Wait wait wait! When was battlefront 3 announced? For what platforms? I've been waiting for this game forever! I hope they do a good job on the wii version (I love IR aiming) if not, it'll be 360 for me.
Cartoon (samurai jack style) clone wars cell shaded look for the wii version would be killer. Leave realism to the high powered systems, and use the hosrepower you save from doing simpler visuals to help the gameplay.
A simple cover system could be cool for all versions too, but it'd be really nice if you could pick a squad of 5 (or at least one AI buddy) instead of just one character so that when you die, you're automatically switched to the next character in your squad. It'd be really cool if you could direct their movements to attack/take cover/target this thingee/etc. Airstrikes and dropships would be cool too. There's just so much potential there!
Sadly I'm betting on a prettied up (and not so much on the wii) version of battlefront II with a couple of new troopers...and I'll still buy it. Loved that game.

JokesJokes

@Komrade_Kayce: One of the few gripes that I have with KOTOR is that they gave all of the cool force powers to the Dark Side. I usually play good guys in good vs. evil RPGs because I'm a bleeding heart on the inside, so I was really disappointed when I couldn't get any of the awesome shit. I mean, I can understand why Choke is Dark Side exclusive, but why the hell can't Jedi even get Force Lightning? Yoda uses it himself!

Stormrider

KOTOR!!!!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
Lucusarts Better Get That In My Hands ASAP....And Not Half Assed Like Part II

hk458

If true, it's kind of a shame that Fracture turned out crappy, because I thought the concept of that game sounded rather interesting.

If KOTOR 3 ends up canceled because of this, though, I will be extremely upset. Even though Bioware is still making the Mass Effect trilogy, I really would love to see the dialogue system brought to the KOTOR games. Mostly, I'm just a sucker for anything BioWare does and I want more Mass Effect and KOTOR.

Stormrider

@Aflack: Likes slushies:

I was more so thinking:

NOOOoooOOooOOOOOOooOOOOOOOOOOO11!!1!!!!!!1!!!!!!!!

Komrade_Kayce

@ban_hammer:

Its really really good. Once you get past the ATB system, with the realization that you can pause it and issue orders any time you like, its a phenomenal game.

Especially when you learn that you can use your force choke/evil powers later on in CONVERSATIONS.

Like, oh, you wont listen to me? Choke choke choke. Now you're listening and Im a little more dark side. Good for you.

Being an evil douchebag was way more fun, even if it tugged at my heartstrings a few times when I was stealing money and items from a poor woman, threatening to kill her if she gave me any more lip.

Komrade_Kayce

@Komrade_Kayce: I am your father?

Aflack: Likes slushies

Least we know KOTOR 3 exists

Amazon_Chris

I don't know how, but I want to play KOTOR now, without downnloading it in any form. I heard it was good but the ATB system scared me back then, now after I played FFXII, I ready and its nowhere to be found.

ban_hammer

@belo:

Naw, KOTOR II crashed so many freaking times on my PC I lost count. It was only because I was so Knights of the Old Republic addicted that I kept playing it through to conclusion.

Komrade_Kayce

i'm not sure whether i should let this news bother me or not... i have a strange suspicion that either way the wii lightsaber game will suck ass.

aeonpulse

Also, how ironic is it that one of your lead games could be aptly used to describe your company's current status as a developer? Yikes.

sonofnone

@spiderweb1986: Sounds more like you had some serious issues with your HDD.

belo

I don't think it's financial problems. There's more money the company can have if they just outsource everything to others for a much cheaper price.

Money, money, money. I know that's how business is and all, but at some point, you have to say "Fuck off, already!"

Drake Lake

Darn it, I sure hope the Indiana Jones game isn´t canceled. Been waiting for that one for quite some time now.
And another Lego Indy game? Please no Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Make it based on Crystal Skull and fate of Atlants and perhaps some comics thrown in to fill up.
Preferably just make Crystal Skull a downloadable chapter for the Excisting Lego Indy and leave it at that.

Santar

Probably not hurting, just restructuring. They haven't exactly been overly aggressive after the Pandemic and BioWare stopped doing work for them.

liqideos

As glad as I am to hear the good news about The Force Unleashed not being impacted, I'm pretty bummed about the future of Battle Front 3. I spent tons and tons of time with 2 and was hoping that 3 would be more of the same sweet goodness, but polished to a nice shine for this generation of consoles and without all the freaking glitches. From the looks of it though, I don't think I'll be holding my breath.

