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LucasArts Aims for #1 120

Posted by Zonk from the keep-climbing dept.
The New York Times has an interesting profile of LucasArts, the game development house attached to George Lucas' company. They discuss some challenges with being so closely associated with Star Wars, and detail their role in the Lucasfilm company as a whole. From the article: "[Ward's] most challenging days may be ahead. The videogame industry has been in the doldrums for months; video game sales are lagging as consumers wait to buy the next generation of consoles, including the PlayStation 3. And perhaps most important, Mr. Lucas has no plans to make any more 'Star Wars' movies. That means LucasArts will have to work that much harder to come up with ideas of its own. 'We are not the Star Wars game company,' said Micheline Chau, president of Lucasfilm. 'And Jim knows what he has to do.'"
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LucasArts Aims for #1 More

LucasArts Aims for #1

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  • What About Star Wars Galaxies? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by eldavojohn ( 898314 ) * <eldavojohn@noSpAM.gmail.com> on Monday April 17, 2006 @12:43PM (#15142913) Journal
    Was it just me or did this article expertly side step Star Wars Galaxies [sony.com]?

    I know that Sony Online Entertainment are the developers for SWG but I'm also interested in what the president of the licensing company has to say about that game. Actually, I'd like to see him interviewed in an "Ask Slashdot" much like John Smedley was [slashdot.org] a while back.

    Among the questions I'd like to ask him would be:

    How would you describe the decision making process that has gone into designing SWG?

    Do you think that SWG is drawing nearer and nearer to a "true Star Wars Experience" or moving away from it? How? Give examples.

    Do you expect to be a top five video game competitor [wikipedia.org] with no MMORPG out and available? They seem to generate a lot of revenue compared to classic console games. EA has the Sims franchise while Microsoft generates Xbox Live monthly revenue.

    What are your favorite and least favorite aspects of working with George Lucas?

    --

    I'm not sure why this article accents the fact that no more Star Wars movies are coming out. They've made quite a few off IV, V & VI--one would think they could make just as many off of I, II & III along with the coming TV series [bbc.co.uk]. And don't forget the expanded universe that the literature written would provide ... doesn't anyone else want to serve Admiral Thrawn as much as I do?

  • 'We are not the Star Wars company' (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Joehonkie ( 665142 ) on Monday April 17, 2006 @12:44PM (#15142922) Homepage
    But we'll kill a finished Sam & Max game in a second! They would do better to stop just releasing Star Wars games and little else if they want to change that perception. It's too bad most of their adventure gaming people have moved on to places like Telltale.
    • Why is that too bad? Telltale is great. I was a fan of the Bone comics and although I'm not really interested in the game itself, i do go to their website to read the sam and max comics, and look forward to games in the future. I wish more talented game creators would leave huge companies and start up small ones.
    • The question is whether Sam & Max 2 was any good, and nobody outside of Lucas and Telltale knows that. And both of them are throwing out the game.

      It is quite possible that S&M2 was so terrible that they canned it in order to retain their reputation in the market, and cited "market" concerns to cover that up. Nobody wants to say "we made a crappy game so we canned it."

      Ok, Blizzard said that with Ghost. But we all knew it by then anyway.

      The point is that the gaming industry can always use a little
      • What are you talking about? TellTale did not "throw out" S&M2. They're working on it right now. They bought the rights to the characters, they did not buy the rights to the work that had already been done. That's why they're not finishing the Lucasarts version (Which was not finished).
    • Yes, this is sad, and while one could counter with "but adventure gaming is dead!", the same could basically be said before Baldur's Gate was released about CRPG's. But that game made the genre popular again, with tons of Infinity Engine games and expensions, and Neverwinter Nights became popular enough that we now have a sequel to look forward to. I also doubt Star Wars KOTOR was that much a success just for being Star Wars, but more thanks to a good and refreshing storyline. If Star Wars games were automa
      • As much as I like the game, the interface is pretty crap. I'd recommend "Curse of Monkey Island" or "Full Throttle" instead. Or the older, "Day of the Tentacle" or "Secret of Monkey Island 1 or 2," or "Sam and Max Hit the Road"

        The trouble with Adventure games is that they don't tend to be Million Sellers, instead, the good titles tend to have reliable sales in the 100,000-300,000 unit range.

