Fall of the Empire

Unsure if this has been posted up here, but just in case this is a very good read. There's some stuff in there that'll make you both laugh and cry. The moments where Lucas gets involved are particularly cringeworthy.

Thanks for sharing. It was an interesting read

That was depressing.

Nice read. Not surprised about the outcome. A company is in for fun times when someone demands even more money than the company normally generates and fires over half the staff and declares profits only to see that temporary "profit" disappear in short order. The guy running the show wasn't really involved in games (I think he was the head of media for the first prequel star wars movie) and had no idea how to gauge success past the money benchmark. The QA responses are suspect and shows leadership issues. They should be clearly defined what the percentages mean in terms of doneness and it's very odd QA can just add a feature during the meetings. Development and Production get the first and final say on those normally with Production asking for things and development relaying what they can do.

I read it quite awhile ago, actually. None of it was that surprising, considering the very ideals that Lucas supposedly was championing, were the selfsame things that he was guiltiest of, in a hypocritical sense. At some point, you have to wonder if he has some kind of self-sabotaging personality or something.

Either way, the LucasArts that went under, is not the LucasArts we loved so much.

I've known them primarily for their Monkey Island and Sam & Max games. By the time they were going under they were years past their prime.

A shame, but unfortunately bad decisions by the head of staff will often kill those below him/her. As money oriented as Electronic Arts is these days I'm surprised to see they haven't really fallen over yet.

That's definitely the way I see it.

Once they started going Star Wars only I started losing interest. It's the Day of the Tentacle's and 'full throttle's that I miss about Lucasarts. Mixing in some Star Wars with them was fine, I also enjoyed the 'Dark Forces/Jedi Knight' series (never had a joystick to get into the 'x-wings' unfortunately) but all Star Wars all the time starts to lose its appeal.

Jim Ward's name shall be cursed by gamers for all eternity.

Thanks for the link Cormoran, that does make out a fairly sadly typical dysfunctional studio profile. Still the old LucasArts will always be fondly remembered, the one from the last decade or so much less so.

@ DryMango,

The main reason EA is still around is it's sports franchises, those are huge (especially in the usa) and require a new game purchase each year from the 'fans'. Without it's sports games, EA quite likely could have gone the way of LucasArts and others, it certainly has the typical dysfunctional management issues etc.

My thoughts exactly.

I have to agree.

I miss all those great games they had. Other than Monkey Island and Sam & Max they also made a couple of very good Indiana Jones games. I bought The Fate of Atlantis off of Steam a couple years ago. For a point and click adventure game, it's superb, especially for one from the early 90s.

Lucasarts definitely had something going for it, but when it came to be nothing but Star Wars I was certain it was all in the interest for money. Sad how money oriented people can take a entire company down with them.

Thanks for the interesting read OP.
Sounds like management had NFI about managing resources and projects.

Darth Icky? Lucas, you twat.

He really has some weird ideas....

I'm more sad about the loss of some of the game ideas I see mentioned that never developed into a game, than the closure of the studio itself.