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Star Wars First Assault/Tie in to Battlefront III/ Canceled Clone Wars
firefly2003
Member UncommonPosts: 2,527
Leaked Star Wars Game Is ‘Predecessor’ To Battlefront III, Source Says
Last October, we saw a listing for Star Wars: First Assault, an unannounced Xbox Live Arcade game developed by LucasArts.
Today, Kotaku can reveal that Star Wars: First Assault is a downloadable multiplayer shooter that was originally slated for release this spring. The game supports up to 16 players—one eight-person team of rebels and one eight-person team of Stormtroopers—as they face off on Star Wars worlds like Bespin and Tatooine.
And according to one person familiar with the project, First Assault is "step zero" to the heavily-rumored, highly-anticipated Star Wars: Battlefront III. If First Assault sells well—assuming it is released at all—the third Battlefront could be next.
***A few weeks ago, Kotaku reported on the status of Star Wars 1313, a game that could be in trouble thanks to unrest and uncertainty at LucasArts, the storied studio that has developed or published every official Star Wars video game to date. We mentioned a Call of Duty-style first-person shooter codenamed "Trigger."
That's First Assault. And according to our source, who is familiar with the project but says he is "no longer familiar with the goings-on" at LucasArts, this game is a downloadable "predecessor" to Battlefront III—part of the studio's strategy to show that there's a market for Star Wars shooters running on the Unreal Engine.
The story of Star Wars: Battlefront III is long and well-documented. Commissioned as the third game in the Battlefront shooter series, Battlefront III has bounced from developer to developer over the past few years. Although LucasArts has yet to officially announce the game, leaked footage and images show what could have been, and development studio Free Radical has claimed the game was 99% finished when LucasArts killed it.
Star Wars: First Assault, our source says, would lead up to Battlefront III. This new Battlefront would use nothing from the Battlefront III that has already been in production at studios like Free Radical and Slant Six, our source says. Instead, LucasArts would build Battlefront III based on code from First Assault.
The status of First Assault—like the status of Star Wars 1313 and other projects that LucasArts is currently working on—remains unclear today. The new direction of LucasFilm is also unclear—just today, the company announced that they would no longer be releasing new episodes of the Clone Wars television show on Cartoon Network.
We've reached out to LucasArts for comment and will update should we hear back from them.
For now, our source says, the only way to get games like First Assault out of carbonite might be for Star Wars fans to speak up.
"Fans should tell Disney/Lucas loud and clear they don't want shitty titles from random developers; they want games to be taken seriously, and they will only pay for quality," the source said. "I believe that if Disney/Lucas lets LucasArts die, it means the death of Star Wars as a storied game franchise is right behind it."
http://kotaku.com/5989910/leaked-star-wars-game-is-predecessor-to-battlefront-iii-source-says
Comments
I think this is Disney's doing tbh, and your right there is definetely a market for Star Wars shooters Battlefront and Republic Commando games did extremely well, however with Lucas in the past few years pumping out all that Clone Wars garbage we havent see any decent SW games in quite a while.
Keep in mind that Disney only acuired the rights to all things Star Wars in 2013. Talk about a Star Wars FPS, including the death of one before release, had been going way earlier in 2012. I recall alot of discussion about it in that summer.
For you guys wondering why Lucasarts has not pumped out a recent SW FPS, let me just say that Lucasarts is a bunch of idiots. These are the guys that for most parts, have stumbled with the "Star Wars" name ever since TPM movie came out. There have been a few jewels, but the field has been pretty barren and inept. Lucasarts has quite a history in letting things rot on the vine.
SWBF2 came out in 2005 in time for ROTS movie release. And its rushed nature to make that movie release tie in showed because it was, IMO, very inferior to SWBF1. Nevertheless, despite my dislike for this sequel, the SWBF series was going good, and Lucasarts refused to follow up and eventually went with the direction of Force Unleashed instead.
LOL.
Some more examples:
RPGS: Knights of the Old Republic... KOTOR 2 came out in 2004, which wasn't even done by Bioware, but by Obsidian. And a proper SW RPG has not been out until SWTOR as an MMORPG (and I use the term loosely with this game) released in Dec 2011. That is over 7 years in between ANY Star Wars RPGs.
FPS: This part of gaming Lucasarts did not ignore, but they've been lackluster for a long time. Lucasarts had 2 general directions to go. A grunt-focused route via SWBF series, even though Republic Commando was allowed to wither and die. Let's just say Lucasarts hates Star Wars' soldiers. A Jedi-focused route that long ago was dominated by the long running Jedi Knight series, but was taken over by Forced Unleashed. Inferior SW genre takeover, IMO, but Lucasarts at least tried something in the FPS genre over the years.
Space: Like FPS, there were 2 general directions. The space-sim route that had long been killed off by Lucasarts, the old "X-Wing" series that last had a game, X-Wing: Alliance in 1999. Died because it wasn't a Prequel franchise, which Lucasarts got heavily into due to TPM's release. And we've been lamenting ever since. The other direction was the more arcadey Rogue Squadron series. While not my cup of tea for SW space games, it did have its audience. The last game was Rogue Squadron III... from 2003. The closest thing ever since 2003 to having a Star Wars space combat game is SWG's "Jump to Lightspeed" space expansion pack of 2004. A good take, IMO, but SOE didn't expand on it. KOTOR MMORPG's space game, released in Dec 2011. The space game was laughable at best. Lucasarts had long given up on Star Wars space combat for a long time. Oh the irony of that.
Strategy games: The last Star Wars strategy game was Empire at War from 2006. 2000-freaking-six. Enough said.
Lucasarts, again, has been neglecting the Star Wars franchise for most parts, and had given up around mid-2000's. The only worthy mentions ever since Empire at War of 2006 was Force Unleashed titles and TOR. The results? Well, its easy to see, and it's not that great. I think they put all their eggs into 1 basket, IMO, which was TOR. It was done at high cost because lots of things in Star Wars gaming was allowed to wither and die.
X-Wing series, I've long been searching for a comeback since 1999. Yeah, holding my breath, there. Bad idea for sure.
Oh, and I think it's funny that this FPS game being mentioned has 8 player multiplayer. Battlefield series on the PC was capable of 64 players. Modern Warfare 1 was capable of 64 players. Star Wars Battlefront 1 was capable of 64 players. And this new one? 8. Freaking 8!!! LOL!!!
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
The game in question is (probably) an XBL exclussive - not a full on game.
8 on 8 FPS is pretty amazing for an XBL exclussive.
Any "real" Star Wars FPS like Battlefront 3 would most likely be next gen consoles and easily support 64 player matches.
Personally, I'd LOVE to see a resurgence in good, quality SW video games... I spent most of my childhood playing LucasArts games.
I'd love to see the return of a steady supply of good SW games. The 90s were a great time for them. It also was a time that when you saw the distinctive "Lucasarts" logo on a game box, chances are you had a shot at great gaming. But that Lucasarts that you and I remember fondly is not the same one that exists today. Of all things, it looks like they've lost their way. With SW games in particular.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)