May 23
If you’ve been playing the space-fighter game Star Wars: Attack Squadron regularly, you might already know the bad news. This game has been in development for some months, and even … Continue reading
Dec 17
There’s a new free-to-play Star Wars game coming to a system near you. It’s a classic dogfighting game based on classic Star Wars fighter vessels like X-wings, TIE fighters and, … Continue reading
Oct 24
Today a new set of “master filmmakers” has been announced as working on the next Star Wars film, these including first and foremost J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan as screenwriters. Keen-eyed fans will recognize that Abrams is also the director of this film, tentatively titled Star Wars: Episode VII, while Kasdan was also already a […]
Sep 02
If there’s one thing LucasArts was good at, it was getting to know 3rd-party game creators – that’s essentially the base for their entire industry, after all. When you run a gaming company that’s creating games that are (mostly) based in the Star Wars universe, you’ve got to work with a collection of developers – […]
May 07
Yesterday we reported that Disney had licensed Star Wars games production to EA. Just last month Disney announced that it was shutting down LucasArts, the game development arm of the studio. At the time, it was said that they were moving from a developing to a licensing model. EA will be putting DICE and Visceral Games on this development job and it has just been learnt that the new Star Wars titles EA will develop won’t be available on Nintendo Wii U console.
DICE technical director Joan Andersson said that their testing of the Frostbite 2 engine on Wii U did not yield promising results so they’re choosing not to go down this path. While adding that DICE does not want to back down from what they consider to be their low-spec machines, Andersson said that at the moment there’s no support for Wii U in Frostbite. Here, low-spec machines mean consoles with current generation technology. To top it all of, he confirmed that Nintendo’s Wii U console isn’t exactly in their focus right now. They’ve not said whether they ever plan on modifying Frosbite enough to make it compatible with Nintendo’s console.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: EA Registers For Battlefield 13 Up To Battlefield 20 Domain Names, $299 PS3 Legacy Bundle, 
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May 06
In the first week of April, Disney announced that it was pulling the plug on LucasArts. The studio said that it had made up its mind to shift LucasArts from a developing model to a licensing model. What this meant was that other developers would be allowed to create Star Wars games under license from Disney. Electronic Arts has now officially been confirmed as the exclusive developer of new Star Wars titles. EA’s job is to handle the core gaming audience.
EA’s three top studios will be developing these titles. The BioWare team will continue developing for Star Wars franchise whereas DICE and Visceral will now be on-board as well. EA Labels president Frank Gibeau has said that the titles might borrow from films, though the games will be entirely original with an entirely different gameplay and stories. EA has not yet revealed what will happened to the Star Wars titles that were under development before LucasArts was shut down, the Star Wars 1313 and Star Wars: First Assualt. All that EA has said on this matter is that they’re not announcing any specific titles at this point in time.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Pentagon Okays Use Of BlackBerry And Samsung Devices , Under the Radar: Meet C-Level Execs From Rackspace, BofA, Virgin America and more ($200 off door price promo code), 
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May 06
In a piece of news that informs on the future of Star Wars video games after Disney shut down LucasArts last month, Disney and Electronic Arts have signed a multi-year agreement that will see the game publisher obtain exclusive rights to the Star Wars video game franchise, allowing them to make Star Wars video games from here on out.
Electronic Arts says that DICE and Visceral Games will produce new Star Wars titles in the future, as they join BioWare, who is continuing to develop games for the franchise. As for what to expect in upcoming games from EA, the company’s Labels President, Frank Gibeau, says that the new games will be “entirely original with all new stories and gameplay,” with some elements being borrowed from past films.
However, the agreement between EA and Disney doesn’t give the game publisher all the rights to the Star Wars game franchise, as Disney will still retain the rights for “mobile, social, tablet and online game.” Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but we’re guessing it was for quite a large sum of money, especially for something so popular like Star Wars.
