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Ex-LucasArts employee explains why SW: Battlefront III failed [Free Radical Responds]

What was wrong with Haze? I remember playing the demo (first FPS besides OG Turok for n64) with my brother and we had fun. We only played it once though. Wasn't it supposed to be some Halo killer? lol
 
Fucking A, Haze. I think I got through 15-20 minutes of that game before realizing I wanted nothing to do with it. How in the hell did that game become such a trainwreck? It's not like FR hadn't put out good games previously. Ugh.
 
Wow, what a trashing. I enjoyed the Timesplitters games as well as Second Sight. If true, it really stinks they couldn't perform on current gen.
 
Free Radical's management sounds horrendous. Making one average exclusive console game vs. completing a multi-platform game that already has simple and easily understood guidelines that would make a boatload of money.

Over confidence is putting it lightly.
 
LastNac said:
Hmm, what is the KotOR 3 excuse then?
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wasn't it bioware's decision to take the series in a different direction? I know lucasarts have to sign off on it, but I can see them being behind such a change if bioware sold it well, especially after mass effect 1.
 
Wow, so HAZE didn't turn out to be a Halo-killer, but instead was a SW:Battlefront3-killer & TimeSplitters4-killer.
Amazing job, Free Radical. (*slow clap*)

So why hasn't LucasArts simply gotten someone actually qualified to make SW:Battlefront3?
Shoot, get those guys making the CoD Star Wars mod. :D
 
friskykillface said:
I never believed the 99% complete thing either, lol why cancel a game when it's done
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StarFox_2.png
 
Visualante2 said:
If they were so concerned about the product why not get on a fucking flight to the UK? Not like it costs a lot. The whole closing statement about throwing stones is hypocritical as fuck, get off your high horse whoever you are.

What I heard from someone interning at Free Radical at the time was simply that the money dried up but they didn't know the details. Obviously two sides to every story.

Just because this source is super secret doesn't make it legitimate. They saw Haze and got cold feet, then assumed far worse than reality I suspect. It's their money but I don't think they acted in good faith, the source comes off like a spoiled brat. They're an independent developer and had to think about their future after Battlefront.

RIP.

Shrug, that demo looked pretty feature complete to me.
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At the same time, according to this, why should LucasArts go to that effort when they weren't the ones missing their obligations? This says that LA gave FRD a chance to ship a build that was supposedly working for them after they delivered multiple non-functioning builds and they refused. If that doesn't strike you as sketchy as hell, I don't know what to say.
 
Green Scar said:
David Doak is sat somewhere playing Facility by himself and crying over his ninth glass of scotch this evening
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Pumpkin Beach was certainly just a load of hot air. Their website isn't even online now. Oh he's at Zinkyzonk now, making Facebook games.
Oh their website is down too, I'm noticing a trend here.
 
Visualante2 said:
If they were so concerned about the product why not get on a fucking flight to the UK? Not like it costs a lot. The whole closing statement about throwing stones is hypocritical as fuck, get off your high horse whoever you are.

What I heard from someone interning at Free Radical at the time was simply that the money dried up but they didn't know the details. Obviously two sides to every story.

Just because this source is super secret doesn't make it legitimate. They saw Haze and got cold feet, then assumed far worse than reality I suspect. It's their money but I don't think they acted in good faith, the source comes off like a spoiled brat. They're an independent developer and had to think about their future after Battlefront.

RIP.

Shrug, that demo looked pretty feature complete to me.
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I wish the post was a joke post but it isn't. You think the "they cancelled our game when it was 99% complete" bullshit was genuine? It was a pity seeking move.

Calling the guy in the OP a spoiled brat is ludicrous, the management at Free Radical did the slimiest shit possible and it bit them really hard in the ass, it's shitty that the designers and programmers were under such a shitty rule, but the management crew at Free Radical deserves a good canning.
 
Taking money from one project to pay for another is much, much more common than you might think. One of the biggest games of 2009 was a product of exactly this. Developers do it because they think they can get away with it. Occasionally, they do.
 
I think Battlefront 3 belongs in the next generation to truly make a strong comeback and blow us all away. I'm bummed that it didn't work out of course, but I'm trying to think positively and hope they bring the IP back at some point.

The next generation could possibly bring them the seamless ground to space battle transitions along with bigger battles to truly capture the scale of the Star Wars universe and the wars in the movies.

