LucasArts Aims for #1 120
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.'"
"And Jim knows what he has to do." (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Bring Back X-Wing/Tie Fighter (Score:5, Insightful)
Update X-Wing and Tie Fighter.
Better graphics, online play, new missions.
Please, please, please!
Re:Bring Back X-Wing/Tie Fighter (Score:5, Insightful)
Only have three words to say... (Score:5, Insightful)
LucasArts wants original games now? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:'We are not the Star Wars company' (Score:3, Insightful)
I have to wonder if this genre isn't just in hibernation like these games were, for companies not daring to put money into developing them. If you haven't played Grim Fandago and are even remotely interested in this genre, I strongly recommend you to do. It gave me many memories like a good book would have done, and like most games won't.
Stop with the FUD (Score:3, Insightful)
"[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? [rpgamer.com]People buy it [rpgamer.com].*
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.
Not due to waiting for next gen... (Score:3, Insightful)
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.