@sxp151, the happy-headed nose: True, but this person was just laid off, what, yesterday or the day before? They deserve to blow off some steam - it just means that what they say might be a little one sided (please God may it be). Plus I don't recall seeing a name attached to those comments, so I'm sure they'll be just as hireable as any other person whose ever been canned.

sonofnone

@sxp151, the happy-headed nose: I doubt that's how they'd describe Fracture on their resumes. An anonymous comment to a video game website probably won't hurt their job prospects too much, though I do agree that it's probably not a fantastic idea.

@Thassodar: The original KOTOR killed my laptop once (it crashed, and took Windows down with it), and my hard drive died halfway through a second attempt at playing the game. I'm terrified to try again, because I really don't want my motherboard to burst into flames.

spiderweb1986

KOTOR 3?

This calls for a linking to Darth Vaders epic Ep III 'comment' via Youtube. Cmon. Someone knows the one.

Komrade_Kayce

@sxp151, the happy-headed nose: For real. Oh hi, my last project was complete garbage would you like to hire me?

I thought that Indy game sounded cool when it was annonced 5 years ago. Strange that the're letting this affect thier bigger games.

Aflack: Likes slushies

So I guess this is a confirmation of the much-rumored KOTOR 3 's development.

And yeah, I wasn't aware LucasArts was hurting.

bto

@Thassodar: The stupidity of your comment made me rofl.

OOOOOOSH

Take that, subspace!

Agent-Foiliage

Fracture comment.

Ouch.

belo

I personally wasn't expecting Fracture to be that good, and with the backing of an employee's words I'm almost certain. Doesn't matter if he was recently fired or not.

KOTOR 3? Meh. KOTOR 2 glitched on me after not saving for an hour and a half, so I have no love for it. Same feeling for Indy too, never even saw the old school movies.

Thassodar

What the hell brought this all on? Is Lucasarts having financial difficulties I'm not aware of?

Lezard

Fracture, which they say is described by team members as "an absolute piece of garbage".

That is NOT how a recently laid-off employee should be promoting his work if he's looking for a new job.

sxp151, the happy-headed nose

I don't think most of you will care anymore after I say this:

Have you noticed that almost everything from Lucasarts has been outsourced lately? There was a list of in-house developed titles I read and with the exception of the classic games of Lucasarts's past, most of them were pretty mediocre. Think about it. Jedi Outcast and Academy were Raven Software, the Lego Star Wars games were done by Traveler's Tales, KotOR by BioWare/Obsidian (KotOR2 did NOT suck, it was just rushed >:(), Battlefront by Pandemic... see where I'm going with this?

Drake Lake

And what are they working on a KOTOR 3 for? 2's story was so lame, they should call that KOTOR 1.5 (a wound in the force?? c'mon!), and announce a new KOTOR 2 that skips the new protagonist and gets back to playing with Revan.
And try to have a comelling story like the first one. Go back to the beginning of revan's tale and dig deeper. Uncover a shadowy character, a puppetmaster who has orchestrated the events that shaped Revan's life: his fall to the darkside, his betrayal by his apprentice, even his temporary redemption, but to what end? Good or evil? Follow the evidence that leads back to the very leadership of the jedi order...unmask the puppetmaster and choose to follow his plan to its eventual end (and yours) or desperately try to find your own way. Sprinkle in some deep conflicting moral choices (subtly different, not the usual mother Theresa or Adolph Hitler choice) and you've got a winner.
I think it'd be cool anyway.

JokesJokes

@belo: I know the game wasn't responsible for my hard drive dying, but I'm starting to think I'm not meant to play KOTOR, since all of my attempts have ended with catastrophic failure.

spiderweb1986

Legions of Star Wars fans crying NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Grimmjow Jeagerjaques

the word "avoiding" should be between purposely and it.

No being able to edit is really stupid sometimes.

Aflack: Likes slushies

@Komrade_Kayce: Yeah, I know. It was pretty obvious so I thought it would be clear that I was purposely it.

Text is really stupid sometimes.

Aflack: Likes slushies

I would be surprised if someone said that Fracture wasn't garbage, because it absolutely look like complete crap (IMO). The terraforming (call it whatever you want)thingy can probably be a fun supporting gameplay I guess, but certainly not the CORE gameplay of a shooter that looks very bland otherwise.

Still, my main concern isn't for a few games, but for the people that lost their job, and I can't help but be angry against these fucking companies that make millions but lay off people as soon as profits are going up so they can "maximise" profits for the investors... ugh... how depressing.

WhiskeyJak

@JokesJokes: It hasnt been, which is why this is interesting :)

Luke Plunkett

I could have sworn that Battlefront 3 was being handled by Free Radical? On their website, [www.frd.co.uk] they have been listed for well over a year as working with Lucasarts currently.

