Rumors of EA buying Luca's Art

The Last Months Of LucasArts (And A Glimpse Of Battlefront III)

In November, just after purchasing LucasFilm, Disney CEO Bob Iger held a company-wide meeting.

During the meeting, according to a source in attendance, a few people asked what was going on. What was going to happen to them? What was the future of LucasArts, the LucasFilm subsidiary and 30-year-old video game studio responsible for a number of beloved games?

“It’s business as usual,” Iger answered, according to our source.


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Six months later, Disney shut down LucasArts. All games in production were cancelled. Business as usual.

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In late 2011, then-LucasArts president Paul Meegan told the website MCV that he had overhauled the studio's teams and started production on a number of different games.

“We should be making games that define our medium, that are competitive with the best of our industry, but we’re not. That has to change,” he said. “Star Wars lends itself to all kinds of games – connecting players and giving them deeper experiences. Stay tuned.”

When Meegan made those proclamations, LucasArts was working on a number of different games, multiple sources have confirmed to Kotaku. One of those games was Star Wars 1313. Another was Star Wars: First Assault. And then there were others, like Outpost, a social game that was to be the Star Wars version of FarmVille. There was an iOS game, and a project headed up by well-respected Splinter Cell designer Clint Hocking.


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In the coming months, every single one of these games would be cancelled or overhauled. Star Wars 1313 shifted directions multiple times, while First Assault was scaled down significantly. Outpost and the iOS game were axed. Hocking left the company, and Meegan would go on to leave too.

Still, LucasArts intended to announce Star Wars: First Assault as an XBLA title in late September of 2012. They planned to release the game this spring. But hours before the scheduled announcement, word came down that it was on hold.

“We just got the worst case of blue balls,” said a source. “We had no idea what was going on.”


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A couple months later, Disney announced that they had purchased LucasFilm and all of its subsidiaries, including LucasArts. That's when staff started to worry about their future there. "Everything Disney would tell us would be, 'business as usual, business as usual,'" a source said. "We lost any transparency we had to the executive level."

We reached out to Disney and LucasFilm this morning, but they declined to comment for this story.

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.

Kotaku has obtained video footage of this “Version Two” project, which you can see below:



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.


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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.”


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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.


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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.

Clarification: An early version of this story implied that Bob Iger's meeting was only with LucasArts. It was actually a company-wide meeting.

Four Reasons the EA-Star Wars Deal Can’t Possibly Work (and Three It Just Might)

By Matt Peckham May 07, 2013

May the force be with Electronic Arts. It’ll surely need all the help it can get to pull a Jedi-rabbit out of this sarlacc pit of a hat.

In case you missed it, the world’s third-largest video game conglomerate just swooped down, presumably with dump trucks full of cash, and scooped up the exclusive multi-year rights to make new Star Wars games for a “core gaming audience.” Disney, which bought LucasFilm and Star Wars from George Lucas for about $4 billion last October, will retain the rights to design games for mobile, social and online audiences.

This, after Disney shuttered historic game developer LucasArts last month. The AP apparently (and amusingly) read that as Disney possibly “giving up” on Star Wars video games. As if. That was just Disney winding up a developer that hadn’t made or published a really memorable Star Wars game — The Force Unleashed included — in over a decade.

Now the license falls to the company Trip Hawkins built, one of gaming’s behemoths and a player that already has skin in the game: EA subsidiary BioWare put together Star Wars: The Old Republic, the second Star Wars MMO (after Sony’s defunct Star Wars: Galaxies), and by most accounts a reasonably successful one, even if it transitioned to free-to-play much more quickly (and worryingly) than expected.

And yet EA has a spotty track record when it comes to franchise tie-ins. Whereas handing a major property off to a smaller, more creatively flexible studio can yield the occasional (and completely unexpected) Batman: Arkham Asylum, LEGO Star Wars, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay or Star Trek: Bridge Commander, the challenge when you ritualize conceptuality, then attempt to wring creativity from individuals on exacting timelines complicated by multi-platform demands and implacable shareholders is…well, it’s all but insurmountable. The result, more often than not, is mediocrity, and that’s typically your best-case scenario.

With that in mind, here’s why I think the EA-Star Wars deal can’t possibly work…or, you know, maybe could, given the stars and planets aligning.

EA’s initial trip down Star Wars lane was confused and tedious

Star Wars: The Old Republic is a decent single-player romp masquerading as a mediocre massively multiplayer one. For all its nerdy narrative depth, The Old Republic runs out of steam too fast, sacrificing dynamic longevity for at best storytelling competency. Compared to NCsoft’s Guild Wars 2, the apotheosis of sprawling world-building MMOs, The Old Republic feels quaint and sadly upstaged.

