NEWS - Monday, August 16, 2004
(RUMOR) - KOTOR 3 Dead Before It Got Life?
LucasArts has let go 31 members of its development team in a bid to "concentrate on fewer titles", the company has officially announced. Unconfirmed reports state that one casualty of the cutbacks was a small team working on an unannounced third Knights of the Old Republic title. A statement issued by new company president Jim Ward (ironically announcing the recruitment of a new VP) also said that: "Since joining LucasArts in early May, I’ve taken a hard, critical look at our business. I’ve come to the conclusion that to make LucasArts thrive... we need to make some fundamental changes." Despite the suggestion that a casualty was a team working on KOTOR 3, there has been no official word from the publisher/developer to back this up - or even to suggest that the RPG sequel was even in development in the first place. As a further indication of its "major restructuring", the company also re-confirmed that it had farmed out development duties for the forthcoming Star Wars Episode III game to external studio The Collective, the team behind Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb. So, troubles afoot in LucasArts? You can’t help but feel a tinge of sadness at the timing of the cutbacks. After years of churning out not-so-impressive Star Wars titles, the company has suddenly experienced a major resurgence of form, with the forthcoming Battlefront, Republic Commando and KOTOR II all receiving fine early praise from us journos. Predictably, the statement gave away very little on specific details behind the cutbacks, other than it was to simply make the company "thrive" in the future.Source: http://www.computerandvideogames.com