With their experience, their 'secret project', [www.frd.co.uk] a Republic Commando or Battlefront sequel would seem too unlikely, as Lucasarts isn't really known for stepping outside their cash cow too often.

liqideos

No! Not KOTOR3!!!
Dear lord, please dont let KOTOR 3 get ruined because of this. I dont think i could stand another let down after Sith Lords...

Blacktrim

@Drake Lake: Um, you're going to the same place the last Kotaku article on these firings went where it stated that Lucasarts was looking to outsource more of it's games...?

bnpederson

@Zazu_Yen: Fuuuck, glad you didn't get caught up in that one, at least. Sucks about the other two times it happened though :(

Drake Lake

@Komrade_Kayce: "[...]even if it tugged at my heartstrings a few times when I was stealing money and items from a poor woman, threatening to kill her if she gave me any more lip."

That's actually a good example of where KOTOR (one AND two) dropped the ball. You couldn't be "evil" without pushing around old ladies or robbing a harmed business man. There wasn't an option for all that petty crap to be "beneath you" or anything. So it was either errand boy or asshole, not the best of choices.

Bioware's gotten better since then, at least if Mass Effect's any indication, and it's nice to hear KOTOR III is a Bioware project, but I think that was the Lucasarts' (and specifically the "Lucas" part) doing.

bnpederson

@JokesJokes: It does suck, though. These people are losing their jobs. Hopefully the Force Unleashed will be awesome so that team will have something that isn't 'shit' on their resume. Also, I don't see an ad on the back of my manual. Picture, please? Could be the movie.

Drake Lake

Man this sucks. I've been on the layoff cycle of two companies that were otherwise doing well and it's a real hard blow to your mental state. You're in the groove, things are running along more or less well and then BOOM you're on the street hoping to get a new job before the bank account empties. Sucks, especially for those who have just completed a well receive product. This is your reward, get the f' out of here.

It's such an ugly cycle, but so many companies fall for it more than once. Some bean counter gets in power who's got a stack of power point slides showing all the investors how much money can be saved by outsourcing most of the development (look how cheap labor is in [current country of explosive tech growth]!) Then after a year or more of delayed development, botched milestones, missed release, buggy final products and the resulting escalating cost overruns someone in management decides "this next big title needs a focused, dedicated in-house team that can be managed without an 8 - 12 hour time difference" and so they start handling their own IPs again. A year or two later some bean counter gets in power who's got a stack of power point slides...

I once almost applied at Disney Interactive around five or six years ago when we were thinking of moving down to LA. Then around 6 months later they had massive layoffs and announced an aggressive outsourcing campaign (why had they been hiring earlier, I wondered). Then about a year and a half later in-house job adds start popping up all over the place again.

Sigh.

Zazu_Yen

@Drake Lake: Hmm...good point. What scares me is Lucasarts is attempting to do all these traditionally outsourced games themselves and many of them are multiplat copy pastes, which does not bode well for quality control.

And isn't that wii lightsaber game the clone wars thing that was advertized on the back of the lego Indiana Jones manual?

JokesJokes

@Komrade_Kayce: actually I did realize it, two years after the xbox went dead. Hell, I went looking for the game and couldn't find a new copy anywhere.

ban_hammer

Why must they make KOTOR 3 a MMO? Why can't they just release a KOTOR MMO and a KOTOR 3? It would make me happy and it would make them more money. I really wanted to finish out the trilogy without the final chapter becoming a MMO.

OOOOOOSH

To think that with the X-Wing series and its point-and-click adventure games, Lucas Arts used to be my favorite game development company. Now I can only shake my head and wonder "Wtf are they doing?"

Normally, I would be ecstatic to see a Battlefront 3 hinted at (Battlefront 2 is one of my top favorites and has gotten far more playtime than I had originally expected it would), but with these new developments, I have my doubts that it'll be as good as the previous Battlefront. Granted, there's the off chance that whoever gets onto the project actually ends up making it pretty good, but I'm getting my hopes up.

GhostWhoWalks

Luke, can you explain a bit if and how you fact-check whether the people who e-mail are actually Lucasarts employees?

El-Suave

This sort of article is why i read Kotaku. This info about the games and the potential KOTOR3 is really interesting. I wonder why they are firing people at this point, you usually hire people when getting ready to make an MMO, even if Bioware is working with them.

clifftrapremover

Where are they outsourcing to?

krushjudgement

[...] and Fracture, which they say is described by team members as "an absolute piece of garbage".

WOW.

NighTrekr

@QuietStorm: Just be a total dick to everyone all the time. Makes the game more tolerable.

liqideos

...what other Lego Indy game? That makes me sad, I'm enjoying the hell out of Lego Indy right now, aside from its numerous glitches and some typos ("Artefacts"?).

