What Happened to Star Wars Battlefront III?

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Article Comments for [link=http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/946/946015p1.html]What Happened to Star Wars Battlefront III?[/link]
by Michael Thomsen

Summary: The recently leaked footage from Free Radical Design's Star Wars Battlefront III created the first big gaming stir of 2009. While LucasArts never officially announced the title, the low-res video, allegedly from an internal Alpha meeting in November 2008, indicated that the game was in an advanced stage of development and very nearly complete. The status of the project has been in question since news broke in December that the studio is in a fight for survival. Free Radical entered administration late last year in order to find new investors for the company. If investors aren't found, the company assets, including all internal IP and technologies, will be sold off and the studio formally dissolved. [link=http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/946/946015p1.html]Read Full Article[/link]

 

[darkarrow720]

That just plain sucks.

 

[Slothlol]

great article answers a lot of questions. hopefully the new team that picked up battlefront 3 doesnt totally mess it up.

 

[Killer_K1]

The world needs another Timesplitters 4 very badly, it just doesn't know it yet.

 

[Naslund1967]

Bullsh*t. That's all I'm gonna say. Timesplitters AND Battlefront 3 down the drain. I hope by some miracle, Free Radical is able to resurrect itself and make Battlefront 3 the way it was meant to be made. Taking out the surface to space combat really hurt this project.

 

[JungleKommando]

Absolute crying shame that a developer like Free Radical is going to be broken up. That footage looked great.

 

[legacyAccount]

It sucks that one bum game can screw it all up...

 

[legacyAccount]

Wow, that trailer looked to be the greatest Star Wars game ever made... damn shame

 

[DarthBrian]

So it's Jeff Haynes' fault that we're not getting this.

 

[alwaysobsessed]

I don't understand how this could happen at all! The game was apparently quite good, and was making progress. (The space transition looked awesome, and dark Obi-Wan? YES!)I hope this can be salvaged in some way. I'm one of the biggest battlefront fans, I'll buy 10 copies if that's what it'll take!

 

[WHYWAKEUP]

Fantastic article .

Its great to see some insight from an insider who was so close to the development process. The first time I saw the Battlefront 3 footage I got that lump of awe in the back of my throat reminiscent of the feeling I got when I saw the first Halo 2 trailer . Seeing the footage made me realize how much I truly enjoyed the battlefront games . It’s a shame that this and Timesplitters are in jeopardy of never seeing the light of day .

I’m going to think positive thoughts about the whole situation and I suggest everyone do the same .

 

[SteeleZach]

The sad thing is that if free radical had announced the game officially then as soon as the company was in financial trouble it would have been picked up by someone within a week because people know this game has huge potential.

 

[legacyAccount]

That's such horseshit. Guaranteed if Lucas does publish Battlefront III with some other developer heading it, it won't be nearly as impressive as what FRD was doing with it.

 

[icr0maholic]

What's with the stupid alias? It's hard to take this article seriously when it's littered with "Dudenaughty" every other sentence.

 

[gedec05]

yea. that leaked trailer looked awesome, actually worthy of buying on the first day. Hope it gets picked up by a publisher.

 

[CIoud557]

Me and my friends were looking at the leaked footage on my friends G1 today. I wanted to cry due to the fact that we're never gonna get our hands on this game.

The guy said some of that footage is multiplayer, I think this game would have been great. I still can't believe LOTR: Conquest was released but not this. The same goes for Haze...

 

[billykazooie]

good job ign. its's basically your fault we arent getting this game because of your haze review. a**holes.

 

[efighter3]

WTF IM INDESCRIBABLY ANGERED, SOMEONE BETTER FIX THIS

 

[NorthStar462]

Wow, I must say that footage is extremely impressive. Especially the flight portions of it. LucasArts is foolish to drop this project.

 

[IRohirrimI]

This is just heart breaking =(

 

[titio13]

Replaced by a cutscene? Come on LucasArts. You better come through with a Battlefront III as good as what we saw.

 

[vortigauntslayer222]

this is really unfortunate. the first 2 games were nothing amazing, but i still liked them and the recently released footage looked promising

 

[satrianivai]

this is quite depressing, im indescribably angered aswell. lucas arts shouldnt have to cut down on anything they should buy free radical, give people there jobs back. i mean lucas arts is probably a multi billion pound/dollar company. just put the money in to make this game everything weve just been shown and more please. dont let the fans down.

 

[Old_one_Eye2]

marketing tactic...

you don't know how much you want something until it is no more. What better way of creating demand for a product. Develop the taste, sell the product satisfy the taste.

 

[DRUMST1CK]

F*** you Jeff Haynes and Lucas Arts. I know HAZE wasn't spectacular but it sure as hell was better than freaking Turok or Blacksite Area 51. How HAZE scored lower I have no idea.

Screw lucas arts. Free Radical was doing a tremendous job on this game.

 

[shimododragon]

satrianivai, I couldn't agree more. They NEED to make this game.

 

[maullster]

If only lucasarts would keep funding free radical for battlefront 3. i mean, the original battlefront was supposedly "the best selling star wars game of all time". if free radical could finish battlefont 3 and keep it as good as it looked in the trailer, then they would sell tons of copies, and it would make up for the expensive developing cost

 

[nitefall04]

How about we flood LucasArts with angry emails? That's the next best thing to villagers with torches and pitchforks.

 

[PLD_Xavier]

That's a damn shame, as I really enjoyed the Battlefront games. If this third was anything like the first two, I would rather have played this than Force Unleashed. Force was an ok game, but I think Battlefront III could have (and quite possibly would have) blown it away. Maybe that's why LucasArts didn't want word of this game around. Yay, industry politics...