However, this gets us thinking as to how these upcoming Star Wars games will be published. Electronic Arts doesn’t have a very good track record, and they were recently voted the “worst company in America” for the second straight year, which has us worried about the Star Wars franchise. It’s possible that EA could turn things around by the time they release a new Star Wars game, but we’ll ultimately have to wait and see.
Electronic Arts obtains exclusive rights to Star Wars games is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Apr 11
Star Wars: Battlefront 3 is something that was meant to be, but it does not look too likely that it will ever be realized, in this age as well as the next. Still, this does not mean that we fans cannot dream or fantasize about it, and will have to make do with scraps from the table, including leaked footage of the secret Star Wars: Battlefront 3 project, also known as Version 2 from LucasArts.
Considering how LucasArts is no longer around, as the game developer is no longer the tour de force that it used to be, it has remained in existence only to function as a vehicle to license the highly profitable Star Wars property out to other developers. It looks like Star Wars 1313 is not the only project that LucasArts were working on, as “Project 2″ or “Version 2” was meant to end up as Star Wars: Battlefront 3, according to original intentions. The video depicted a fair number of Stormtroopers who hopped aboard different vehicles before blasting away to battle the pesky rebels, and there is a slew of rides in there that would send any self-respecting Star Wars fan crying, wondering why Star Wars: Battlefront 3 never made it to the finish line.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: BioShock Infinite Players React To Boy Of Silence In Compilation Video, Xbox 720 Always-On Tweets From Microsoft Creative Director Leads To Resignation [Rumor], 
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Apr 04
Disney’s announcement yesterday of it pulling the plug on LucasArts sent shockwaves throughout the video game industry as their game development studio seemed like it was just about to take off with its upcoming release of Star Wars 1313, whose future was uncertain during yesterday’s announcement. It looks as though the news isn’t looking good for the game as a LucasFilm representative confirmed the production for Star Wars 1313 has been halted.
LucasFilm spokesperson Miles Perkins spoke to the BBC saying, “Both current Star Wars games projects have been halted.” That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s officially being canceled as a LucasArts rep spoke with Game Informer yesterday saying, “There’s always a possibility that it [Star Wars 1313] can still come out via licensing.” Considering how much work was already put into the game by LucasArts, we’re not sure if licensing the game out to external partners would be in the game’s best interest. Either way, we think you should probably plan for the worst in regards to Star Wars 1313 as it’s future certainly isn’t looking to be a bright one.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: New Remember Me Trailer Highlights Enemies You’ll Fight In Neo-Paris, WWE App Now Available On Xbox 360 Just In Time For Wrestlemania XXIX, 
Apr 04
Raven Software releases source code for Jedi Academy and Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast
Posted in: Today's ChiliWhen we learned that Disney was purchasing the Star Wars Empire from George Lucas, it was rather bittersweet. Lucas hasn’t had the best track record with adding new films to the Star Wars franchise. We knew that new films will be coming in the Star Wars universe from Disney, but most fans we feared that Disney would ruin the franchise.
Yesterday we reported that Disney was closing down the LucasArts game development studio. LucasArts and partner developers have delivered some of the coolest video games for Star Wars fans over the years such as Jedi Academy and Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast. Those classic video games were worked on with LucasArts and a company called Raven Software.
Raven Software has announced as of today that it is releasing the source code for the vintage third-person Star Wars action games Jedi Academy and Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast. Raven says that was saddened to hear about the closing of LucasArts this week and that it had enjoyed working with LucasArts over the years.
Raven for says that as a gift for the loyalty of the fan base for the Jedi games and in memory of LucasArts it is offering up the source code for both games for people to “enjoy and play with.” Both of these games are built on the Quake 3 engine with Jedi Outcast launching in 2002 and Jedi Academy launching in 2003. If you miss those games, you can check out a video showing some of the Jedi Academy multiple player game play below.
[via Eurogamer]
Raven Software releases source code for Jedi Academy and Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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