Tag Archives: Video games

Lucasarts Shuttered, Employees Laid Off

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LucasartsKotaku is reporting that Disney has officially shut down Lucasarts and laid off all employees.

Given the lingering hard feelings over Lucasfilm Animation and the cancellation of The Clone Wars, it’s easy to get upset at Disney. I would caution against it, however. Lucasarts was a development studio that was in trouble years before Disney even came into the picture. The number of titles they released plummeted around 2006-2007 and the marquee titles they did release were not well received critically. The Force Unleashed and its sequel were regarded as middling titles and The Old Republic was a huge expenditure that failed to put a dent in the MMO market.

There’s also this to consider:

Lucasarts has been a development studio in trouble for years. This studio getting shut down doesn’t mean the end of Star Wars games. If anything, I view it as a hopeful thing. For whatever reason, they have been unable to produce quality products internally for a number of years and they probably could have and should have been closed down sooner to redistribute that valuable IP.

If Disney is licensing the Star Wars IP now to other studios, that could be great news for fans.

Edit: Official statement from Lucasfilm

GameInformer received a statement from Lucasfilm discussing the closure of the studio.

“After evaluating our position in the games market, we’ve decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimizing the company’s risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games. As a result of this change, we’ve had layoffs across the organization. We are incredibly appreciative and proud of the talented teams who have been developing our new titles.”

In addition, Kotaku is now reporting that Star Wars 1313 and First Assault have been canceled

Staff were informed of the shutdown this morning, according to a reliable Kotaku source. Some 150 people were laid off, and both of the studio’s current projects—Star Wars: First Assault and Star Wars 1313—were cancelled. Disney will still use the LucasArts name to license games, but the studio is no more.

Video Game Flashback: X-Wing’s Impossible Mission

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There was a point in time where I played a lot of video games.

I mean, growing up in the Seattle area, you had one of two options after school. Deal with the relentless rain (and this was before Gore Tex was cheap) or find some sort of entertainment inside. I was lucky to have a pretty nice computer at home at the time*, so after finishing up homework I’d often sit down to play the old X-Wing combat flight simulator that Lucasarts released in the 90s.

*Kids, there was a time when having a computer at home was a rare thing. In a class of about 25 students, I was the only person who had a personal computer at home.

One of my lingering memories on one such rainy afternoon was playing through Tour 1, Mission 4. The dreaded Protect Medical Frigate mission. The goal was simple, protect the medical frigate Redemption as it took on wounded soldiers from multiple shuttles. The complication came when wave after wave after wave of TIE Bombers entered the picture, seemingly more than you and your wingmen could handle.

I spent three days working on beating this mission. Time after time I’d get overwhelmed trying to fend off the Bombers. They would always get torpedo volleys off before I could so much as spot them. It was, looking back at it, the first time I was well and truly frustrated with a video game.

I wasn’t the only one that struggled with this mission, though. From the Wook!

The Redemption was created for the 1993 LucasArts video game Star Wars: X-wing, as one of two Rebel medical frigates, along with the Salvation. In the game, the Redemption appears in the fourth mission of Tour of Duty 1, “Protect Medical Frigate.” The difficulty of eliminating waves of TIE bombers approaching the Redemption from opposite directions led to Michael A. Stackpole selecting it as a training scenario for Rogue Squadron in his 1996novel X-wing: Rogue Squadron.

‘Star Wars: First Assault’ Gets Trademarked

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Well this is interesting. In addition to Star Wars: 1313, Lucasarts may have another title in the works in Star Wars: First Assault.

Last week, Lucasfilm (the parent company of LucasArts) secretly registered several “Star Wars: First Assault” domain names like StarWarsFirstAssault.com.  It was suspected that the names had something to do with a yet-to-be announced video game project.

More information has surfaced in recent days in the way of two new trademark applications submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.  On August 23, 2012, Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd. filed trademarks for “First Assault” (Serial Number: 85711610) and “Star Wars: First Assault” (Serial Number: 85711618).

Both applications cover the same goods and services which, among other things, includes “Entertainment services provided on-line by means of global and local area networks, namely, providing interactive computer games and interactive video games.”

What could First Assault be? It sounds almost like another inter-trilogy game, but what’s interesting is that there could be all sorts of product tie-ins such as toys. Chances are it’s just an interactive game, but it could be something more along the scale of Shadows of the Empire.

