Star Wars The Force Unleashed Faces Development Trouble

[Nuvian]

Star Wars The Unleashed Faces Development Trouble (LINK (http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/26/lucasarts-cuts-hit-force-unleashed-team-after-all/))

http://www.gamerchip.com/images/star-wars-unleashed.jpg (http://www.gamerchip.com/images/star-wars-unleashed1.jpg)
LucasArts have taken the extrordinary step of risking one of its most highly anticipated titles yet by laying off staff from the development team of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

An ex member of the crack Jedi programming troupe has revealved that member of the team were released from their contracts before the title had wrapped up. He went on to say that the current team size was insufficient to handle the remaining work.


LucasArts has been qouted as towing the familiar company line around the importance of internal development, but you would have to question their commitment in the wake of this news.

The only hope looks to be through outsourced help. If this is the case, the last parts of the game will be completed by completely new people, with no history in the title. The Star Wars franchise has already suffered a credibility blow with the inclusion of characters in the upcoming Soul Calibre title. Although the majority of Unleashed has been completed this could spell bad news for a successful, bug free release.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is slated for release on September 16th.


Source (http://www.gamerchip.com/star-wars-unleashed-dev-issues/)
This is bad, since they are mainly working on polish/bug removal now, this might effect how polish/bug free the game is at launch day.

[StrifeTribal]

Wow good post Nuvian. I can't play believe LucasArts would do something that dumb. The game looked like it had huge potential and the devs were putting their heart and soul into the game. And now as you said their in the polish/bug removal stage we might be in for a bit of trouble.

[To.Ken]

I suprised by this. I'm sure Lucas Arts has invested a lot into this game. It is silly to risk it all as the game goes into the final strech.

[LeisureSuitLarry]

I'm not surprised by this at all. These days, it seems anything with the word "Lucas" has a rotten smell to it.

[gamecrazy]

I'm not surprised by this at all. These days, it seems anything with the word "Lucas" has a rotten smell to it.

You must have seen Indy IV then. :sleep:

[LeisureSuitLarry]

You must have seen Indy IV then. :sleep:

and the last three star wars movies. sigh....it is depressing to see one's childhood trampled so mercilessly.

[FunkyP]

Experience at LucasArts isn't really saying much, sure you might be familiar with the work, but there are probably better people they can outsource to.

[neekerbeeker]

hmm, it's probably because i'm really hoping this game will be awesome, but something seems strange. the source is one guy that got laid off. maybe he is bitter and has started spreading rumors to get everyone to second guess the game.

oh well, if it ends up being true, that sucks. the game was looking awesome, but will now probably be half as good as it should have been. which seems par for the course with Lucasarts.

[DontKnowMe]

Well those are some good business practices :rolleyes:

[coolguy]

there is plenty of time to get this game runing good...
but this is said news.

[Redflagg41]

I think I am the only person on the face of the planet who doesn't really care for starwars. It's too bad that they're having problems for those who like SW. Oh and Indy 4 was terrible...disgusting.

[Vulgotha]

Why are people so cheesed that Star Wars characters are making their way to SCIV? Jeez give it a rest.

I don't think any less of the Star Wars franchise because of it.

I'm just excited I get to play a Next Gen Vader!

[warstory]

that sucks I was looking forward to this one.Now it seems like they are just trying to keep money in their pockets. Oh well heres hoping it doesn't hurt them

[Two4DaMoney]

Maybe the new guys know what they are doing and he's just bitter...but ehh!

I'll wait for reviews as I was going to from the start.

[Harrow]

This game has always been a wildcard in my eyes because they are releasing it on so many platforms. I don't care how much development money and resources you have that has to stretch things thin. So this sounds like bad news. Although I question the source due to the bad grammer in the article.

The game has already been delayed almost a year. Maybe not officially, but I remember it having an estimated release date of Fall 07.

Let's just say I'm not making any sudden moves the day this comes out.

[VintageElise]

I hope this doesnt spoil the game, I really want this to be good.

What are you people on about Indy 4 was not that bad! Ok the first 3 were alot better but still, It wasent that bad really. And star wars Ep 3 was ok aswell.

[Judgegeo]

I'm sorry. but the only Lucas Arts game i'd be interested in at the current time is KOTOR3, anything else.. yuck.

[dfx13]

Is KOTOR 3 officially in development? I remember that XBox Mag said it was, but it was quickly refuted by Bioware. I really liked the first one, but felt that the sequel was rushed and incomplete. I will be very disappointed to see that happen to this game, especially since it is part of a huge project to bridge the trilogies.

It's pretty sad that the Star Wars franchise games have become more compelling and memorable than the final movies. Is Lucas directly involved in the script/story of the game, or did he just establish the premise? I just finished reading The Secret History of Star Wars (http://www.secrethistoryofstarwars.com/) and I have no interest in another story written by Lucas. It's just sad how he pushed away the collaborative team that made the initial trilogy interesting. (The first two films anyway.) Sorry for the off-topic Lucas bash, but I had to get it out.