SolCross

@JokesJokes: KotOR 2 seems to be an issue of taste, really. Personally I thought that it was miles ahead of the first one in terms of writing quality and story depth, though admittedly I do have a bit of a soft spot Chris Avellone's stuff. Regardless, KotOR 2 was mainly a huge waste of potential. If they'd been allowed to finish it rather than having Lucasfarts force it out for the Christmas rush so obviously uncooked then it would have easily been the superior of the two.

Maybe it's not such a bad thing that KotOR 3 might be delayed?

atomicstrawberry

@bnpederson: While ME is certainly better in this respect, I've been pretty disappointed in the dialog (I'm probably 2/3 through it, if I had to guess). It's just not as good as KotOR's dialog was, and, worse, I can't always tell if what I'm saying is good or bad. I feel like ME's system is one-step-forward-two-steps-back.

QuietStorm

@El-Suave: I'm sure we can assume that in the course of his time blogging on one of the more recognizable gaming resources, it's safe to assume he's met people within LucasArts. You don't necessarily have to be too high up the ladder to meet some pretty cool people in the industry, I could tell you from experience.

liqideos

@Agent-Foiliage: whoops, this: was in reference to your post.

phinehas

Shut up, Stormy.

phinehas

Whoop, shoulda been @Fugue there.

bnpederson

@Bobby McPresscott: It says "rumor" right in the title of this post. Take it with a grain of salt and remember, even if they ARE a recently-fired Lucasarts employee that doesn't mean they're not just fucking with Kotaku.

bnpederson

@QuietStorm: It took me a while to get what exactly my general "mood" was from the radial menu in Mass Effect down pat. Even then it's a double-edged sword in my view; on the one hand you actually pay attention to your main character because you're not sure what (s)he will say. On the other hand it's definitely not you playing, it's this other guy who you're kinda controlling.

That said, for longer conversation strings it's a joy to behold compared to KOTOR, especially KOTOR 2. Some answers in KOTOR 2 were so long I had to scroll to read one freaking choice. I don't mind having an in-depth discussion with a dialog tree but I'd much rather hear the character say it than read a two paragraph chat about actions versus intent.

bnpederson

I've sent Kotaku multiple tips relating to the KOTOR MMO. The evidence is incredibly blatant, but everyone wants to disagree and whine. Now I'm worried though. Hopefully less LA influence means more Bioware influence.

Bobby McPresscott

Kotor 3 or just a good SW MMO would make me happy either way. At least I know with Kotor, Bioware has the helm so this crap at Lucas Arts won't effect them. We'll see how outsourcing helps them, but to quote Solo, I have a bad feeling about this. Fracture looks pretty meh, and the recent pic of the tough shaved head protagonist doesn't exactly make me want to rush out and preorder.

drifter13

@atomicstrawberry: @Drake Lake: Speaking of KOTOR 2 being rushed, supposedly the mod that restores all the content that Obsidian was forced to cut from the game to get it out by LucasArts' deadline is almost finished. I might have to dig the game back out and see how it was actually supposed to end.

Stormrider

@Santar:
What I'd expect to see in it is Crystal Skull stuff, but that's not really enough to be worth making a whole LIJ game from, being that unless they turn stuff like the greaser brawl into an entire mission to itself (followed by a different mission that's just the motorcycle chase that follows it), they'd have a hard time breaking into double digits.

What I don't expect to see in it is the middle portion of Young Indiana Jones. They might be able to hit The Early Years and The Years of Change, but putting out a LEGO Indiana Jones game that centers on WWI combat? Lucasarts might be okay with it, but I doubt The LEGO Company would allow it. I mean, it's not as bad as if they put him into a WWII battle, but still...

Whatever else they do, they'll probably do six Crystal Skull missions and 6-12 other missions to supplement it. They have comic books and novels that they can pull stories from, in addition to the other more standard video games.

Regardless, this game should be perfectly safe. It's not like Lucasarts did any of the development on any of the other LEGO games. They just get producer/publisher credits on the LSW and LIJ games, while TT Games does all the grunt work on the PC/Console games, and TT Fusion has taken over the Nintendo handheld ports after Amaze Entertainment botched LSW2:DS. And it was something of an inevitability that they'd make LIJ2, since the current release is subtitled "The Original Adventures" and all that.

@Stormrider:
When did Yoda ever generate Force Lightning? If you even cite his duel with Dooku, you really need to go watch it again. All he does is catch Dooku's lightning and throw it back at him. We've still never seen any characters besides Dooku and Palpatine actually producing it.

Purple Dave

If KOTOR 3 really is being planned as an MMO I'd personally prefer that they just cancel it instead.

Nothing I've seen from Fracture has looked at all interesting to me.

