Slashdot Mirror
Sam & Max Sequel Canceled
Pluvius writes "A terse press release from LucasArts, the creator of classic adventure games such as Grim Fandango and the Monkey Island series, reveals that development on Sam & Max: Freelance Police, the planned sequel to Sam & Max Hit the Road, has stopped. Says LucasArts exec Mike Nelson, 'After careful evaluation of current market place realities and underlying economic considerations, we've decided that this was not the appropriate time to launch a graphic adventure on the PC.'" The International House Of Mojo fansite has some editorial comments [original URL] on this move, the second Sam & Max game cancellation in recent years, lamenting: "LucasArts has made a gigantic mistake."
Our server is far too weak to be linked twice from a Slashdot post, but thanks :) Here's what the update said which is now unreadable due to you guys owning our server:
LucasArts Cancels Sam & Max Freelance Police, Resigns Self to Mediocrity
Yep, they've done it. LucasArts has just announced that they've stopped work on Sam & Max 2, saying "After careful evaluation of current market place realities and underlying economic considerations, we've decided that this was not the appropriate time to launch a graphic adventure on the PC."
Don't believe that its possible? Here's the official announcement from LucasArts.com. Our best wishes go out to everyone on the Sam & Max 2 team, who are apprently all still going to be kept on at LucasArts.
To us, the decision seems completely absurd, and not just because "we love adventure games," or something. Surely Sam & Max's production was plagued with troubles, but from the sounds of it so is every game project. Everything that came out about Sam & Max seemed golden. The press was drooling over the game. It looked like they had a sequel going on that, unlike some other recent sequels, was actually going ot get it right. But now, out of the blue, its gone. Which really really makes all of us wonder...
"What the Hell is Wrong With LucasArts?"
an editorial by the staff of Mixnmojo
LucasArts has made a gigantic mistake.
There, we've said it. Everyone else is already thinking it, and other people have probably already said it, but now we've said it too. The official Mixnmojo stance on Sam & Max 2 being cancelled is that LucasArts has seriously screwed up, just about as much as possible.
Production has stopped on the last original game --and the only game really-- anyone around here was genuinely interested in seeing. Cancelled. Why? From the sounds of it, the people in the Sales department spent the last three months winding themselves up about how impossible it would be for them to sell a quirky adventure game, eventually just snapped, and cancelled the title. Is that screwed up? Yes, that is screwed up.
LucasArts has made a lot of really bad moves in the last year. RTX Red Rock was allowed to ship. It tanked hard. Who really thought RTX would be marketable, would sell well, would really catch the attention of gamers? Full Throttle 2, despite a constant stream of negative to lukewarm receptions from magazines and fans, was allowed to live on in production far longer than anyone really wanted.
Armed & Dangerous, one of the few truly original gems LucasArts has dealt with in the last five or six years, was rushed out early by the suits, in hopes of grabbing some Christmas shoppers. This was decided despite Christmas being notorious for huge A-list titles like Lord of the Rings hogging the coverage and hype, and for mothers who know nothing about games being the ones doing the shopping. Not surprisingly, Armed & Dangerous had a poor holiday season. Who knows what might have happened if they'd let Planet Moon refine the game for a few months, and released A&D it in the nearly empty February, after everyone had exhausted their Christmas games and was looking for something new?
Recently, they shipped Wrath Unleashed. For more on Wrath, see RTX a few paragraphs up. And finally, today we receive word that Sam & Max Freelance Police has been axed.
Notice a trend here? Correct. Not one of the recent LucasArts bungles mentioned above contained the two magic words, Star Wars. If you give the suits at LucasArts a Star Wars game, they can sell it. Why? Because they don't have to try! No cleverness is needed. That's not to say it doesn't take any work, but for the most part you just need to get the screenshots out, buy a few ads on Gamespot, and tell the press "yep, it's
Mailtos (from the article):
Randy Breen - Vice President of Development
Mary Bihr - Vice President of Global Publishing
Michael Nelson - Acting President
Grim Fandango was one of the best adventures ever done. It had great graphics, great voices, tough but solvable (for the most part, anyway :)) puzzles, incredible creativity, and a truly superb storyline.
It also sold dismally. LucasArts lost their shirt on GF. And that was BEFORE the huge slump in per-title PC sales.
It's possible that gamers really are 'hungry for' this kind of title, but given how most titles are selling these days, that's an awfully big risk to take. They've been burned badly a number of times in providing exactly what gamers are asking for. We may want these things, but apparently there aren't enough of us that want them to make the projects profitable. LucasArts is literally cutting their losses.
It's a shame... I imagine for this kind of game to really see a renaissance, it'll have to be developed in a low-cost country, which would allow them to sell, say, 25K copies and still be profitable.
The graphical adventure on the PC isn't quite dead... not yet.
:)
Perhaps commercially it is - but look how long the text adventure has been dead, and that's got a thriving fan/development community producing some outstanding stuff.. (To learn more about that google around for "Interactive Fiction", "Inform" or "TADS")
And as for graphical adventures - there's some really neat free graphical adventure development systems (SLUDGE Adventure Game Studio) - and of course, if you just want to play the games, there's plenty of those two, including some very polished efforts, such as Out of Order
In short, don't wait for Lucasarts to make the next great adventure - get stuck in and do it yourself!
Curiosity was framed. Ignorance killed the cat.
If you want to help save Sam and Max 2 (if it's even possible at this point) or just let LucasArts know how big of a mistake they made, so it won't happen again next time:
Sign the online petition at PetitionOnline. http://www.petitiononline.com/LACOSAM/petition.htm l
Also, send e-mail to LucasArts!
pr@lucasarts.comwebjedi@lucasarts.com
They even have the sounds working correctly on some of the games.
And, if I remember correctly, the Lucas Arts collection (Greatest hits, whatever it's called) have been updated to run under WinXP without any tweaking.
Calmiche,