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LucasArts Aims for #1
The New York Times has an interesting profile of LucasArts, the game development house attached to George Lucas' company. They discuss some challenges with being so closely associated with Star Wars, and detail their role in the Lucasfilm company as a whole. From the article: "[Ward's] most challenging days may be ahead. The videogame industry has been in the doldrums for months; video game sales are lagging as consumers wait to buy the next generation of consoles, including the PlayStation 3. And perhaps most important, Mr. Lucas has no plans to make any more 'Star Wars' movies. That means LucasArts will have to work that much harder to come up with ideas of its own. 'We are not the Star Wars game company,' said Micheline Chau, president of Lucasfilm. 'And Jim knows what he has to do.'"
Was it just me or did this article expertly side step Star Wars Galaxies?
... doesn't anyone else want to serve Admiral Thrawn as much as I do?
I know that Sony Online Entertainment are the developers for SWG but I'm also interested in what the president of the licensing company has to say about that game. Actually, I'd like to see him interviewed in an "Ask Slashdot" much like John Smedley was a while back.
Among the questions I'd like to ask him would be:
How would you describe the decision making process that has gone into designing SWG?
Do you think that SWG is drawing nearer and nearer to a "true Star Wars Experience" or moving away from it? How? Give examples.
Do you expect to be a top five video game competitor with no MMORPG out and available? They seem to generate a lot of revenue compared to classic console games. EA has the Sims franchise while Microsoft generates Xbox Live monthly revenue.
What are your favorite and least favorite aspects of working with George Lucas?
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I'm not sure why this article accents the fact that no more Star Wars movies are coming out. They've made quite a few off IV, V & VI--one would think they could make just as many off of I, II & III along with the coming TV series. And don't forget the expanded universe that the literature written would provide
My work here is dung.
But we'll kill a finished Sam & Max game in a second! They would do better to stop just releasing Star Wars games and little else if they want to change that perception. It's too bad most of their adventure gaming people have moved on to places like Telltale.
They might be aiming for #1, but lately all they've been producing is #2.
This guy's the limit!
If they want to be #1, give us back the good-old 2D cartoon-style humor filled adventure games.
I never liked any of the star-wars themed games, but the adventures were fantastic.
No he doesn't. Jim needs to listen to his fan base.
Finish Sam and Max. Full Throttle 2. The next game in the X-Wing series. Tell SOE to go fuck themselves.
If you can't do it in-house, keep getting an outside development house to kick them out for you. No shame in that, as long as it's not SOE.
Update X-Wing and Tie Fighter.
Better graphics, online play, new missions.
Please, please, please!
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Everything else has been Star Wars or Indiana Jones.
LucasArts used to be known for its Adventure games, but under Mr. Ward's leadership, they flushed that down the toilet in favor of more Star Wars. They got such bad press from the Sam and Max 2 cancellation that they removed the Press Release from their site. LucasArts can claim that the genre is dead, but when companies like The Adventure Company continue to make money off of them, it would appear that LucasArts is wrong.
The question is, will LucasArts put its money where its mouth is, or simply continue to be the Star Wars company?
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
Monkey Island 5
I find it ironic that a year or two after they shut down work on the much-anticipated sequel to Sam & Max, they are now acknowledging they need original (read: "not Star Wars") titles. They laid off their staff, reorganized their business structure, and have been outsourcing games to other development houses for years. They wanted to only focus on the "lucrative" Star Wars market. Not the risky adventure games market that gave LucasArts their name in the early 90s.
Most of the original ideas in LucasArts (and before that Lucasfilm Games) came from a group of very talented adventure and action game designers. Lucasfilm Games was one of the first game companies to acknowledge that a game that doesn't try to kill your character at any turn -- or at all! -- can be much more enjoyable than when your character is in mortal danger at every step. The difference in enjoyment between Kings Quest and Monkey Island is immeasurable.. and not just because of this! The dialog was fresh. The puzzles were fun. The characters were fleshed out!
But those original ideas have long since gone as those designers have chosen to work on projects that have a hope of shipping.
You want original games again, LucasArts? Beg.. no.. plead for Tim Schafer (Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle), Ron Gilbert (Monkey Island), and Steve Purcell (Sam & Max) to work for you again. Reconstitute the teams you used to have but neglected. Put these people in charge of the company. In no time you'd be pumping out original, funny, and interesting games that spoke to the heart of your frustrated fan base.
What if you can't come up with any more original ideas? Well, if you've got game material rights already, and they aren't Star Wars, or they haven't been milked to death as that already, do they count?:
* Bring back the X-Wing and TIE Fighter series, which was the best flight sim series I ever played. It was also the only Star Wars game I ever enjoyed. Update it for new graphics hardware and don't tie it to a Microsoft gaming service (anyone remember MS Zone? exactly.).
* Resuscitate all of your old titles so they can be played on new handheld hardware like the Nintendo DS. Use the DS's multiplayer to stage X-Wing battles on WFC or just over the local multiplayer features.
* Dust off Sam & Max 2, finish it, and ship it.