We're sure this is from a legit former employee? Half that list of games just looks like a laundry list of things that have been rumored for months.

Fugue

Nothing would beat a third Kotor, it's all I want.

A new Star Wars MMO does make sense, the changes made to galaxies made sense and it dd turn a hardcore MMO into a more mainstream one. Saying that it changed how the game played to the point of just not being what it once was.

Sparkyuk

I agree, Fracture has never at all grabbed my attention, looks more like a bland tech demo for their new 'earth-altering-technology' than anything else. Never expected it to be much either, now he (or she) has confirmed it.

I would rather have a new amazing single player KOTOR than an MMO! Make star wars galaxies 2 or something if you really have to, keep KOTOR out of this!!

That said, the Star Wars universe really is the perfect setting for an MMO, works so well. Shame Galaxies wasn't better/more popular.

Y2Jason

This news is disappointing to me if for no other reason than the news about KOTOR 3. Perhaps I'm in the minority here, but I do NOT want another MMO on the market. If we're going to see the third installment of the KOTOR series it should be a stand alone game to finish off what was left open in the first two games.

There is already one Star Wars MMO on the market [a horrible one albeit, but there is one regardless of whether people want to forget about it or not], not to mention the fact that the MMO landscape is over flowing with mediocre and horrible games already. Unless we see a decline in the player base for other games, namely World of Warcraft, this game will most likely fall on deaf ears. People already got their hopes up once over an online Star Wars game.

As I said.. it's possible I'm in the minority on this one.

Deebo's Bike

#1: Thassodor is fail
#2: KOTOR 3 now please.
#3: WTF happened to you, Lucasarts?
#4: The Fracture comment is awesome. Perhaps disgruntled employees are the last bastion of honest game journalism.

PATSCRU

@Thassodar: I agree. You don't have to enjoy your work, you just have to do it. Just like our jobs. if our boss wants something done one way, we do it their way. It doesnt matter if we think another way is better or not, we do as were told. I've done jobs where I thought they were complete trash, but got great approval from my boss.

xBETAx

I do want KOTOR3, just not KOTOR the MMO.

Tyrannical

If KotOR was going to be an MMO I am glad to see it is near death. How could a series so good from the start turn out like it did?

Damn you Lucasarts, and most of all damn you Obsidian!

Muisee

Ugh KOTOR 3 as a MMO? The beauty of that series was the storytelling and character development. If they want to put a MMO in that universe, fine. I won't play it but whatever. But give me the conclusion to the Revan story DAMNIT! And they really can't give much of that beyond possibly killing him/her off bceause they can't ever show him as the character is different for each person. BAH! BAD LUCAS ARTS! BAD! This is like in a Feast For Crows where in the very last chapter the title is "Meanwhile back on the wall..." and then you read it and it's just Martin talking about how, sorry but you don't get anything about what you really want to know right now. At least he'll eventually rectify that whereas Lucasarts and the KOTOR universe is leaving me in a perpetual state of anticipation and frustration. I think I know what blue balls must feel like.

Ok sorry, I've been up all night working on a wedding cake and I'm grumpy and want my KOTOR 3 done properly. Stupid stupid MMOs.

ConstantCupcake

LucasArts can fuck off with all their Star Wars shit, and within a year or two Indy will be completely driven into the ground.

LucasArts is no longer a gaming company. It's a cheap money-making venture. This sucks for the people being canned, but for the people being left behind? It might just be worse for them.

Quilt

Wow this has been a bad week for strange events happening at different companies. Oh Well, can't wait till next week.

bigd7387

KotOR MMO? Good god.

NighTrekr

They had to make a KOTOR 3. The Revan and Exile story was unfinished. I just hope we get to play as one of them and not another worthless gimp who goes to search for BOTH of them this time.

Ashurahori

I've been anticipating KOTOR 3 forever, up until the abbreviation "MMO" came into play. If that is indeed true, I will not be purchasing it.. I'll simply Wiki the storyline.

@Muisee: The state KOTOR 2 was released in was not the fault of Obsidian. LucasArts rushed them to get the game out before the Christmas season, so they could capitalize on holiday sales. When the boss said jump, they had to say how high.

mphz

@NighTrekr: You're not surprised? I thought most people were expecting that, putting together KOTOR rumours with stuff concerning BioWare working on an MMO....

Luke Plunkett

I'm surprisingly okay with a KoTOR MMO.

Okay, I'm not. I'd rather see a fully realized KoTOR 3. I still feel burned over KoTOR 2, a game that crashes so hard in the end on so many levels that it's ruins all the fun up to that point.

But the Old Republic setting is a much better setting for a MMO in the Star Wars universe. There's much more room and much less grief.