The Old Republic Goes Free-To-Play, Attempts Stem Falling Subscriber Numbers

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Earlier this year, The Old Republic went free-to-play until level fifteen. Yesterday, it was announced that the game would be modified further by offering a restricted free-to-play model to level 50 and an unrestricted subscription model. The dinstinction from BioWare’s press release:

Subscription – A service designed for players who want unrestricted access to all the game features via ongoing subscription or by redeeming a Game Time Card. In addition to gaining access to all game content as our current subscribers do now, subscribers will receive ongoing monthly grants of Cartel Coins, the new virtual currency that will be introduced later this fall. Cartel Coins can be used to purchase valuable in-game items including customizable gear and convenience features that will enhance the game play experience.

Free-To-Play – The first 50 levels will be Free-to-Play, with restrictions on access to new content and advanced player features. Some restrictions can be “unlocked” with Cartel Coins.

BioWare also provided the following chart to explain the difference between the two game models:

In addition, purchase price of the game itself will be lowered to $15 starting on August 7th. In all, this looks like a good thing for people who are curious about the game but didn’t want to be tied down by a monthly subscription. Still, why is BioWare and Electronic Arts taking this drastic step in restructuring how the MMO is played and paid for? The unfortunate answer appears to be rapidly falling subscriber numbers.

Electronic Arts has revealed that the number of people paying to play its online video game Star Wars: The Old Republic has dropped below one million.

The title is the US firm’s biggest investment to date.

Launched in December, it initially attracted more than 1.7m subscribers.

The firm said the news was “disappointing” adding that it was switching to a new pricing plan which would allow users to access much of the content for free.

While the new free-to-play model is good for gamers, this appears to be more bad news for BioWare and Electronic Arts. Hopefully this new pricing model will allow The Old Republic to avoid the same fate as the Galaxies.

Mark Hamill, John Rhys-Davies, and Malcolm MacDowell Were in a Video Game no one Remembers

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Back in the 90s, there was a stupidly popular trend in video gaming: live-action, full-motion cutscenes. Often times developers would hastily put together a green-screen room, hire a bunch of actors from an area film school (or from the accounting department, whoever was cheaper), and throw together a poorly written script as an effort to slap videos in between gameplay. Lucasarts (in)famously did this with Star Wars: Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire: Death by Colons.*

*A game so terrible I’m going to have to do a writeup on it someday.

Origin Systems saw this trend and said to themselves that they were going to go big or go home. Presumably, they threw a ton of money at Mark Hamill, John Rhys-Davies, and Malcolm MacDowell to appear in the FMV cutscenes for Wing Commander III and Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom.

Shockingly, when you bring in competent actors and work out a halfway decent script, the result can be positive. Wing Commander IV in particular was fairly well received by critics in 1996, praised for both its excellent plot and decent gameplay. Gamespot gave the game an 8.1/10 in its review.

Sadly this wasn’t a game that stood the test of time. Even the biggest Mark Hamill fans would be surprised to hear that he didn’t just provide a voice, but acted for a video game in the 90s. Largely this is because Origin Systems and Electronic Arts failed to keep the Wing Commander franchise playable as technology advanced. You can’t play any of these games unless you dig out your old Pentium 133 from the shed or tinker with a DosBox emulator.

WoW on Sale

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From now until Monday, you can get the entirety of WoW (including expansions) for only $30. That’s right, the original WoW, Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm for only $30. Is this yet another ploy on Blizzard’s part to gain back traction, especially as we prepare for the upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion? Absolutely. Possibly a reaction to TOR? Doubtful, given their hemorrhaging of members. But if you’ve ever wanted to play WoW or see what the fuss was about, now’s your chance–the Battle Chest (WoW and Burning Crusade) include the first month of play free.

Knights of the Old Republic PC Bundle May Be Incoming

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According to G4, Lucasarts may be getting set to release a Knights of the Old Republic PC bundle containing both games.

LucasArts appears to be getting ready to release a two-pack PC bundle for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, based on Amazon and GameStop product listings (via Joystiq). The collection hasn’t been officially confirmed, but GameStop’s listing notes a July 17, 2012 release date and a $20 price.

If it’s released, I do hope it ships with bug and compatibility fixes. The last time I tried to play KotOR on a modern operating system, I ran into all sorts of glitches with the video playback that numerous crashes to the desktop. Just take a look at this thread that documents countless issues and partial workarounds.