        In "The Escapist" Warren Spectre has been running a series of articles about problems he perceives in the g

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • They can say "We are not the Star Wars company" all they want, but until they have more than one game on their current product list [lucasarts.com] that doesn't have Star Wars in the title, they are the Star Wars company.

  • aiming for #1 (Score:5, Funny)

    by gEvil (beta) ( 945888 ) on Monday April 17, 2006 @12:45PM (#15142930)
    They might be aiming for #1, but lately all they've been producing is #2.
    • Hmm. Mercenaries was pretty great, IMO, I haven't enjoyed a game that much in a long while...GTA: Wartorn Future North Korea, but with a less developed civillian sandbox, but with a lot more explosives...

      Man, remember them going back to Lucasfilm Games...Ballblazer and Fractalus were jawdroppers.
  • "Mr. Lucas has no plans to make any more 'Star Wars' movies."

    Thank the gods of Kobol!

  • So give us adventures! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by BorgDrone ( 64343 ) on Monday April 17, 2006 @12:52PM (#15142978) Homepage
    If they want to be #1, give us back the good-old 2D cartoon-style humor filled adventure games.

    I never liked any of the star-wars themed games, but the adventures were fantastic.
    • I agree. I would love to see a sequel for Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, or more monkey island games. 3D Action games get boring after a while.

      A little off-topic, but I've realized one thing while playing Silent Hill 3: The textures are realistic, and the control is user-friendly. Why not make a detective game (Sherlock Holmes, Hercules Poirot?) with that engine? It would rock if you could interrogate suspects and examine items, etc.

      Anyway my point is, we need more story / plot / brain in today's games. The Indy graphic adventures contained all of these elements, and this is why they succeeded.
    • The trouble with this is pure economics. Lucasarts began to run into this problem around when The Dig was released. The game itself was very good, however it did not sell very well. Why? At the time, games like Quake were starting to come out, and adventure games looked pale in comparison. Even if the company was commited to making a kickass 2D adventure game, they may not make up for it in sales.

      Also consider the artwork. Back in the day, 320 x 240 16 or 256 colour was all you needed, with 8 frames or so f
    • I've heard lots of good things about the LucasArts adventure games - and if they were revamped (or even slightly touched up!) for the Nintendo DS I'd be one of many who would look forward to that. Apart from Another Code:Two Memories there hasn't been anything that uses that style of gameplay - which is one for which it is ideally suited.

  • "And Jim knows what he has to do." (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 17, 2006 @01:02PM (#15143063)
    No he doesn't. Jim needs to listen to his fan base.

    Finish Sam and Max. Full Throttle 2. The next game in the X-Wing series. Tell SOE to go fuck themselves.

    If you can't do it in-house, keep getting an outside development house to kick them out for you. No shame in that, as long as it's not SOE.

  • Bring Back X-Wing/Tie Fighter (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Monday April 17, 2006 @01:08PM (#15143104) Homepage
    There have been MANY Star Wars games in the last 10 years. Some good, some bad. Lego Star Wars was very cute (I know there is a sequel in the works). But please, PLEASE, do what everyone who has played the games wants.

    Update X-Wing and Tie Fighter.

    Better graphics, online play, new missions.

    Please, please, please!