Slatz_Grobnik

Just from doing some quick browsing (research? Not likely!), I'm not seeing much development involving LucasArts that didn't involve Star Wars (Mercenaries being a blessed exception, apparently). I don't know, part of me wants to be angry at LucasArts and bash their myopic view of entertainment, but I really just feel bad for the people that were laid off.

I'm sure they're rightly pissed and have all the right to trash any shitty game they had shoved onto their plate. I wish them the best getting back onto their feet. Even that one guy. They know the one I'm talking about. Him.

Señor Vorpal Kickass'o

@NighTrekr: Oh, totally with you. Complete waste of good ip :) I'd rather a KOTOR, I dunno...FPS than an MMO.

Luke Plunkett

@Luke Plunkett: If I heard anything about it before now, it didn't stick.

In any case, it's a complete waste of a good IP. They could at least have the decency to make this a spin-off and not KotOR 3. (Not an MMO fan. Can you tell?)

NighTrekr

@sxp151, the happy-headed nose:

"That is NOT how a recently laid-off employee should be promoting his work if he's looking for a new job."

It is if it is the truth and if you can stay anonymous.

ajm1240

@sxp151, the happy-headed nose:

"That is NOT how a recently laid-off employee should be promoting his work if he's looking for a new job."

What does it matter? Do you think future bosses won't have heard of Fracture and possibly even played it? Unless they plan on keeping it off their resume entirely, I don't see why if makes any difference.

Besides, in the world of programming, everybody has worked on a failed project or two. It's always been my view that the good programmers are the ones that can identify a shitty program, not someone that is dillusional and thinks their shitty code is awesome.

fulgore66

I didn't need that guy to tell me Fracture is a piece of garbage. Every screenshot and video I've seen has been saying that for a long time.

I'm excited as hell for the prospect of a KOTOR MMO though.

fdisk

I'll call this one stupid lies really, just from the KOTOR and Wii related stuff. KOTOR 3 MMORPG & Wii lightsaber game. Lol? Keep dreaming.

Al3xandr0s

mmo kotor3? no thanks

can't tell a cohesive story.
can't replay it years later when interest dies down with your copycat game and servers are ghost towns..

spin it off and call it something else or kill it. the ghost of kotor1 will thank you...

they'd probably just load it down with drm badness anyway.

railskins

@sxp151, the happy-headed nose: Let's see I'm thinking of employing somebody (I am not and will never be involved in hiring game developers - well unless some game developer wants a career change to a more relaxing area of programming - but just for example). I know they worked on Fracture.

If they say in the interview that they worked on the game, but it was a piece of shit, and explain why, and what was wrong at the company they used to work at that meant they weren't able to get it stopped or fixed or whatever... then that's a really positive sign in my view. It means they can honestly evaluate something even if they worked on it (i.e. putting aside any bias). Particularly if they've also worked on other games that were actually good too...

(Of course, since this person both didn't work on the game and has kept his/her name secret, it doesn't in fact matter what they may have said anonymously in public.)

quen

Aren't the folks who developed Timesplitters and, gulp, HAZE developing Battlefront 3?! If Lucas Arts is only publishing like they did with the pandemic developed BF games, then I do see them canceling their number 1 selling Start Wars series.

I do still wish Pandemic had the reins on Battlefront. The Haze folks did good by with Timespliiters series, but failed with Haze. I don't want a Star Wars game game goofier than the premise already is.

dnez

LucasArts has been some sort of shadow of it's glory days for years and years now. Back in the day, they used to actually care about making interesting, quality, creative products, but now, they just churn stuff out for the bottom line. This is just another step down towards total crap.
They need new management to restructure and refocus on what made them legendary, not this stupidity.

SpiralJacobs

I felt a disturbance in the Force, as though a hundred voices suddenly cried out, and were silenced.

yaddoshi

@SpiralJacobs: Yeah, but occasionally they do good. There was a period where they were publishing games like Battlefront, Pandemic and KOTOR. I don't know if I've played a Lucasarts developed game since Grim Fandango.

dnez

Post the letter,you tell us all this intriguing stuff was said and then don't even give us some quotes...WTF

SlowDeath420

What is it with companies now-a-days? Lucas Arts just finished Lego Indy and now we hear The Force Unleashed is almost gold and they lay-off almost everyone. About 8-9 years ago the place I used to work for would throw us huge parties when we went gold. Then suddenly one time we went gold and they laid-off 10%. I see this more and more. People put in a lot of hard work and right after they finish their employer lets them go. I understand the business reasons for it but it is plan cold and it did not use to be that way. It seems that it all changed in a blink of an eye.

mzs

Lucasarts lost its way a long time ago. Along with anything to do with Lucas.