More Bad News for ‘The Old Republic’ Publisher Electronic Arts

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While not directly related to The Old Republic, this bit of analysis by Games Industry is anything but good news for the floundering MMO. The stock trend for publisher Electronic Arts is not going in a good direction.

Electronic Arts’ stock has lost almost 40 per cent of its value since the start of this calendar year – and in fact, since the middle of last holiday season (around November 2011) the company’s stock has been in a steady decline which has now wiped close to 50 per cent off EA’s valuation. It’s not a decline as sharp as THQ’s, but it represents a much larger loss of value – THQ’s market capitalisation is only around $50 million, whereas even after this enormous loss of value, EA is still capitalised at around $4 billion.

Games Business put together a rather telling graph comparing EA’s performance to the NASDAQ index and another pair of publishers. It’s not pretty.

While Electronic Arts isn’t alone in the downward trend (Hello, Take Two Interactive), it’s not keeping up with one of its chief competitors in Activision-Blizzard. Worse, it’s not keeping pace with the NASDAQ composite index. But here’s the scary thing, see where the downward trend begins for EA? That’s right about when The Old Republic debuted, the most expensive undertaking in EA history. How much of TOR’s stumbles have fueled EA’s trouble isn’t fully known, but it certainly has contributed.

The Old Republic May Be Going Free-To-Play

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Things have not been going well for The Old Republic. First there was the news dropped in some shareholders notes that the game had bled 400,000 users, a staggering 25% of the total subscriber base at its peak. Then there were the layoffs at BioWare Austin. All of this seems to be forcing Lucasarts and BioWare to make some tough decisions. Kotaku had a telling quote from the game’s lead designer, Emmanuel Lusinchi.

“The MMO market is very dynamic and we need to be dynamic as well,” he says. “Unless people are happy with what they have, they are constantly demanding updates, new modes and situations. So we are looking at free-to-play but I can’t tell you in much detail. We have to be flexible and adapt to what is going on.”

Going Free-to-Play would dramatically lower expectations for the game’s quality and content, which might be something that needs to happen. TOR simply wasn’t the World of Warcraft killer everyone hoped it would be. The model could also provide new revenue streams int he form of micro transactions.

Whether this happens or not, something needs to change if TOR is going to avoid the same fate as Galaxies.

Tropes versus Women: Deconstructing Gender Stereotypes in Video Games

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Nanci spotted something interesting this morning that I think is rather timely. Earlier this week, I was fuming to some friends over the Tomb Raider reboot. This was a game that I thought had a lot of potential to be both entertaining and (forgive the horrid play on words) game changing. Initial videos showed a Lara Croft that appeared to be a much more complete, deep character. Heaven knows there aren’t enough female characters in the video game universe that fits that description.

Unfortunately, it appears the developers have lost their way. Depicting gratuitous sexual assault and suggesting that Lara needs to be protected by the masculine player does not a deep character make. So, back to square one, another developer studio that doesn’t quite seem to understand what people mean when they ask for strong, female characters.

Maybe they should pay attention to a new project headed by Anita Sarkeesian: Tropes versus Women.

I love playing video games but I’m regularly disappointed in the limited and limiting ways women are represented.  This video project will explore, analyze and deconstruct some of the most common tropes and stereotypes of female characters in games.  The series will highlight the larger recurring patterns and conventions used within the gaming industry rather than just focusing on the worst offenders.  I’m going to need your help to make it happen!

As a gamer, a pop culture critic and a fan, I’m always working to balance my enjoyment of media while simultaneously being critical of problematic gender representations. With my video web series Feminist Frequency,  I look at the way women are portrayed in mass media and the impact they have on our culture and society.

They’ve already hit a number of funding goals to get high-quality episodes produced looking at various cliches and stereotypes regarding female characters in video games. Here’s some of the deconstructions they have lined up:

  • Damsel in Distress – Video #1
  • The Fighting F#@k Toy – Video #2
  • The Sexy Sidekick – Video #3
  • The Sexy Villainess – Video #4
  • Background Decoration – Video #5
  • Voodoo Priestess/Tribal Sorceress – Video #6
  • Women as Reward – Video #7
  • Mrs. Male Character – Video #8
  • Unattractive Equals Evil – Video #9
  • Man with Boobs – Video #10
  • Positive Female Characters! – Video #11
  • Video #12 – Top 10 Most Common Defenses of Sexism in Games

Combining TV Tropes with a topic that sorely needs discussion in this industry? Sounds look a good cause to me. Deconstruct away.