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Disney is reviving Lucasfilm Games?


zzip

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Hm, that's interesting. Disney doesn't have a great track record for sticking with game studios (remember Split/Second?), but these are different times and I hope they can approximate some of the old glory days. Until they started farming everything out around the turn of the century, they were by far my favorite game creator.

 

They should look forward, not back, but if they gobbled up some of the retro games, wouldn't that be nice? Rumor has it that AtGames will bring back some Star Wars arcade games soon.

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Hm, that's interesting. Disney doesn't have a great track record for sticking with game studios (remember Split/Second?), but these are different times and I hope they can approximate some of the old glory days. Until they started farming everything out around the turn of the century, they were by far my favorite game creator.

 

They should look forward, not back, but if they gobbled up some of the retro games, wouldn't that be nice? Rumor has it that AtGames will bring back some Star Wars arcade games soon.

 

Lucasfilm games was cutting edge and one of my favorite developers too, but when they axed everything else and only focused on Star Wars games, I lost interest. I like Star Wars, but I didn't need as many SW games as they were churning out!

 

I've read speculation that they are doing this because they are unhappy with the results of selling the SW license to third parties. EA only produced two Battlefront games, neither was particularly well received. There were supposed to be others but they got cancelled.

 

It would be nice if they had the creative spirit of the original Lucasfilm games. But I suspect that only existed because George Lucas had more money than he knew what to do with and could afford to let them take risks. Disney is very risk-averse.

Edited by zzip
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The old Lucasfilm Games/LucasArts made original IP because they didn't have the rights to Star Wars! So we got Rescue on Fractalus, Ballblazer, Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion, Loom, Sam and Max Hit the Road, the Indiana Jones games, and so many more fun things. But Star Wars sells. X-Wing was the game that pushed me into finally getting a PC for games.

 

Disney has done a good job of resurrecting the old LucasArts games on GOG and Steam. I think nearly every modern-ish PC game from the past 25 years has now been re-released since Episode 1 Racer came out last year.

 

They've had a very mixed track record on mobile, but they've had more output than EA with the two very expensive Battlefront games. Unfortunately many of the mobile games have been killed. I liked Star Wars Uprising (Diablo clone by Kabam) and I think Force Arena (DOTA clone by Netmarble) was interesting. People seem to like Galaxy of Heroes (card collecting thing), and LEGO games seem like they'll never die, but it's a drag they've never done another single player role playing game like KOTOR. I would love some more Star Wars stories told this way.

 

If only they'd flesh out the Starfighter parts of Battlefront, or introduce some light strategy into the game, so they'd be more interesting? Sigh.

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The old Lucasfilm Games/LucasArts made original IP because they didn't have the rights to Star Wars! So we got Rescue on Fractalus

 

That's true too. I always thought Fractalus felt like a SW game without the name. The pilots you rescued looked very much like X-Wing pilots!

 

I do enjoy Battlefront, but I stay far away from the Starfighter modes! They never felt right. But the VR X-Wing mission is pretty cool.

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Just thinking of all the possibilities with this
Storm Trooper... a Star Wars Story
Wookies... a Star Wars Story
Bantha... a Star Wars Story
Baby Yoda... a Star Wars Story
Planet never mentioned before... a Star Wars Story
The Quest For More Money... a Star Wars Story

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Just thinking of all the possibilities with this

Storm Trooper... a Star Wars Story

Wookies... a Star Wars Story

Bantha... a Star Wars Story

Baby Yoda... a Star Wars Story

Planet never mentioned before... a Star Wars Story

The Quest For More Money... a Star Wars Story

But what about:

Ewoks... a Star Wars Story

Porgs... a Star Wars Story

Life Day... a Star Wars Story

Lone Star... a Star Wars Story

Han Shot First... a Star Wars Story

Edited by Bakasama
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The Quest For More Money... a Star Wars Story

I see what you did there, Yogurt approves. The fact there isn't star wars the toilet paper and star wars the flame thrower is kind of a surprise.

 

I do agree, Disney overkills, but they also do have that classic PC track record I can not fault them for at all looking at the insane release list post-buy out over on GoG. So many amazing old library DOS / Windows titles that went into the vapor that now rest there to enjoy and commonly they hit some pretty slick sales, especially yearly when May the 4th Be With You. I brought up this bit of good news as it hit on a group elsewhere dedicated to DOS games and people flipped, a few dissented thinking Disney would do their own version of the EA crap show, but most like me are given a benefit of the doubt. It's a known Disney is not happy with EA and their awful contract is about up, and this kind of seems like the nail in that contracts coffin if they resurrect the old studio in name if not more to handle future releases of Lucas tied IP from that period. This could if played right end up being a fantastic renaissance of solid Lucasgames era nice stuff to see rolled out past and future.

 

 

...and if the above han solo adventures was a full game, wow.

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The Han Solo adventures game is a fan project. I don't think it's a SCUMM editor and I doubt it will ever be finished, because it's been in the same state for a very long time. It's probably better to imagine what it could be than be disappointed with the reality. See also Solo: A Star Wars Story.