    • Re:Bring Back X-Wing/Tie Fighter (Score:5, Insightful)

      by LordPhantom ( 763327 ) on Monday April 17, 2006 @01:15PM (#15143149)
      Now there's a MMORPG I'd play - fleet combat/trade themed Star Wars (think Eve Online). Not that it'd be XvT, but damn that would be slick.
      • No kidding. What I'd really love is a game similar to the Galactic Conquest mod for BF:1942....except much more massive. I want HUNDREDS of people manning all of the turrets on a full size Star Destroyer. I want large squadrons of TIE fighters that I can swat down like gnats. I want capital ships that ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING! And how do you stop fuckwads from ruining the experience? Implement a rank system similar to Planetside. Yeah, you might get some fuckwads who occasionally abuse their power that
        • what about the bf2 engine? It has a ranking system (although it's for vanilla maps, not mods), it has a commander, squads etc... I'd really like to see if the GC guys migrated to the BF2 engine... Besides, isn't there already a BF like starwars game out (Battleground or something)?
      • Well, it might not be what the above poster has mentioned but let's put all the cards on the table:

        1) We have rumours being bandied about that SOE is going to lose the SWG license.
        2) We have a massive shakeup [kotaku.com] in the Sony Online world - including Raph Koster leaving to head up a _new game studio_.
        3) And, at the same time, we have BioWare [bioware.com] announcing that they have opened a new division in Austion to produce what? A brand new MMORPG.

        BioWare is now, as the above press release shows, hiring for all positio

        • Damn, I previewed the page twice and still missed the tags on this:

          1) We have rumours [gamespot.com] being bandied about that SOE is going to lose the SWG license.

        • And I, for one, welcome our new Imperial Overlords.

          Seriously though, SWG could have been great, if SOE didn't completely suck at life. Crafting was cool, but it could have been much better. If people could actually make their own templates for schematics, rather than using mineral X to make part Y to put in slot Z the possibilities would be endless.

          And starship combat could really be cool too. I can imagine a guild of say, 100 people whose main asset was their capital ship. There would be myriad station

    • Amen.

      I have very fond memories of playing X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter (XvT) with my brother and my best friend over an IPX-SPX network at my house. I'm pretty XvT also functioned over Microsoft's Gaming Zone "Network"; however, as it was in the age of modems, it was near impossible to find a decent host where you wouldn't have players dropping while the mission was loading.

      There simply isn't a replacement for the frenetic experience of XvT. I can only imagine what it would be like to play a game like XvT

  • Original games? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by VGPowerlord ( 621254 ) on Monday April 17, 2006 @01:26PM (#15143234)
    How many original games has LucasArts had in the last three years? The only one I can think of was the one mentioned in the article, Mercenaries.

    Everything else has been Star Wars or Indiana Jones.

    LucasArts used to be known for its Adventure games, but under Mr. Ward's leadership, they flushed that down the toilet in favor of more Star Wars. They got such bad press from the Sam and Max 2 cancellation that they removed the Press Release [lucasarts.com] from their site. LucasArts can claim that the genre is dead, but when companies like The Adventure Company [theadventu...ygames.com] continue to make money off of them, it would appear that LucasArts is wrong.

    The question is, will LucasArts put its money where its mouth is, or simply continue to be the Star Wars company?

  • Am I the only one who has wasted the last 15 years of my life for a sequel to Maniac Mansion and The Secret of Monkey Island?
    • Am I the only one who has wasted the last 15 years of my life for a sequel to Maniac Mansion and The Secret of Monkey Island?

      Have I misunderstood something, or have you missed Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, the Curse of Monkey Island and Escape from Monkey Island? See, for example, Wikipedia's article on LucasArts adventure games [wikipedia.org].

  • Only have three words to say... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Gogo Dodo ( 129808 ) on Monday April 17, 2006 @01:33PM (#15143272)
    Monkey Island 5
    • I loved all the Monkey Island adventure games.

      • How about a true sequel to Monkey Island 2 instead? Monkey3 wasn't bad, but as a sequel to 2 it was a huge disappointment.
        • I actually thought Monkey Island 3 was the best of the series. Just yesterday I finished playing through it again. Great voice acting, great animation, great Monkey Island humor.

