Blog FeedWelcome Back LucasArts?
I don’t buy LucasArts games anymore. I forget which one I bought last… probably Jedi Knight 2. I do though remember quite clearly when I decided not to buy their games no matter how promising they might look.
It was the day they cancelled Sam and Max 2, and that day I wrote a big editorial detailing how LucasArts went from being one of the most creative developers and publishers to churning out Star Wars game after Star Wars game. I detailed how they went from delivering interesting and unique Star Wars games, to making clones of other titles with the Star Wars license slapped onto them.
And yes, I know Knights of the Old Republic is a great game, but let’s be fair, that’s entirely down to Bioware.
I was pissed. I know. Maybe a little irrational. It’s still an incredible statistic to tell people that Lucasfilm Games (as they were initially called when they were founded in 1982) went nearly a decade without producing a single Star Wars game. The first Star Wars title they made came out in 1991. In the last decade they’ve made over forty Star Wars titles, if you include expansion packs and I’m glad to say that might be about to change.
The studio that was cranking out new game after new game is now probably the definitive example of franchise milking.
Their most recent hits haven’t just been Star Wars games, but sequels to Star Wars games… so it was with some surprise that I saw an interview in the New York times stating that the company was planning on moving away from the Star Wars license to focus more on original titles.
Original titles haven’t stopped coming out of LucasArts, they’ve just slowed to a crawl. In recent years we’ve had the praised Mercenaries for example, but it’s one of a seemingly ever rarer breed.
We’ve heard this from LucasArts before though. In 2002, according to wikipedia, they made a similar move, and remembering the slate back then makes me believe it. Sadly, the new titles they made were just as lackluster in quality as the Star Wars games they were producing at the time, and didn’t have a license to help sell.
LucasArts didn’t learn that if you actually made a good game it’d sell presumably cursing themselves for not using the Star Wars shovel to move their shit, and we ended up seeing original ideas mostly stopped, and sequels to their adventure games of the golden age cancelled. They laid off over a third of their staff and carried on pumping out Star Wars games.
Knights of the Old Republic came out nearly 3 years ago, and the only big hits they’ve had since have been Star Wars clones of other succesful titles.
It’s probably only the threat of the license cooling, now that the films are finished, that has LucasArts starting to turn elsewhere, if indeed they really are this time. That the only new projects named in the New York Times article are a new Star Wars title and a new Indiana Jones title, is hardly a good sign.
If George Lucas hadn’t been topping the cow up with more milk every few years, we’d have probably seen a bullet put through the old girl years back.
That’s not how I saw it the day they cancelled Sam and Max 2, where I coldly attributed the fall off in quality to Episode 1. LucasArts, I said, had been breaking their backs throughout the nineties, ensuring their Star Wars titles were as vibrant and entertaining as the series of films they were based on. On viewing Episode 1 they probably thought ‘shit… why were we bothering if this is what George is happy to put the name on?’.
Star Wars is a popular brand even still, but do we really need 4 or 5 new Star Wars games every year? The escapism of venturing to that ‘Galaxy far far away’ has dissolved as completely as the escapism of venturing back to world war two and what was once an exciting place to visit has become a monotonous place to go.
It certainly is time for LucasArts to focus more on new games, and to ensure that any Star Wars games they make stand by themselves again. With any luck, their coming to learn that a one trick pony can only take you so far, and isn’t very forward looking.
I’m skeptical but hopeful, if that isn’t a nonsensical statement, as while I doubt they’ll pull it off this time, I’m glad to see them trying.
Furthermore, given that the current CEO of the company mentions that his favourite ride at Disneyworld is Pirates of the Caribbean, I can’t help but hope to see a return of the LucasArts franchise that very same ride inspired.
Hi, I’m Ryan Acheson, and I wanna be a pirate again. Not a Jedi thanks. That got boring a long time ago, in this galaxy.
21st April | Reply
Hi Ryan.