I try to envision Planetside 2 as Star Wars at times to make me feel better about Battlefront 3. If there was a team that could capture the scale of it all, it would have been that team but we all know they'll be busy with PS2 for apparently 10+ years if their plan works out, lol.
 
What's more, during this time, Haze became a PlayStation 3 exclusive, which affirmed LucasArts' belief that the studio's engine was not compatible with Xbox 360 at the time.
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Well, then it seems like their engine wasn't compatible with any platform.
 
I had forgotten Haze existed after that whole nonsense had gone down. I wonder how much a cheap copy would be now, might be worth playing to see how bad it was after all the fuss that I had ignored back in the day.
 
"At this point, I felt that Free Radical was akin to a Ponzi scheme where time and budget from the next game was being used to finish the previous, late, title," he said.
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This is the killer to me. Even though there's nothing to back it up, I believe it, just from experience (not game development related, but analogous). It is very easy to fall into this cycle, and impossible to get back out. Many good people end up being liars as a result.
 
aegies said:
Taking money from one project to pay for another is much, much more common than you might think. One of the biggest games of 2009 was a product of exactly this. Developers do it because they think they can get away with it. Occasionally, they do.
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Dragon Age? Arkham Asylum?
 
Poor Crytek. Maybe this is why they are complaining about making money nowadays. Free Radical a money drain.
 
aegies said:
Taking money from one project to pay for another is much, much more common than you might think. One of the biggest games of 2009 was a product of exactly this. Developers do it because they think they can get away with it. Occasionally, they do.
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i'm guessing borderlands (with aliens colonial marines). if so that worked out nicely for gearbox and not so great for sega.
 
That version sounds closer to what I heard from former FR employees with whom I used to work, certainly the 99% complete claim never stacked up with what I heard.

Moving resources given to project X surreptitiously onto project Y to cover a shortfall is standard business practice too. Of course its frowned upon and never publicly admitted to, but it goes on.
 
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Seriously though, I have friends who were really psyched about the possibility of a new SW Battlefront, so they were equally as disappointed about its cancellation.
 
Do we know what Free Radical/Crytek UK is doing these days? It's been quite a time since they got bought, but they haven't released anything since then, have they? Did they help development on one of the Crysis games? Are they rumored to be developing something in particular? Or was/is that forgotten Crytek-MS game by them?
 
Every time this comes up, you've had ex (and current) LucasArts and Free radical employees post on GAF saying it wasn't close to done & that the situation was far from as one-sided as ex-FR management said...
 
wrowa said:
Do we know what Free Radical/Crytek UK is doing these days? It's been quite a time since they got bought, but they haven't released anything since then, have they? Did they help development on one of the Crysis games? Are they rumored to be developing something in particular? Or was/is that forgotten Crytek-MS game by them?
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Crysis 2/3 multi and Homefront 2.
 
wrowa said:
Do we know what Free Radical/Crytek UK is doing these days? It's been quite a time since they got bought, but they haven't released anything since then, have they? Did they help development on one of the Crysis games? Are they rumored to be developing something in particular? Or was/is that forgotten Crytek-MS game by them?
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I believe that they're working on Crysis 3's multiplayer. They were also responsible for the multiplayer in C2.
 
Second, it is the source's belief that Free Radical "underestimated" or "misrepresented" its ability to meet dates and create a compelling product. And third, the situation became even more problematic when Free Radical missed new assigned dates. "This was a huge confidence killer and ultimately their downfall," he said.

This was only just the beginning of problems for Free Radical and Battlefront III. In 2007, the source began to suspect that its payments to Free Radical were in fact being used to complete Haze and not Battlefront III. What's more, during this time, Haze became a PlayStation 3 exclusive, which affirmed LucasArts' belief that the studio's engine was not compatible with Xbox 360 at the time.

In August 2007, the source said Free Radical was "struggling" with Haze and Battlefront III and thus began to (as time would prove unsuccessfully) shop around TimeSplitters 4. It was also during this time that the source levied his most serious claims against Free Radical.

"At this point, I felt that Free Radical was akin to a Ponzi scheme where time and budget from the next game was being used to finish the previous, late, title," he said.
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Absolutely disgusting. I expected more from the developers of Timesplitter.

I'm just glad we can see things from Lucasarts's perspective. That interview was suspect the moment I saw it.

Although to be fair, some of their complaints may have been valid.
 
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