on Star Wars 1313 has been frozen since Disney acquired the Star Wars brand in October. As a result, the action shooter could miss this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo and slip into 2014, they said.
This contradicts comments from LucasArts at the time of the Disney acquisition. A representative said at the time that development on all projects continued unabated.
Asked about the status of Star Wars 1313, a LucasArts representative told the site that the game is not canceled, but would not say more.
"LucasArts has been working diligently to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities that the new Star Wars movies present," the company said. "Star Wars 1313 continues production."
Kotaku's sources also provided new development details on Star Wars 1313. The game was reportedly conceived in 2009 as a tie-in to a live-action Star Wars television show that was to be set between the original Star Wars films and the prequel movies. The game was called Underworld at the time, the sources said, noting it would feature adult themes.
The sources added that Underworld/Star Wars 1313 was originally planned as an open-world role-playing game in a similar vein to BioWare's Knights of the Old Republic series. Episodic character updates were to be delivered through regular downloadable content expansions.
This game was scaled back in 2010 due to budget concerns, the sources said, and was rewritten with a plot not related to the TV show. It was also at this time that LucasArts was reportedly looking to reinvent itself and was considering Star Wars spin-offs in new genres. The company was supposedly considering a Star Wars version of FarmVille and a Call of Duty-esque first-person shooter code-named Trigger.
The report goes on to detail a 2011 or 2012 meeting where Star Wars creator George Lucas saw Star Wars 1313 and "loved" it. He also reportedly told developers to have the game answer questions like "Who is Boba Fett?" and "Why was Han working for Jabba?" and "Who were the Bothan spies?"
The game's last public showing came eight months ago during the 2012 Electronic Entertainment Expo in June.
For more on Star Wars 1313, check out GameSpot's previous coverage of Star Wars 1313.
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
299 comments
1 Like This has now been cancelled due to Disney firing everyone at Lucas Arts (videogames) , tossers.
When was the last time that either Disney or LacasArts has put out a quality game?....just asking.
@TruthSerum808 The early to mid 90s. LucasArts was known for their quality point-and-click adventure games. Head over to Steam sometime and check out "Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis" and Monkey Island 1 & 2. Unfortunately the company eventually decided that taking a normal FPS or flight simulator and putting a Star Wars skin on it was cheaper and easier so here we are today.
Hopefully Disney realizes that they're leaving money on the table by not re-releasing more of the LucasArts classics (Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max Hit the Road, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango) via digital distribution or iOs. I wouldn't hold my breath...
@Muradin_2 Calling Tie fighter a re-skinned flight simulator is complete rubbish, that game was groundbreaking in its time and is still one of the best space sims around if you prefer space combat to space exploration or trading. whats more many of the early star wars games broke new ground in terms of graphics and gameplay, unfortunately somewhere along the way Lucasarts lots its ambition resulting in a steady decline, thats not really the fault of star wars games so much as a general market trend away from innovation
what do you mean bad feeling? Didn't everyone else get a fuzzy warm feeling ever since Disney rolled over SW? And it wont get cancelled, it will go the way of the new TV series ... neverworld?
Disney has lots of money and power, they said. They can only make the franchise better, they said.
Well, poop...
2 Like Disney has no creative spirit anymore only half baked ideas and dreams for greens don't expect too much from the star wars brand...
1 Like It's on hold. No, wait, it's in production. Ok, I've nothing else so here is the game's history of production. Lame, lame, lame article with nothing proven or confirmed.
Well... They've said that Disney would be releasing Episode VII with Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher (rumored) and Harrison Ford (confirmed). How much would you bet that they've halted 1313 because a movie tie-in would suit them better?
6 Like Lucas Arts: where great franchises are born and die an early death, or are replaced by inferior quality games.
RIP:
Star Wars Battlefront 3
Republic Commando 2
The Jedi Knight game that should have been, but we got the crappy "Force Unleashed" instead
3 Like @LtReviews RIP Gladius. One of the best turn based tactical strategy games ever made - never given a sequel. God how I want a sequel to that game!
1 Like @surrealme @LtReviews Oh man, Gladius. AWESOME game, awesome music, awesome strategy.
@Reaverking I still have my original Xbox just so I can play that game again every couple of years.
They're most likely delaying the release of this game to coincide with a collaborative live action Star Wars television series that will be airing on one of ABC's channels (most likely ABC itself in a prime time slot) I cannot confirm this, but if it's true, then you heard it here first.
mind = blown.
@SuperDutchy they are not delaying release, they are halting development on this game...though yes for extension that would affect the release date too I guess.
@simon1812 a large portion of the source material they used for creating the game up to this point was take from material created many years ago for a live action television show that never came to fruition.
I sincerely doubt that Disney would simply throw away an IP which has already had so much time and resources dedicated to it and that obviously has potential.
What makes more sense is that in an effort to commercialize the Star Wars name to it's fullest, they have chosen to freeze production to re-evaluate the direction they want to take and to align the game with the live action television show utilizing the same source material.
You can read about the show on the internet, they had literally seasons of show written, sets created, costumes, they just never began shooting. There have been reports of Disney wanting to revisit the idea of a live action show, so really it wouldn't surprise me that they would put anything related on hold.
2 Like I really doubt Disney will want to continue development on a game that is meant to be a very mature title, when they are going to be marketing their movies as family-friendly as all their other IPs...
Anything that frees up more people for Battlefront 3 and HD X-Wing/TIE Fighter can only be a good thing. Now get on it, Lucasarts.
@brok this is bad did you not read up top Farmville and a COD type FPS. Disney thinks they can turn Star Wars into COD thats messed up man. They Have no clue what the Fan Base wants
@CP2077Both those concepts, according to the article, date from 2010, long before Disney bought Lucasarts. If anything, it shows how backwards Lucasarts was *before* the aquisition. Disney can't make it much worse than it already was.
They are supposedly work on multiple unannounced titles. Now they are announcing 1313, Disney shows up, 1313 put on hold. I'm starting to have a bad feeling about this, like they are making LucasArts to focus on a tie in game for the new movie, which may be good, but then no new, no good Star Wars games for a while...
I hope this hasn't been canned. It was the most interesting Star Wars thing I've seen in a long time, and I'd actually allowed myself a little glimmer of hope!
3 Like I just hope it doesn't get canceled. Cause it really looked impressive at E3 last year.
1 Like I wouldn't get my hopes up.
This was the published the got ride of Battlefront III after it was basically finished...
And I don't even want to speculate on what happened to the Republic Commando and X-Wing/Tie-fighter sequels that almost certainly would have been in the works at one point or another..
5 Like Lucas arts: we're making this 1313 game. how you like it?
Disney: Stop and put it on hold. Fans have been asking for BF3 for almost a decade. let's make that.
Lucas arts: BF3? what's that?
@Malscyllis Disney will do no such thing, didn't you read they caned it to make a Star Wars COD type game
@CP2077 @Malscyllis No they didn't. Didn't YOU read? They said they were considering branching out to CoD or Farmville in 2010. The article also says that the game is NOT canceled.
I'd say this is surprising but it isn't, this game looked next-gen in all the early screen shots. Hopefully the delays make it take full advantage of the wait to go next-gen.
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