 

[StrangerXIII]

"Timesplitters 4 couldn't find a publisher. Nobody wanted to buy it. They didn't think that Americans would buy it."

what?!?
how could any shooter fan not want a new timesplitters?!
I hope it gets made and free radical survive

 

[SmellyEdward]

You think after the profits of the force unfinshed that lucasarts would have a crap load of money to spend on battlefront 3... Evil Obi Wan kicks azz.

 

[Seba501]

Im felling guilty cuz i didnt buy Haze.

Damit lucas art is very stupid. they should to release this game. Its a gold mine idiots !!! and they´d can save Free radical.

 

[nitefall04]

SAVE FREE RADICAL! Come on LucasArts! I wish that George Lucas could actually see how many fans wanted this game AND wanted Free Radical to stay in business. He would go over LucasArts and totally get this game made. If we really want this game made, we need to flood LucasArts or starwars.com with emails. Start a total fucking guerilla campaign on the web.

 

[k.k.slider25]

I really think lucasarts shouldve backed this project a lot more than it did. While force unleashed tried to do a lot of cool things and is tied into a lot of stuff lucas is doing in the future it ended up being a mediocre-decent game. If more money would have been put into the development of battlefront 3 I think the things seen would have been even better. After watching the video yesterday i was excited to see a sequel to a series of games i thoroughly enjoy looking basically finished. its sad that we're never going to be able to play it.

 

[Juminjackflash]

at least Pandemic isn't working on this game. I have lost all faith in there abilities to create a good game. Lord of the rings Conquest sucks.

 

[MOB712Skillz]

**** LucasArts. They put all their time into the overhyped Force Unleashed and gave us absolutely no info on Battlefront III.

If they would have made the official announcement for it instead of letting it into so far into development and letting this happen things would be better for Free Radical.

But now we lose some really good tech for the game and get some gimped cutscene when we got into space.

this is complete bull****

 

[bobafet44646]

I'd rather have had Battlefront than TFU and Fracture together

 

[Juminjackflash]

I doubt everything said by the supposed Free Radical employee is correct. If lucas did cancel this i doubt they would have another developer start from scratch. they most likely took what was done by free Radical, and Gave it to another developer to rework and finish. At least that would be nice.

 

[kotatsu]

While reviewers should always be honest, the IGN Haze review was overly harsh, imbalanced, and very unfair, to say the least. If it really did contribute to the downfall of this great developer, Haynes should be fired.

 

[chya111]

So in the end, are they basically saying that there is no Battlefront 3 or that it's going to be in someone elses hands and theyre going to pick up or start from scratch?

 

[Darktrooper117]

I'm with nitefall on this one. Those SOBs had better help out Free Radical, especially considering its partly their fault they got into this mess. And what the hell is this crap of pretty much pressing the delete key on all that awesome tech. Why can't they just sell it to the highest bidder? It all sounds pretty shitty to me.

 

[drwbry]

I thought the battlefront series was a great concept. it was unique from most other games and i was looking forward to getting the third installment...especially for a next gen counsel. Hopefully someone can pick this project up and provide to the fans what they want. best of luck to free radical!

 

[roodyoo511]

Its a real shame to see that Star Wars BF3 is going to be a shit stain in the Almighty Lucas Arts underwear. The game was going to be nothing short of phenominal, imo... I really hope its going to be released in all its full on glory. So who gives a force choke fuck, if haze sucked festering dog ass. Not every game turns out to be great.. alot of games suck, and not worth a rental... Those games that turn out very good, or great.. leaves us wanting more in DLC content, or sequels, etc.

Look how the first two battlefront did....there are tons, and tons of players looking forward to a BF3, and seeing the leaked footage... and this is going to possibly be shit canned? Unfathomable consirdering its already considered a must have for any console, and would most likely be one of the top pre-ordered games ever, imo.

I would say to Almighty Lucas Arts to stick their heads up their pompous asses, but there heads are so far up their ass anyways, its back atop of their shoulders seeing what kind of shit their seeing by possibly not releasing the game, scrapping it all together. My video game lottery would be won in 09, or 2010 or whenever this game finally comes out.

The Dark Obi-Wan, and/or dark paths for characters is just too fuckin sweet....

 

[Aorj]

irony IGN, irony.

 

[BeastlySNIPER007]

Why Force unleashed, than this. this looks so much better. Lets Hope this game comes out.

 

[legacyAccount]

It would be an incredible shame if this game never comes out. The video made it look sooooo much better than the last two battlefronts!

 

[Ghostheart202]

This is just totally bizarre!?! If this game is good and improves on it's predecessors (which the footage shows that it may) then this game would sell S#$!loads, making the companies involved heaps of $$$$$. It's a no brainer.

Why give it to a new company to create when it's so late in development? It would take ages for the new team to come up-to speed. Makes no sense.

 

[CorruptMatthew]

"That savage review, I think it was IGN that gave us the 4.5. That was the nail in the coffin."

Looks like we can thank IGN if this game never sees the light of day. I say we flood LucasArts with emails and letters demanding this game.
I KNOW there are enough Star Wars fans out there to get the ball rolling on this. Let's do it!

 

[TheRoachMotel]

Perhaps my ignorance but it sounds like IGNs poor review of Haze was a pretty big influence on FR going under. IGN I love you guys, but dang it!

 

[SpartanKillr117]

WTF F this F that,but seriously i cant believe this wont come out. This would have been the best game in my opinion. I swear, Lucasarts has loads of money help out. If the game was like this, they would so many sales Star Wars fans or not.