          I mean, where else are you going to find vegetarian cannibals worshiping a lactose-intolerant volcano god?

          I was very disappointed that they went 3D with MI4. I thought it worked well with Grim Fandango, but for Monkey Island they should have stuck with the 'Saturday morning cartoon' style.

          • Exactly. I too think MI3 was by far the best in the series. The graphics were astonishing and created a great sense of atmosphere, especially in the last part on Blood Island. The in-game movies were very funny and really added to the experience. Everything matched perfectly, the graphics, the music, the characters. And the game wasn't as hard as MI2, just the right level for me to play it without any help and not be frustrated.

            Then MI4 came... With OK graphics but characters that were so basic-3D that they
    • Yikes! Don't sneak up on me like that!

  • LucasArts wants original games now? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 17, 2006 @01:51PM (#15143393)
    I find it ironic that a year or two after they shut down work on the much-anticipated sequel to Sam & Max, they are now acknowledging they need original (read: "not Star Wars") titles. They laid off their staff, reorganized their business structure, and have been outsourcing games to other development houses for years. They wanted to only focus on the "lucrative" Star Wars market. Not the risky adventure games market that gave LucasArts their name in the early 90s.

    Most of the original ideas in LucasArts (and before that Lucasfilm Games) came from a group of very talented adventure and action game designers. Lucasfilm Games was one of the first game companies to acknowledge that a game that doesn't try to kill your character at any turn -- or at all! -- can be much more enjoyable than when your character is in mortal danger at every step. The difference in enjoyment between Kings Quest and Monkey Island is immeasurable.. and not just because of this! The dialog was fresh. The puzzles were fun. The characters were fleshed out!

    But those original ideas have long since gone as those designers have chosen to work on projects that have a hope of shipping.

    You want original games again, LucasArts? Beg.. no.. plead for Tim Schafer (Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle), Ron Gilbert (Monkey Island), and Steve Purcell (Sam & Max) to work for you again. Reconstitute the teams you used to have but neglected. Put these people in charge of the company. In no time you'd be pumping out original, funny, and interesting games that spoke to the heart of your frustrated fan base.

    What if you can't come up with any more original ideas? Well, if you've got game material rights already, and they aren't Star Wars, or they haven't been milked to death as that already, do they count?:

    * Bring back the X-Wing and TIE Fighter series, which was the best flight sim series I ever played. It was also the only Star Wars game I ever enjoyed. Update it for new graphics hardware and don't tie it to a Microsoft gaming service (anyone remember MS Zone? exactly.).

    * Resuscitate all of your old titles so they can be played on new handheld hardware like the Nintendo DS. Use the DS's multiplayer to stage X-Wing battles on WFC or just over the local multiplayer features.

    * Dust off Sam & Max 2, finish it, and ship it.

    * Do a Monkey Island movie -- wait! Disney's already doing it. It's called Pirates of the Caribbean 2. MI fans: take one look at the voodoo scene from the PotC 2 and tell me it doesn't look like the outside of the International House of Mojo in MI2. (Oh, and Johnny Depp would've made a great Guybrush Threepwood.)

    * Above all, don't let faithful sequels to these games die by stringently holding onto the rights and keeping other interested companies in moving the stories forward.
    • "* Bring back the X-Wing and TIE Fighter series, which was the best flight sim series I ever played. It was also the only Star Wars game I ever enjoyed. Update it for new graphics hardware and don't tie it to a Microsoft gaming service (anyone remember MS Zone? exactly.)."

      I second this. I loved that series, and simply want a similar game with updated graphics.
    • It's great how the article makes it appear LucasArts doesn't own any IP past Star Wars, and glosses over LucasArts's history of making games on new IP after new IP.

      They have a huge non-Star Wars catalogue.

      The fact is, they don't care. The suits came in, the creativity went out, and that was the end of LucasArts. They stopped caring about the games they created and the customers they insulted.