Even though it seems you would like a support group, I’d like to say “f” being a pirate.
I want to be lost in a Mansion owned by the great^10 grandfather of Professor Farnsworth, run by the Tentacle forebearer of the Brain, while trying to return two of my best friends from being scattered across time.
I’m still trying to figure out who was the Real McCoy.
21st April | Reply
Seconded. As the third installment so appropriatly puts it:
“A pirate I was meant to be!
Trim the sails and roam the sea!”
21st April | Reply
Yes and no. I want to be a pirate again, that doesn’t have any bearing on my desire to be a jedi. A game that let’s me play A long time ago in a galaxy far far away is always worth considering.
Of course we still need a good set of Star Wars games. I’d step back into the boots of Kyle Katarn without a second thought, Delta Squadron damn straight i’d like to be an Imperial Commando, Tie Fighter 2 or Rogue squadron 4 hell yeah where can i find my jumpsuit. There’s room for an Empire at War 2 which let’s me match wits with Grand Admiral Thrawn set in the Timothy Zhan space, and plenty of room for early Republic based games too. And the KOTOR series needs an ending
There is also room for all kinds of other stuff that could be done with the liscense. Like World War 2, Star Wars is a timeless setting that shouldn’t ever go away. I’d like to see less bad star wars games–but I’d love to see another classic star wars title. I had fun with a game like Empire at War which is a pretty average Rock Paper Scissors RTS with an average galactic map to show the eb and flow of the larger but it’s so well wrapped in being Star Wars liscensing that it’s more fun than it ought to be.
I’d like to see a lot more other games from Lucas Arts, but that desire doesn’t mean i want to see them stop making Star Wars games which really make up a very large number of my favorite games of all time.
22nd April | Reply
Well, like I said, I want to see even their Star Wars games regain the quality they used to have. When I said ’stand by themselves’ I meant that they were good enough titles to get by without the license. Dark Forces 2, X-Wing and many others were important titles in their respective genres regardless of the fact they were Star Wars games.
22nd April | Reply
In Reply to #4:
I don’t know about that. A game like TIE Fighter is a titan in its genre because of the license. Sure, it is a great game regardless, but the fact that you get to play an Imperial against the Rebel Alliance makes it that much better.
22nd April | Reply
Actually i bought Dark forces 2 only because it had a light saber and force powers in it and i got to use those before that was trivial. To be honest it was that it was a fantastic Star Wars game that made it what it was. You take away the liscense and it’s a 85-90 score instead of a 95ish score.
23rd April | Reply
Manny rocks.
23rd April | Reply
I’d like to see more good Star Wars games, preferably the likes of Republic Commando. The jedi have been literally done to death, and with a universe as big as the Star Wars franchise has provided, it’s like looking through a small hole in a very large fence.
I’d also like to see a hell of a lot more original titles like Sam & Max, Monkey Island or Armed and Dangerous. It’s games like those that provide this industry with life and stop everything from becoming Frasier 3D.
27th April | Reply
I wanna be a pirate. And a Jedi. And lost in a mansion. And a TIE Fighter pilot (Rebel scum).
I also want some more one off gems like Grim Fandango.
I’ve kind of ceased hoping for them though. So if any ever come along I can just be suprised and insanely happy.
For the moment I’ll just settle for anticipating the work of ex Lucas Arts employees, like Vampyre Story
29th April | Reply
I agree. If you go to lucasarts.com, every game they have one their site is a Star Wars knock off. LucasArts lost it’s creativity and now takes popular games and remanufactures them into a star wars version, battlefront is conflict vietnam with stormtoopers etc. If they are going to stay competeitive in the market they need to come up with something new, and stop beating the dead horse that will be Star Wars in just a few years time.
20th May | Reply
Adventure games do not sell well. I consider Lucas Arts as a publisher, not a game developer. I play Curse of Monkey Island now. I am at Blood Island. We can’t find original games today like this one, because they are risky. Game studios make what they can sell.