LucasArts Shut Down

[Dexter]

He was a retard, nothing new there: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/lucasarts-shut-down.81889/page-4#post-2582735

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LucasArts#Restructuring_under_Jim_Ward

In April 2004, Jim Ward, VP of marketing, online and global distributions at Lucasfilm, was appointed president of LucasArts. Ward performed a top-to-bottom audit of LucasArts infrastructure, describing the company's state as "quite a mess." In 2003, LucasArts had reportedly grossed just over $100 million according to NPD, primarily from its Star Wars titles—significantly less than the grosses from the year's top single titles such as Halo. Ward produced a five-year investment plan to refit the company. Previous Star Wars games had been produced by external developers such as Raven Software, Bioware and Obsidian; Ward now prioritized making LucasArts' internal game development work effectively and adapt to the evolving games industry. Star Wars: Battlefront, Star Wars: Republic Commando, and Star Wars: Episode III survived cuts that closed down other in-development games and reduced staff from about 450 to 190 employees.

 

[Infinitron]

LucasArts’ push for more internally developed Star Wars titles left behind a tantalizing trail of unreleased projects. Star Wars: Imperial Commando, a sequel to Republic Commando, would have put the player in control of an Imperial assault team, but never made it out of the conceptual phase of development. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic III was almost greenlit, but none of the people I talked to involved in the project knew why it was canceled. “Most of the conceptual and story groundwork for the title was there,” a LucasArts employee says. Star Wars: Jedi Knight III – Brink of Darkness and Jedi Master were two different directions LucasArts hoped to take its Jedi Knight series, but neither made it to proper development. Other scrapped Star Wars titles included Smuggler, a linear action game that focused on a Han Solo-like character; Rebel Warrior, a violent action game with a Wookiee protagonist fighting the Empire; a title that put players into the role of Darth Maul called Star Wars: Darth Maul; an internally developed Star Wars MMORPG codenamed Proteus; a Call of Duty-like shooter named Star Wars: First Assault; and most surprisingly, Star Wars: Episode VII – Shadows of the Sith, which was believed to be a spin-off to the upcoming motion picture now helmed by J. J. Abrams.

ffs

“The team threw a Hail Mary to George, saying the game would have more credibility if the apprentice had a ‘Darth’ title,” a Force Unleashed team member says. Lucas agreed that this situation made sense for Sith royalty, and offered up two Darth titles for the team to choose from. “He threw out ‘Darth Icky’ and ‘Darth Insanius.’ There was a pregnant pause in the room after that. People waiting for George to say ‘just kidding,’ but it never comes, and he just moved on to another point.”

 

[DeepOcean]

Fall Of The Empire: How Inner Turmoil Brought Down LucasArts

Relevant part for RPG fans, describing Jim Ward, manager of LucasArts in 2005:

In 2005, LucasArts’ portfolio of releases consisted of just five titles, yet, according to NPD data, the company’s sales ranking rose to eighth, up from thirteenth in the previous year. Out of the top ten selling games that year, Star Wars: Battlefront II ranked sixth, and Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith held the eighth slot. The other titles – Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, Lego Star Wars (published by Eidos), and Star Wars: Republic Commando – all sold well.

From a numbers standpoint, LucasArts seemed like it was well on its way to becoming a publishing powerhouse. Ward’s hope was that LucasArts would be a top-five publisher by 2008.

Behind the scenes, however, all was not well. Numerous LucasArts employees, all who wish to remain anonymous, recall the company spiraling out of control during this prosperous time.

“Jim Ward’s leadership style was not for everybody,” one source says. “He was a challenging person to get to understand. He came from the film side. His objective was nothing less than changing the way the entire industry worked by the sheer force of his own will. He was quoted several times basically saying, ‘I don’t understand why video games can be late. When Industrial Light and Magic works on Harry Potter, they don’t have a choice to be late. The movie’s going to open. The effects have to be done. You don’t get it. There’s no choice. So I don’t understand why we get in this situation where games can be late.’ It turned out that he couldn’t change the way the industry worked in the way he desired. But he was the type of guy who wouldn’t take, ‘That’s just how it’s done’ for an answer.”

Do you remember what game came out in 2005? Duraframe300

Any rational person would learn about gamming industry a little but I guess this is to ask a little too much from people with MBAs these days.

 

[Caim]

“The team threw a Hail Mary to George, saying the game would have more credibility if the apprentice had a ‘Darth’ title,” a Force Unleashed team member says. Lucas agreed that this situation made sense for Sith royalty, and offered up two Darth titles for the team to choose from. “He threw out ‘Darth Icky’ and ‘Darth Insanius.’ There was a pregnant pause in the room after that. People waiting for George to say ‘just kidding,’ but it never comes, and he just moved on to another point.”

Say whatever you want about George Lucas, but that man knows how to troll.

He spend a few decades trying to build a studio close to Skywalker Ranch for ILM where they could make awesome stuff happen, but the neighbourhood (consisting of the rich and insane) protested him creating several high-level, high-payment jobs in the area because they feared the traffic jams caused by a hundred or so cars max extra per day in the area, and they were afraid of "light pollution" as well. George went on to try and builds the studio but after three decades or so he threw the towel in the ring and sold the lot. The neighbourhood was quite happy with this... until they discovered that Lucas had sold to a group building low income residential housing. So, instead of getting a group of high-skilled office workers as neighbours, they got the ghetto on their doorstep. They accused Georgie boy of "class warfare" (no really: they did), but Lucas was already on his way out, singing the song of his people.

 

[Athelas]

Yeah, that guy's appointment coincides perfectly with the 'hey, we're shipping this game 6 months earlier' call Obsidian got.

 

[Blaine]

Infinitron

Spoiler

Say whatever you want about George Lucas, but that man knows how to troll.

He spend a few decades trying to build a studio close to Skywalker Ranch for ILM where they could make awesome stuff happen, but the neighbourhood (consisting of the rich and insane) protested him creating several high-level, high-payment jobs in the area because they feared the traffic jams caused by a hundred or so cars max extra per day in the area, and they were afraid of "light pollution" as well. George went on to try and builds the studio but after three decades or so he threw the towel in the ring and sold the lot. The neighbourhood was quite happy with this... until they discovered that Lucas had sold to a group building low income residential housing. So, instead of getting a group of high-skilled office workers as neighbours, they got the ghetto on their doorstep. They accused Georgie boy of "class warfare" (no really: they did), but Lucas was already on his way out, singing the song of his people.

Good on him. I'm somewhat familiar with that brand of douchebaggery myself, since I live in a gentrified neighborhood bordering an immense hospital complex that's become prime real estate. The "Ghent Neighborhood League" here in Norfolk, Virginia has campaigned to have center armrests placed on park benches to keep homeless people off them, opposed the opening of soup kitchens or similar anywhere nearby, blocked an effort to have a recently-closed funeral home turned into a small Montessori school (can't have a slight increase in traffic or too many kids around), and many, many other examples.

They've stopped dropping their sniveling little newsletters in my mailbox after that time I sent every single member a piece of my mind via mail. For some reason, I don't get invited to their house parties anymore, either.