The company’s tie-in track record is disgraceful

Observe the Harry Potter games, based on J.K. Rowling‘s ridiculously successful books: The films alone are among the highest-grossing of all time. EA had the Harry Potter film license from The Sorceror’s Stone to the final Deathly Hallows duology, and yet — with the arguable exception of EA Bright Light’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – the games, in particular those final few, were utterly forgettable. Then you’ve got stuff like: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Aliens Versus Predator: Extinction, Batman Begins, The Godfather II, Rango, the so-so 007 series and all of the depressingly pedestrian Lord of the Rings tie-ins (save for The Battle of Middle-earth II). Those two exceptions aside, I can’t think of a truly memorable EA video game/movie tie-in. Can you?

EA wrote the book on franchise fatigue

What if the bean counters at EA develop the Star Wars games into a once-a-year event, rolling out new titles with the regularity of more often than not ho-hum perennials like Madden or FIFA? By establishing metrics whereby the Star Wars games are required to meet certain revenue goals to bolster quarterly financials (and ultimately placate shareholders), the company’s almost surely condemning these games to failure (and the brand to further tarnishing), whether immediately or eventually.

The company has a troubled relationship with consumers

Remember Spore‘s launch in 2008? The DRM backlash? Will Wright’s swan song EA game still hovers at just above a single star on Amazon (with over 3,000 negative user reviews). Through the mid-2000s, EA had to fend off disturbing allegations of employee/workplace abuse, and in 2008, it signed an exclusive deal for the NFL license (viewed as anti-competitive, despite EA’s claim that the NFL pushed for the arrangement). And in 2012, the company won The Consumerist’s annual “Worst Company in America” award, easily beating Bank of America in the final round with over a quarter million voting. EA won again this year, too. In short, EA has debilitating public perception issues.

But okay, let’s round things out — here’s a list of reasons why, however improbably, the deal could produce something of consequence despite my concerns.

EA has the resources to pull it off

If anyone has the economic muscle to invest big in Star Wars gaming, it’s EA. The company’s revenue in 2012 alone ($4.143 billion) exceeds the price Disney paid Lucas for all of LucasFilm. How the company approaches this investment is everything, of course, i.e. using all that cash to identify then furnish talented developers with the creative environment needed to deliver more than flavor-of-the-week material.

The game engine already exists (and it’s a thing of beauty)

The new Star Wars games will reportedly use EA DICE’s forthcoming Frostbite 3 engine. I would’ve been thrilled if they used Frostbite 2.0, the engine that powered Battlefield 3 (not a fan of that game, but hello beautiful!). I’m really just extending my last point, but having pockets deep enough to basically hand a design team their game engine in advance should help whichever EA subsidiaries wind up getting the Star Wars gig focus more on designing the games themselves.

The company’s incentive to prove naysayers like me wrong is sky-high

I would love nothing more than to be wrong about EA’s prospects here – Star Wars games don’t have to be poor, or merely competent. So the best of luck to executive chairman Larry Probst and whoever backfills ex-CEO John Riccitiello’s shoes. Let’s hope a presumptive desire to flout cynical expectations yields something unexpected. LucasArts made some terrific and influential Star Wars games back in the day. It’s not too late for someone bold (and talented) enough to start again.

Taken from Time.com

AtrumX wrote:As lame as EA can be they want money. What will make them the most $$ from Star Wars? A new Battlefront game. I don't care who makes it, I want that game.

S7 Coolhand wrote:

AtrumX wrote:As lame as EA can be they want money. What will make them the most $$ from Star Wars? A new Battlefront game. I don't care who makes it, I want that game.

yeah I've had change of heart. Don't care who or how, just make a new Battlefront.

Xpert2010 wrote:Yeah, and then after the game reaches its 1 year anniversary, EA will drop all dah servers or after half a year they'll tell everyone to make monthly payments for servers if they want to continue to pkay the game. bleh.

AtrumX wrote:

Xpert2010 wrote:Yeah, and then after the game reaches its 1 year anniversary, EA will drop all dah servers or after half a year they'll tell everyone to make monthly payments for servers if they want to continue to pkay the game. bleh.

They're doing a great job on Mass Effect 3. It still gets regular patches, events, etc. I'd say all of their truly successful and lasting games they do less 'shady' tactics on.

S7 wonky wrote:

bf3 has been running strong ever since i came out with updates dlcs and patchs

Xpert2010 wrote:Yeah, but didn't BF3 pull off the 'buy your own server' bit at one point?

Xpert2010 wrote:Yeah, but for people like my brother, who plays against randoms. Finding a game to join was rough because he'd always get booted. It took the fun out of the game for him and he quit playing it.

S7 SockPuppet wrote:

Xpert2010 wrote:Yeah, but for people like my brother, who plays against randoms. Finding a game to join was rough because he'd always get booted. It took the fun out of the game for him and he quit playing it.

Too bad he didn't get onto the S7 server, always kept friends & family over randoms and the guys that played all the time were tons of fun to play with.