[Shin Asura]

The game will either get cancelled or delayed

[RedDragon7]

So a guy that gets fired goes on a rant, surprise surprise, and then everyone jumps ship from getting the game. How about we wait till the game is released before saying it's going to be crap now.

And with Indy IV, just because the movie has...Aliens .....means it sucks? Please tell me that's not the reason.

[godofspeed]

Why am i not surprised? :D

[Krazy Ivan]

So a guy that gets fired goes on a rant, surprise surprise, and then everyone jumps ship from getting the game. How about we wait till the game is released before saying it's going to be crap now.

And with Indy IV, just because the movie has...Aliens .....means it sucks? Please tell me that's not the reason.

No. Indy IV sucks because of horrible script, over the top stupid action and awful Shia LaBeouf... it was nothing more then a money grab.

[Nuvian]

The game will either get cancelled or delayed
Do you mean the game that is just 3 months from launch, that has only polish work/bug fixing left? yes that makes sense :rolleyes:

[Alpha2]

Keep in mind the source is and unemployed worker who might have a different opinion of what insufficient manpower is compared to theirs.


For all any of us know it's just a ne department doing the bug fixes with fresh eyes that havent been looking at the same code for months and not seeing anything wrong.

[-Deadpool-]

Hope it doesn't mean that they'll have to cut corners in the polish/bug test phase.

Still looking forward to this title 8)

[Grinchy]

This game has always been a wildcard in my eyes because they are releasing it on so many platforms.

Yeah that's what I've been saying all along about it too. Anytime a game is being made for current gen platforms and last gen platforms at the same time, you know it's going to be crap.

[Alpha2]

Not neccessarily, if all the games are designed to play exactly the same then yeah it's a good possibility it'll suck, but when the games are being developed seperatly by different teams the suck is usually determined by how short a time the game was in production. If it were a 6 month turn around then I'd say it was doomed but with different dev houses working on each platform generation's version this has been in development easily long enough to not suck. It's just a question now of how many patches will we have to download to play the game.

[Nuvian]

Since this happend to late in the production of the game i'm hoping it won't effect it much.

[UberNerD20]

NOO!!!!!!!!!! Ban you LucasAtrs, Ban you to HELL! This is some horrible news, this is my most anticipated game, it was bad enough that it was delayed already, but now this, so now is it goin to be a buggy release? Delayed again? CANCELED???? What a stupid decision here. just over a month til the release *insert fist shake here.*

[Rangersmad92]

NOO!!!!!!!!!! Ban you LucasAtrs, Ban you to HELL! This is some horrible news, this is my most anticipated game, it was bad enough that it was delayed already, but now this, so now is it goin to be a buggy release? Delayed again? CANCELED???? What a stupid decision here. just over a month til the release *insert fist shake here.*

Let's hope not for a buggy release, but for a title so close to release date you defianetly won't see this cancelled.

Still a day 1 buy for me :)

[UberNerD20]

for sure man, well i guess if its a buggy release, it could be patched, but this could all have been avoided....stupid greed.

[RedDragon7]

"The game will be canceled?!?!?" ... I think you guys need to really calm down. This isn't the best news, that's for sure. But honestly, we all really need to wait and see how this turns out before throwing this game out for pete sake. I'm still eagerly awaiting the game and I don't think anyone else that was anticipating it should really worry either.

[.05]

Seems like a bad move on LucasArts part. Hopefully the game won't be affected too much :???:

[mind in rewind]

"Great work on the game guys! You're fired. May the Force be with you."

[Saigon]

is this a rumor is is this true...

[Terrabit]

The Star Wars franchise has already suffered a credibility blow with the inclusion of characters in the upcoming Soul Calibre title.

What!? Can someone explain how Star Wars suffers a "credibility blow" by appearing in SC4? The only one with diminishing credibility is the idiot who wrote that.

[madhi19]

What!? Can someone explain how Star Wars suffers a "credibility blow" by appearing in SC4? The only one with diminishing credibility is the idiot who wrote that.

Yeah to take a credibility blow you need to have some left and after Phantom Menace SW does not have much left! It sound like ranting by a disgruntle former employee. Lucas Art got a lots of peoples on the payroll and not all of them are needed to do the bug fix on the force unleashed. So unless they close down shop for the next two month I would not worry too much.

[PS3 rocks]

Not all versions of the game are being developed by the same guys.

[UberNerD20]

shadows of the empire was good series, i wonder why they didnt make that a movie the game was great, playin as the wompa rocked.

[Klynton]

As it is so close to the release date I think it's far more likely that they have gotten rid of staff they no longer need as they are confident the game is near perfect.

Presumably this person was not on the testing team, but rather on a programming team whose project has been completed.

With the amount of money they have pumped into this game I can't see it ever being cancelled.

[higrob24]

Sorry the source of this is a guy who got let go or FIRED. Its hardly likely that hes not a bit pissed off and therefore not a relaible and unbiased source of information