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Can you name one case in which such necrobranding would actually work? I can't.

 

For me Lucasarts stands next to Microprose or Bullfrog as one of the "genius!" studios from the Golden Era. Not only because their innovative 8-bit games, seminal adventures or the decent early Star Wars stuff. They also released a string of awesome sims such as Strike Fleet and Battlehawks. Then their story was over, they are dead now and no amount of (surely incoming) Disney's waffling about "spirit" will change that.

Edited by youxia
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So only now they realized they made a mistake of closing down a profitable studio to focus only on mobile games and outsource SW games to the worse game company in existance...

 

Hell I'm still surprise they still sell & support games on GOG and Steam!

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Better late than never is how I feel about it for now. I'm happy to see the name back, and if the current trend of Disney in relation to Lucas properties on GOG goes I hope that trajectory continues. They've made a solid push to get the great amount of that DOS/earlier windows backlog of Lucasarts/Games properties up on there to play and recently squeaked out Ep1 Racer too which has been a hanging question of availability. Sure it could go wrong, but how much more wrong would it be than allowing EA to stain things worse?

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So only now they realized they made a mistake of closing down a profitable studio to focus only on mobile games and outsource SW games to the worse game company in existance...

LucasArts was floundering, they hadn't been profitable for many years, and had been contracting out their work to many different studios after a brush with insolvency. There wasn't much left for Disney to shut down. The last big Lucas game was The Force Unleashed, over 10 years ago.

 

I agree that EA should have been able to do more better stuff with Star Wars than they did, but "worst game company in existence" is old Consumerist clickbait.

 

I want to watch this ... "can this kind of studio be duplicated today?"

https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1020557/Classic-Studio-Postmortem-Lucasfilm

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But what about:

Ewoks... a Star Wars Story

Porgs... a Star Wars Story

Life Day... a Star Wars Story

Lone Star... a Star Wars Story

Han Shot First... a Star Wars Story

 

Screw Life Day, give us a full graphic adventure based on the holiday special! I need to sing and dance like Bea Arthur.

 

Also make the VR game the grampa wookie was playing in that special!

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I do agree, Disney overkills, but they also do have that classic PC track record I can not fault them for at all looking at the insane release list post-buy out over on GoG. So many amazing old library DOS / Windows titles that went into the vapor that now rest there to enjoy and commonly they hit some pretty slick sales, especially yearly when May the 4th Be With You. I brought up this bit of good news as it hit on a group elsewhere dedicated to DOS games and people flipped, a few dissented thinking Disney would do their own version of the EA crap show, but most like me are given a benefit of the doubt. It's a known Disney is not happy with EA and their awful contract is about up, and this kind of seems like the nail in that contracts coffin if they resurrect the old studio in name if not more to handle future releases of Lucas tied IP from that period. This could if played right end up being a fantastic renaissance of solid Lucasgames era nice stuff to see rolled out past and future.

 

I think a lot of us get excited seeing the name, and wish for a return of the glory days of that studio.

 

But-- in Disney's hands, I'm not so sure. If you thought EA was greedy, Disney could easily put them to shame

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Didn't George Lucas deny and reject the Holiday Special?

He must have approved it at some point, but lets just say he was less than thrilled with the result

 

 

, it could almost be seen as a kick in Lucas' groin.

When has that stopped them before? :lolblue:

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Yeah, approved it just like Richard Garriott approved Ultima: Escape from Mt Drash for the VIC-20. When a brand is young and vibrant, it is easier to be generous in how to use it than when it has matured and suddenly worth lots of money.

Edited by carlsson
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Yeah, approved it just like Richard Garriott approved Ultima: Escape from Mt Drash for the VIC-20. When a brand is young and vibrant, it is easier to be generous in how to use it than when it has matured and suddenly worth lots of money.

 

True. Also I think when you are young and naive, you can't even conceive how badly your IP could be butchered until you see the results.

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Anyway, I read on Wikipedia:

 

Despite the unpopularity of the special, Lucasfilm maintained its status as part of the continuity, placing it halfway between Episodes IV and V. From 1978 to 2014, most elements of Holiday Special fell under the S-canon, a secondary level of canon superseded by other licensed works.

[...]

After Lucasfilm was acquired by The Walt Disney Company, the Holocron was retired. Only the episodic films and animated series beginning with The Clone Wars were declared to be part of the new canon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Holiday_Special

 

I suppose it would mean it bears no relevance to Disney. I don't know about the rights, would those lie with them, either of the prouction companies or with CBS who once broadcasted it?

Edited by carlsson
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Anyway, I read on Wikipedia:

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Holiday_Special

 

I suppose it would mean it bears no relevance to Disney. I don't know about the rights, would those lie with them, either of the prouction companies or with CBS who once broadcasted it?

 

I think Lucas had the rights. He kept it from ever being rebroadcast and supposedly tried to get every copy in existence destroyed

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