      It won't recover.
    • The difference in enjoyment between Kings Quest and Monkey Island is immeasurable..

      Of course, it's been said that half the fun of the King's Quest series was finding the different ways your character could die...
  • And perhaps most important, Mr. Lucas has no plans to make any more 'Star Wars' movies.

    So nobody's told LucasArts about the upcoming TV series? [slashdot.org] I'm sure something based on that will be thrown at us when the time comes.

  • Good to here it (Score:3, Interesting)

    by TheSkepticalOptimist ( 898384 ) on Monday April 17, 2006 @02:31PM (#15143646)
    That they are not a "Star Wars" game company. God knows that nobody is interested in Star Wars anymore.

    Lucas Arts has made some pretty interesting and innovative games in the past, like Grim Fandango and Full Throttle. I wish they would bring back some of the talent behind those games, and ACTUALLY produce a non Star Wars game, then at least that statement wouldn't be moronic.

    Anything to do with Lucas-X these days is so wrapped up in Star Wars, George needs some therapy because he can't let it go. A Star Wars television series? Endless tie in games and merchandising products?

    When does someones obsession and love of something turn into a reason to go to the loony bin, I think George has long since passed that point.

    Lucasarts will have to pull some gems out of their asses if they hope to ride out the current downturn in video games. We are nearing another video game drought, like back in the 80's with the Atari. Game are just not inventive and innovative anymore. Video gaming bottomed out in the 80's because Atari kept pumping out the same old tired titles. Stick figures bouncing around on a static screen with two bit sound effects. People got tired of essentially playing the same game back in the 80's.

    People are getting tired of essentially playing the same game, now, in 2006. Quake 4, Doom 3, HL2, Star Wars: Whatever. MMORPGs that go no where. I actually think ALL next gen game consoles will bomb and the Xbox360 is off to a good start (for bombing that is).

    Game companies have grown too complacent and used to the idea that by spinning off another game based on a successful franchise, your going to make millions in profit. Every MAJOR game developer currently is working on a SEQUEL. Smaller game developers are simply cloning big game franchise and offering some moderate twists and variations of a theme.

    People are getting tired of the same old.

    So, hopefully Lucasarts will find some new novel and innovative theme to focus on (not obsess over) and come out with some NEW gaming franchises. Until that happens, it is laughable to think that LucasArts ISN'T a Star Wars crap factory.
    • Game companies have grown too complacent and used to the idea that by spinning off another game based on a successful franchise, your going to make millions in profit. Every MAJOR game developer currently is working on a SEQUEL. Smaller game developers are simply cloning big game franchise and offering some moderate twists and variations of a theme.

      Not everyone is in this, see Will Wright and spore....

    • MMORPGs that go no where.

      Please check out Auto Assault before making a sweeping statement like that.

      In fact, the "next gen" of MMO games are a radical improvement over the EQ/EQ2/WoW/DAoC type "Kill a rat, so you can level, so you can kill a bigger rat, so you can get a Shiny Sword Of Beatdown, so you can kill a bigger rat..."

      I just bought Auto Assault a couple days ago, and I'm totally and completely blown away.
      • I hope they've improved their lag compensation on the game... the vehicle physics would get super flaky with bad latency.

        Also, mini loads every time you move between zones SUCK. What the hell, it's a PC game! There's no excuse for that.
  • Rescue on Fractalus II.

    No, seriously.

  • Stop with the FUD (Score:3, Insightful)

    by zerocool^ ( 112121 ) on Monday April 17, 2006 @02:52PM (#15143827) Homepage Journal

    "[Ward's] most challenging days may be ahead. The videogame industry has been in the doldrums for months; video game sales are lagging as consumers wait to buy the next generation of consoles, including the PlayStation 3.

    This statement has made the rounds from CNN to MaximumPC to Slashdot to probably Fox News.