* Do a Monkey Island movie -- wait! Disney's already doing it. It's called Pirates of the Caribbean 2. MI fans: take one look at the voodoo scene from the PotC 2 and tell me it doesn't look like the outside of the International House of Mojo in MI2. (Oh, and Johnny Depp would've made a great Guybrush Threepwood.)
* Above all, don't let faithful sequels to these games die by stringently holding onto the rights and keeping other interested companies in moving the stories forward.
That they are not a "Star Wars" game company. God knows that nobody is interested in Star Wars anymore.
Lucas Arts has made some pretty interesting and innovative games in the past, like Grim Fandango and Full Throttle. I wish they would bring back some of the talent behind those games, and ACTUALLY produce a non Star Wars game, then at least that statement wouldn't be moronic.
Anything to do with Lucas-X these days is so wrapped up in Star Wars, George needs some therapy because he can't let it go. A Star Wars television series? Endless tie in games and merchandising products?
When does someones obsession and love of something turn into a reason to go to the loony bin, I think George has long since passed that point.
Lucasarts will have to pull some gems out of their asses if they hope to ride out the current downturn in video games. We are nearing another video game drought, like back in the 80's with the Atari. Game are just not inventive and innovative anymore. Video gaming bottomed out in the 80's because Atari kept pumping out the same old tired titles. Stick figures bouncing around on a static screen with two bit sound effects. People got tired of essentially playing the same game back in the 80's.
People are getting tired of essentially playing the same game, now, in 2006. Quake 4, Doom 3, HL2, Star Wars: Whatever. MMORPGs that go no where. I actually think ALL next gen game consoles will bomb and the Xbox360 is off to a good start (for bombing that is).
Game companies have grown too complacent and used to the idea that by spinning off another game based on a successful franchise, your going to make millions in profit. Every MAJOR game developer currently is working on a SEQUEL. Smaller game developers are simply cloning big game franchise and offering some moderate twists and variations of a theme.
People are getting tired of the same old.
So, hopefully Lucasarts will find some new novel and innovative theme to focus on (not obsess over) and come out with some NEW gaming franchises. Until that happens, it is laughable to think that LucasArts ISN'T a Star Wars crap factory.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
"[Ward's] most challenging days may be ahead. The videogame industry has been in the doldrums for months; video game sales are lagging as consumers wait to buy the next generation of consoles, including the PlayStation 3.
This statement has made the rounds from CNN to MaximumPC to Slashdot to probably Fox News.
Video game sales have decreased in retail markets. This is not an industry crisis; it is a paradigm shift. What hasn't been decreasing are revenues in areas which here-to-fore did not exist. Steam is not making less money than it did in 2000. People are willing to buy games online and download them. Even if CS:S turns your brain to mush and is addictive as sweet, sweet heroin. But, guess who didn't get a sale. Best Buy.
Another factor in Video Game sales is persistant subscription sales models. It is completely inexplicable that these people don't mention MMO profits. At 5 million subscriptions times $15/month each, and this warrants italics, Blizzard will make $900,000,000 [NINE HUNDRED MILLION] gross this year on WoW. That a nine, with 8 zeros behind it. That's a license to print money. And that's not counting EQ2, AO, DAoC, Eve, and others.
Yes, there is a slump in video game purchases right now. There aren't any must have games; everyone is waiting for X, Y, or Z. But THAT'S HOW IT'S ALWAYS BEEN. It's not the automobile industry; there's not a new model released every year. NES = 1985, SNES = 1992. Ish. What happened in the interum? A falloff of game sales. It goes in cycles. IT'S NORMAL. You know what happens when a Must Have Game comes out? People buy it.*
When you couple that with the fact that ONE IN 45 AMERICANS PLAYS WOW, you start to see what people are doing with their time. And most of the infants and nursing home patrons aren't playing. It's the coveted 18-34 demographic.
So, STFU & GBTW.
~W
*"Dragon Quest VIII was released in Japan in November 27, 2004 and sold more then three million units in its opening weekend. Shipments in North America have topped 430,000 since its release on November 17, 2005. European gamers can look forward to the game arriving in April." (Jan 30 2006). I have this game. It's great.
sig?
I cringe every time I see this phrase uttered in the media. It appears on Slashdot in every single story of this nature, and it is completely FALSE.
Game sales have been down for the whole of 2005 and 2004 was a declining year too. The decline is not tied in any way shape or form to the next gen systems. Take a look at the actuale sales numbers for 04 and 05, and 06 even. The solid titles have sold as they should and at the same rate as most other games of their type from years before. The problem is how few 1 million+ selling games have been made in recent time.
This statement that sales are down due to gamer anticipation has been proven false a number of times by a number of analysts. Let's stop clinging to this falsehood. Call a spade a spade, game sales are down because most everything made is derivative and shallow as well as so similar to the next game that demand is not there. The innovative titles are doing fine.
Nintendogs, Brain Trainer, Oblivion, Guitar Hero, etc. Marc Ecko's "Getting Up" is not... because it sucks ass... not because people are waiting to play Marc Ecko's "Getting Up, Again" in HD on Blu-Ray in their PS3.
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea