Battlefront III and the tale of Free Radical

[Jedikiller]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-05-04-free-radical-vs-the-monsters

I don't know if any of you guys have seen this, but I figured that it might make an impact on the community. This is a long and in-depth article about LucasArts and Free Radical, and the hidden story of the rise and fall of Battlefront III from a highly innovative game to largely a pile of junk, and LucasArts' effect on it.

I came away from this article disappointed. LucasArts hasn't put out anything good lately, and I think that it's largely because of their terrible business practices. I hope that one day, they will turn themselves around and become the publishing powerhouse they used to be - with games like KotOR, SWBF1, and Republic Commando.

Interested to hear you guys' thoughts.

[Unit 33]

I did in-fact read about this, somehow I'm not surprised that super-crazy money hungry nutters destroyed the project.

From what I've seen the Alpha build was fairly amazing. I imagine that the psychopath at Lucas Arts  the free radical guy mentions must have been some kind of soul-less bean counter who didn't know the first thing about games and creation in general.

It's certainly disappointing, considering Free Radical are responsible for the greatest FPS series ever. FACT

[SleepKiller]

The pre-alpha build that we see on Youtube shows that the game had environments on a scale never really seen before and that was pre-alpha footage! Imagine what the final build would have been like. Hard to believe LucasArts canned the project that late in it's development.

[tirpider]

In my imagination and memory, I will always hold the image of Mr. Lucas working with special effects guys, trying new things and revolutionizing an entire industry with real artisans, designers, and writers.

I am very sad that that only exists in memory and imagination, now.

The lesson (for me) is that if I enjoy doing something, never let a bean counter near it.