    Video game sales have decreased in retail markets. This is not an industry crisis; it is a paradigm shift. What hasn't been decreasing are revenues in areas which here-to-fore did not exist. Steam is not making less money than it did in 2000. People are willing to buy games online and download them. Even if CS:S turns your brain to mush and is addictive as sweet, sweet heroin. But, guess who didn't get a sale. Best Buy.

    Another factor in Video Game sales is persistant subscription sales models. It is completely inexplicable that these people don't mention MMO profits. At 5 million subscriptions times $15/month each, and this warrants italics, Blizzard will make $900,000,000 [NINE HUNDRED MILLION] gross this year on WoW. That a nine, with 8 zeros behind it. That's a license to print money. And that's not counting EQ2, AO, DAoC, Eve, and others.

    Yes, there is a slump in video game purchases right now. There aren't any must have games; everyone is waiting for X, Y, or Z. But THAT'S HOW IT'S ALWAYS BEEN. It's not the automobile industry; there's not a new model released every year. NES = 1985, SNES = 1992. Ish. What happened in the interum? A falloff of game sales. It goes in cycles. IT'S NORMAL. You know what happens when a Must Have Game comes out? [rpgamer.com]People buy it [rpgamer.com].*

    When you couple that with the fact that ONE IN 45 AMERICANS PLAYS WOW, you start to see what people are doing with their time. And most of the infants and nursing home patrons aren't playing. It's the coveted 18-34 demographic.

    So, STFU & GBTW.

    ~W

    *"Dragon Quest VIII was released in Japan in November 27, 2004 and sold more then three million units in its opening weekend. Shipments in North America have topped 430,000 since its release on November 17, 2005. European gamers can look forward to the game arriving in April." (Jan 30 2006). I have this game. It's great.

    • You make some interesting points, but some of your statistics seem a tad misleading.

      I pay the WoW fee myself and I think it's closer to $13 a month, and it gets cheaper if you pay for longer periods of time. I believe they just announced they hit the 6 million subscriber mark.

      The 1/45 Americans play WoW claim is probably far too optimistic. Going by your numbers, 5 million * 45 = 225 million Americans. The CIA World Factbook lists the US population as 298 million. Also, that 6 million subscriber mark re
    • So because tornadoes have happened in the past, we should just stop reporting them? I realize this comparison is a bit different, but it's the same concept.
  • Once, in a galaxy far far away. Eh better stop before I get sued.

    Nonetheless at one time they were a top game company producing quality titles that people fondly remember. Indiana and the Fate of Atlantis. X-wing. Monkey Island. Battle of Britain and Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe (not the crappy sequel).

    Adventurs with a hint of flightsim seemed to be Lucasarts strong point.

    Then things went a bit amiss. We got some weird strategy titles, "afterlife". A crappy FMV star wars game.

    They also handycapped ex

    • "The x-wing series in my eyes went down hill as well after tie-fighter by turning it more and more into a missle sim instead of a dogfighting sim. They even add chaff for crying out loud."

       I see someone didn't accel in their Tie Fighter, Tie Interceptor or X-wing training.

      Flares are a more effective countermeasure(since there is a glitch to turn them into aft missles)

      Also you can target missles.

      If you were in a X-Wing you can drop laser maintenance and shield maintenance to speed up(if you had a b
      • I enjoyed playing TIE Fighter the most. I haven't played XvT yet. Was there chaff in TIE Fighter? Can't remember using it.

        Anyway TIE = Maneuverability, XWing = Shields.
        Of course, TIE Advanced upped the ante (And the TIE Defender was bollocks!)

        It's not hard to target a missile trying to blow you up, accelerate, turn around, approach it from the side and blow it up with concentrated laser fire. More than one, though ...

        I think the real fun was in managing your energy to address every situation. I'll try to r
        • I think TIE Fighter was unfortunately the high point in the series. XvT added the chaff/flares, but the real problem was that it was geared way too heavily toward multiplayer back in modem days. Not to mention the MSN Gaming zone. (Seriously, nobody mention it, please. Too many painful memories.)

