The new president of LucasArts, Paul Meegan, has already started axing projects. With the recent news of The Force Unleashed II being cancelled on the PSP, sources within LucasArts have reportedly stated [thanks Kotaku] that Meegan has cancelled a third Force Unleashed title, a game that was already in development.
Sources also stated that the team working on The Force Unleashed II would more than likely be let go when the game ships. These sources say, “morale and productivity are at all-time lows” since Meegan took over. More than a few developers only found out about Force Unleashed for PSP being cancelled by reading stories on gaming news sites.
The silver lining, though, is that another unnamed project, due to ship next year, has avoided the axe, but has been “put on hold” while developers have been told to “expect management and reporting changes.” The recent resignation of Haden Blackman has been hard on the developer, as he was in charge of this secret project.
Meegan has also been rumored as saying that all external developments of LucasArts properties will be halted. BioWare’s Old Republic will be the last Star Wars game not developed internally at LucasArts.
5 Comments
August 18, 2010
Good plan. Let's not let BioWare develop games for us.
August 18, 2010
Excellent planning. The Force Unleashed was flawed, but sold well. TFU2 looks better, and will likely sell better. Definitely a great idea to cancel an installment in a series that sells well. Plus many in-house Lucasarts games have been rushed, and nearly unplayable as a result. KOTOR, the X-Wing and TIE Fighter series, Empire at War, the best Star Wars games were developed by outside companies. A big nail in the coffin I'd say.
August 18, 2010
Wow, when I was in collage for business management I missed the class on telling your workers you are canned but finish this project for me please. Not sure what kind of work he is now expecting but low moral = low quality every time with out exception. Any manager worth his salt knows this so what is his long term goals as it does not seem clear at this time.
August 18, 2010
I'm wondering how truthful these reports are. Why the hell would you cancel a multi-million selling franchise in it's prime? I thought the purpose of making video games was to, you know, make money. Guess I was wrong.
August 19, 2010
Well there's a listing for a new Indiana Jones title. Maybe they want to build up the quality of their existing IP's instead of relying on unleashed (which really never should of had a sequel after Starkiller died in the first game). So they could be planning to finally give fans (not me) a BattleFront 3 game or who knows maybe a Gladius 2. Maybe they just want to return to the way they did in past gens and have various types of Star Wars games released besides TFU and Lego's. We'll just have to wait and see.