From a bussiness perspective of just making money by selling their soul, Star Wars and Indy, getting rid of inhouse development is a smart move.

Drop kicking long time employees in a successful bussiness with no warming is ******* BS though. I really hope these people find jobs at some of the studios Lucas is outsourcing all their IP to or even better places. Personally I won't be donating anymore of my hard earned money to crappy Lucas titles anymore.

Daleon

YES! They're still working on KOTOR3:)

foxwarrior88

@sxp151, the happy-headed nose:

Unless of course you're seeking an employer who values honesty.

They can't even mount a convincing marketing campaign for that game. We all know it's going to be garbage, at least someone who was close to the project seems to have a realistic view of it's potential. What Fracture needs is a big, fat cancellation. Save the gaming media the trouble of having to shit all over it, and just pull the plug!

Fracture has looked incredibly lame from day one, (pun intended).

stranger

@Komrade_Kayce:

+ Watch video

dead_red_eyes

@Agent-Foiliage: Shut up.
No.
...

GhostKamikaze

hopefuly kotor3 is mostly bioware and not much lucas.

andrethejesus

Strong Opinion:

If Pandemic isn't doing Battlefront 3 then I feel it's going to be a joke..

JohnnyLA

I seriously screamed when I saw KOTOR3. Goddamn I loves me some KOTOR. The MMO better be for the 360 too.

el.sand.bag

I'm racking my brain...

If I remember correctly, when the new Lucas Presidio location opened and the game section was sort of connected to the movie section, and there was this grand idea of sharing assets and production pipelines and crazy in-house tools etc., it was rumoured that there was much unhappiness in the game section: that the restructuring was a nightmare, the pipeline sucked...

Then a year or so later, there is a big layoff...

Maybe getting rid of the old people who weren't sold on the new system?

trigger2

These rumors have more credibility than any amount of hype from the PR department. Even from a disgruntled ex-employee. An employee who hears good things about a good game isn't going to trash it just because. If a sacked employee says the buzz was that the game sucked, it's very likely true.

Too bad about Fracture. I had hoped it was a visionary title, but based on this news it seems more like a one-trick pony that's going to be shoveled out the door to the console market on a wave of hype. It's credible because it HAPPENS A LOT. So; business as usual.

Coherent

Good move, former Lucasarts employees! It's the height of professionalism to break your NDA and talk about unannounced internal projects. I'm sure that'll help you find new jobs in the future. Also, I doubt that Lucasarts has any lawyers that might be interested in, y'know, enforicng the legally binding documents you signed.

Klassy!

riotnrrd

Lucasarts have been hiring like crazy overseas. Plus a lot of game developers are lazy and unimaginative nowadays. Burnt out over the years of work, they're for a paycheck. Companies don't sack their workers for no reason. Overdue revamp I say.

The Buddy buddy system of the industry is sickening. The most talented minds are wasted when it is hampered by people that likes to work with their friends.

whooosh

No KOTOR MMO! Proper KOTOR 3 please!

MykalBloom

I wouldn't say we already knew about Battlefront 3 when the last we heard was a rumor from 2 years ago.

wishmaster2

My BS detector is going off.

I'm doubting some of those comments are even from an employee...

Mainly because Fracture isn't internally developed. It's being done by Day 1. You'd think a Lucas Arts employee would know that.

Also seems rather odd to me that Bioware, which has been an EA studio for some time now, would be making a game for LucasArts, presumably a rival. I kinda hope that one isn't true. I'd like to play KOTOR3 if it's a single player RPG, but I have ZERO interest in MMORPGS, so if it actually ends up being one, count me out.

GnatB

@mphz:

The whole game was terrible. Everything from the plot to the lame characters it copied from every other Star Wars book and game. They made one of the worst games in history with one of the best games in history to work off of. That can not be forgiven. What ruined KotOR II was not the many glitches the game had, it was the whole package of just piss poor decisions Obsidian made. They should have been able to make something decent with the time they had or pass on the project altogether.

Muisee

Okay, I know this is getting way off topic, but the 'evil lite' of KotOR is one big reason I love Age of Conan so much. You can actually be EVIL. Poison some wells, hand out smallpox infected blankets, kill your questgivers (or sleep with them, but now we're off the evil bit). Of course AoC doesn't have to worry about story persistence as much (it just affects your local quest chain), but still. You shouldn't offer evil as a choice if you can't really deliver it.

sarusa

@Komrade_Kayce:
Instead of "NOOOOOOoooOOOOOOOooOOO!!!", I thought of the mistranslation "DO NOT WANT"

Spann

KOTOR2 wasn't BioWare. Let's not forget this (I didn't bother with the +100 comments to see if someone finally made this point).