          XWing Alliance seemed promising with an actual single-player story, until you realize that half of the single-player campaign involves you sitting in the turret of your cargo ship playing "Shooting gallery" wi

          • There were some cool Rebel missions in the later half. One involves the freighter Suprosa (from the expanded universe). Another, you are jumping between groups of rebel ships trying to escort them to a rendevous.

            Of course, the Family missions screw you in the end by not giving you a definite closure on the story.

            By the way, I believe X-wing Alliance does allow you to skip missions. (You may have to fail the mission first, though.) Or perhaps they don't allow you to skip family missions, now that I th

  • These guys [apeirongames.de.vu] are working on a fan-made follow-up to LOOM, which was one of the most interesting games of it's (or any) time. They haven't released anything on this, so who knows if it'll be any good, but I like the idea.

    If Lucasarts wants to be a top developer, they should probably be taking the hint from these guys, and building up it's portfolio of francises. It's kind of weird that they didn't, because as many here have pointed out, they had several excellent games, and most of the Star Wars games have b

  • Not due to waiting for next gen... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by rAiNsT0rm ( 877553 ) on Monday April 17, 2006 @03:41PM (#15144155) Homepage
    I cringe every time I see this phrase uttered in the media. It appears on Slashdot in every single story of this nature, and it is completely FALSE.

    Game sales have been down for the whole of 2005 and 2004 was a declining year too. The decline is not tied in any way shape or form to the next gen systems. Take a look at the actuale sales numbers for 04 and 05, and 06 even. The solid titles have sold as they should and at the same rate as most other games of their type from years before. The problem is how few 1 million+ selling games have been made in recent time.

    This statement that sales are down due to gamer anticipation has been proven false a number of times by a number of analysts. Let's stop clinging to this falsehood. Call a spade a spade, game sales are down because most everything made is derivative and shallow as well as so similar to the next game that demand is not there. The innovative titles are doing fine.

    Nintendogs, Brain Trainer, Oblivion, Guitar Hero, etc. Marc Ecko's "Getting Up" is not... because it sucks ass... not because people are waiting to play Marc Ecko's "Getting Up, Again" in HD on Blu-Ray in their PS3.
    • This statement that sales are down due to gamer anticipation has been proven false a number of times by a number of analysts.

      Yet you can't provide a single link or reference to these reports, if they even exist.

      • I can provide plenty, you can also use Google to "fact check" if you are so sure of yourself, and prove me wrong. I work in this industry, I am an analyst which makes me an authority on the issue... I cite myself. There, happy?

        I have no desire nor the time to dig up link after link and monthly sales statistics for a Slashdot post, and even if I did waste the time and effort you would still not believe it because you do not want to.

        G'day.
        • I have no desire nor the time to dig up link after link and monthly sales statistics for a Slashdot post

          This is code for "I'm full of shit, so I'm going to make stuff up to try and cover my ass". I don't give a fuck if you want to try and pretend like you're an expert (which is a LOGICAL FALLACY: appeal to authority). All I care about is evidence to back up your claims. If you can produce none, I kindly ask you to shut the fuck up.

          • Fuck you, and your attempt at a lame ass semi-intelligent comeback. The exact reason why me spending time digging up said links and info for you is useless. So, I guess that means I'm nobody and totally wrong and you win! OK? Great. You showed me up and I obviously can't respond properly to your demands so I'm a fucktard.

            G'night.
            • Have you ever had a job or been enrolled in a school? I'm sure your attitude would be welcomed there: "yeah, I don't have any evidence, but I'm an expert, so you better believe me". I'm sure that'll get you far.

              As for making me out to be the bad guy, this is a classic attempt at mudslinging. I pointed out the fact that you are claiming things with no evidence to support said claims. You counter by completely sidestepping the issue. Yeah, I'm really the one at fault. Not.

