Force Unleashed 3 cancelled

allanb49

From - http://kotaku.com/5614577/rumor-lucasarts-cancels-force-unleashed-3-begins-culling-developers

New Lucasarts president Paul Meegan certainly isn't wasting any time. Barely two months into the job and we hear he's already swinging the axe and cancelling high profile sequels.

If you were wondering why it was strange that Force Unleashed II creative director Haden Blackman would leave mid-project, this may explain things: according to sources at Lucasarts, Meegan has cancelled a third Force Unleashed game that was already in development, and members of Force Unleashed II's team (though we're not sure exactly how mant) will be shown the door once that game ships.

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".

These sources say "morale and productivity are at all-time lows" since Meegan took over, with most Lucasarts developers only finding out about Force Unleashed II's cancellation on the PSP by reading it on gaming news sites.

We've also been told that another sweeping change made by Meegan is that the majority of "external" development of Lucasarts properties is coming to an end, with BioWare's Old Republic MMO to be the last game not developed internally at Lucasarts. That would presumably mean, for example, no more LEGO Star Wars or LEGO Indiana Jones titles, as those were handled by Traveller's Tales.

So, yes, if this is all indeed correct, big changes are afoot at the house that Star Wars built. Lots of them bad news for the developers currently there, but looking at the big picture, the silver lining could be that such drastic shake-ups could be exactly what's needed at a publisher and developer that, courtesy of its licenses and history, should be doing a lot better both commercially and critically than it currently is.

We've contacted Lucasarts for comment, and will update if we hear back.

So good or bad they're culling this before it gets started,

Money wise could be a bad move
game wise could be a great move - New IPs or some more of the likes ofGrim Fandango or DotT

rizzla

I find it hard to believe. Force Unleashed was the most successful Lucas Arts star wars game to date. The sequel is set to be just as good but they canned the 3rd before even seeing how well the second will be recieved.

gizmo

I wouldn't read too much into it really. What they cancelled could have been the current iteration of the game but that's not to say there won't be a Force Unleashed III at some point, possibly even next generation or with newer tech this generation.

humanji

The sh*t's going to his the fan when George Lucas finds out someone in his organisation isn't cashing in on the Star Wars franchise!

Antar Bolaeisk

Brilliant news, they can spend the left over money on a new X-Wing vs Tie Fighter game!

johnny_ultimate

I kept reading that article thinking they were referring to Force Unleashed 2, which I thought was pretty ridiculous cancelling a game so far into development :pac: I'm sure if 2 does well 3 will be back on track.

Not surprising from Lucasarts though. They want major control over their franchises - Lucas has followed that train of thought since the 70s. The external developer thing is a shame, at least BioWare will get their game out first.

Mr. K

I wonder where they would have went with TFU3? The first one didn't exactly need a sequel...

savemejebus

humanji wrote: »

The sh*t's going to his the fan when George Lucas finds out someone in his organisation isn't cashing in on the Star Wars franchise!

it'll probably be ok as they're doing it to release funds for the long awaited Jar Jar Binks HD game.

Overheal

Whatever. I think we're inundated with Star Wars games.

And this is lucasarts. They made Monkey Island and Afterlife and a bunch of other cool ****. The developer is plenty capable of creating fresh and exciting new titles. For sequels perhaps they should sell the rights to Force Unleashed sequels to EA, I hear they're good at whoring that kind of thing out.

seyeM

Antar Bolaeisk wrote: »

Brilliant news, they can spend the left over money on a new X-Wing vs Tie Fighter game!

That would be awesome, Tie Fighter was and still is one of the best

Retr0gamer

Overheal wrote: »

And this is lucasarts. They made Monkey Island and Afterlife and a bunch of other cool ****. The developer is plenty capable of creating fresh and exciting new titles. For sequels perhaps they should sell the rights to Force Unleashed sequels to EA, I hear they're good at whoring that kind of thing out.

Eh, it's not that lucasarts anymore. Lucasarts internal developers were some of the most talented and produced some of the greatest games ever but they were all disbanded and don't work there anymore because it's cheaper for Lucasarts to just give out it's licenses to the lowest third party bidder to make their games.

grimm2005

http://mixnmojo.com/news/Rumour-LucasArts-Dark-Times-Deja-Vu

The company took a really good turn under darrel rodriquez, re-releasing many of the old adventure games on steam, re-making MI1 & 2 and letting telltale create a new MI game aswell as creating their first bit of new IP in ages with Lucidity (don't know if it was any good mind).
It seems this new president is turning that back around