Slint

Kotor 3 a MMO? Well thats one way to kill a franchise.

Majpain007

@Drake Lake: check out the kotaku post on it:
[kotaku.com]
There ya go. Yeah, it does suck that these people are out a job while Lucas rolls in Indy 4 money. Hopefully they get picked up by good studios.

@Al3xandr0s: Umm...you might want to check out the above link too.

And if KOTOR 3 really is an MMO, they'd better make it subscription free or I'm not buying. Now a warhammer game featuring the inquisition, that I might pay to play.

JokesJokes

KOTOR 3 as a MMO? I think not! Give me a single player game with a kick ass storyline and then I will be interested!

LeLoi

George Lucas is everything that is right, and everything that is wrong with humanity.

rudolphdude

Yeah Force unleashed is going to suck from about the middle of the game on, since you gain force powers and increase your powers the game doesn't get harder, it gets easier. If you notice in the trailers, the dev's are literally walking through the levels without breaking a sweat. so I'm already giving it a meh. Give me a game about a dying soldier that LOSES abilities and strength throughout the game, THAT would be an AWESOME game.

Swizzler121

@rudolphdude: I half agree with you...guess which half.

JokesJokes

Hell hath no fury like a employee scorned. Guess this might be why game companies rarely just fire their employees...

Spiderbait

"Two internally-developed games apparently far enough along to be unaffected by the sackings are The Force Unleashed and Fracture"

Except Fracture isn't internally developed. It's being made by Day 1 studios.

[www.lucasarts.com]

So that puts a bit of a ??? over the source of this information, no?

Japes707

wait a minute
was not battlefront 3 being developed by the timeshift games studio (forgot the name of it ) free radicals or something ?
personaly thats the game i was most eagered to see on current platforms

lord_raptor

@Thassodar:

obviously you have never been fired, it does matter!!!!!!!

freespeech

my guess is that the new lego indy game will be the old one, with levels based on the kingdom of the crystal skull

TF2Soldier914

As the testimony of a freshly-sacked employee, take that appraisal of Fracture with a grain of salt

Yeah. Giving up on your game before it even sees the light of day doesn't sound like much of an employee to me. Sacked or otherwise.

Arklop

@riotnrrd: seriously!! I mean right off the bat you can tell that they are angry over the layoffs but come on! Have some class!
I doubt that anyone at Lucasarts will be able to do anything about it though... Obviously, the people who narc'd probably covered their asses well... They are unemployed, not stupid ;)

It sucks big time but if what is being told is true, then we at least have some good stuff to look forward to...

cinicsoul

Kotor3 is a MMO....so chances are it won't even be called Kotor 3. It's likely to be simply a MMO set in the Knights of the Old Republic era with some familiar names and faces thrown about.

Those of us who were looking forward to another single player experience are going to be disappointed.

Zeshin

kotor 3 mmo? FUUUUUUCK THAAAAAAAAAAT

that's extremely depressing. seriously.. you take one of the best single-player stories ever (the 2nd one was broken, yes, but that was because lucasarts forced obsidian to finish it way before it was done) and turn it into an mmo??? wow. just wow. suddenly i'm depressed with the overwhelming emptiness of feeling absolutely no interest in the game i've looked forward to more than any game EVER.

MistaJeff

@everyone bashing the guy who wrote this: you don't even know if the guy is a dev, read the description:

"everyone from testers to head producers"

It means that the guy who said Fracture is a piece of s**** could not be responsible for it (ie, a tester). QA will never be able to fix poor gameplay design or poor artwork if the devs behind it are incompetent.

vichnaiev

Why does KOTOR3 have to be a MMO -_-

Aderes

@liqideos: I'd imagine that Pandemic would continue to handle Battlefront as they have in the past. If it ain't broke...But hey, what do I know?

ThursdayNext

Mang... what a shit-storm for these guys. Long time ago, when lucas had its first "fresh reboot" and they fired like half of the company, all those people fired went ahead and created their own company... Maybe these guys who are fresh out of jobs should get together and do the same!

I've worked on the videogame industry before and let me tell you, loosing your job to outsourcing is probably the worse thing that can happen to you. Its like being slapped in the face for doing a good job but asking for "extra" money to be able to afford food and clothes in the country you live in.

If that is the reason why lucasarts is letting go of so many people, I hope they crash and burn!

cinicsoul

KOTOR 3 ?!? do want ! now.
but what platform ? but anyway, now with the sackings, maybe it wont come to fruit.

and ANOTHER LEGO Indy game ?
what, based on Crystal Skull ?
or a qualogy ? damn, now i'm considering if i should still get the Trilogy for the Wii

Mr.Sad