              • OK, since you have stuck with this I will humor you. I did take your first and second comments to be just trolling/flamebaiting and thus my responses. Now this is not bragging or ego, let me 'splain myself.

                I have worked in the videogame industry for over 4 years. I have worked my way from freelance to reviewer to QA/playtester to analyst. I hold two degrees in technology disciplines and have worked directly with Sony and a number of retail outlets in marketing and sales of games and gaming hardware and acce
                • What the fuck? Posting a one-week sales snapshot of 2006 does not prove your point. Your point is that the recent decreases in sales is not because this is a "transition" year, and that the "transition slump" is a myth. In order to show that it is indeed a myth, you would need to have lots of data from pretty much every year video game consoles have been around. You have done no such thing. Therefore, your argument is still bullshit.
                  • ...and we prove my point. Just as I thought. I stated twice where the data can be found (back as far as you want to research) and that IT CANNOT BE POSTED HERE ON SLASHDOT due to their "lameness filter" which will not allow comments to be posted containing more than a certain amount of spacing/special characters.

                    I have the data, I have the charts, they cannot be posted here. The info I posted was just to show how the top selling software is from the PS2 and the DS. If there was such a downturn and wait for
              • Here is a link since the Lameness Filter of Slashdots mangled my data: http://www.m-create.com/eng/e_ranking.html [m-create.com]

                and

                http://groups.google.com/group/Nintendo_Revolution /browse_frm/thread/6f7abfb48dd124c2/?hl=en# [google.com]

                Exactly why posting data is impossible on /.
  • Bring back Afterlife! That was the most amazing SimCity type game I've ever played! I still play it today, a decade later. It's no longer slow as hell to load on my dual Pentiums! In Afterlife, you play as the Demiurge of heaven and hell. You build an afterlife in the SimCity style, with 7 zones (1 for each deadly sin or blessed virtue). There's even a way to affect the planet; you can greatly influence the beliefs, virtues, and vices of an entire world. Imagine playing 2 games of connected SimCity simultan
  • It's pretty sad when you leave a complete genre in the dirt in order to pursue a more generalized and clunky system for controlling characters. Adventure games weren't supposed to be platformers, or 3d fighting games, or any of the stuff that these companies tried to turn them into just before pulling the plug entirely, and then they wondered why all their legacy titles "new updated versions" didn't sell well.

    Anyone that says that "point-and-click is dead" obviously never played the Sims...Which just happe
  • Oh, come on people! What's all this clamor for a new XvT or MI? We all know we're really looking for a new PipeDream [chello.at] title.
  • another indiana jones game with the same quality (but maybe more "2006") as fate of atlantis. that was one of the best games of all time imo... and that was a lucasarts game.
  • 1. Grand Theft X-Wing
    2. The Sims : Jedi Edition
    3. Super Vader Kart
  • These are the guys who right after (before?) Jim gave his interview with Game Informer about how Lucas Arts was now rededicated to bringing out Quality Games forced Obsidian to kick Knights of the Old Republic 2 out the door with the entire ending chopped off (much of it still buried away in the distribution!) and a severely disappointing half-assed ending tacked on.

    And then of course there's Star Wars Galaxies but everyone's mentioned that. Lucas Arts is hardly the brown coffee stain of quality. They make
  • I have been playing more adventures than ever lately...I hunt for point'n'click adventures in the style of Sam'n'Max hit the road, Monkey Island, Indiana Jones and the fate of Atlantis, Loom, Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, etc. Most of the better games of the genre are LucasArts games, and most successful point-n-click adventures innovations took place in the offices of LucasArts. I also liked X-Wing vs Tie Fighter and of course Dark Forces 1 & 2.

    All of the above are old games...have I lost intere
  • Let's replace Lucas with an android. That way there will be more Star Wars movies, plus they might make sense (logic and all). Plus, robots hate George Lucas.

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