Vaporware Chronicles: Star Wars 1313

<p>While Disney&&num;8217&semi;s acquisition of the <em>Star Wars<&sol;em> franchise may have been a boon to the movies&comma; it was a death toll for many of the games in development&period; Unfortunately Disney decided to shutter LucasArts after purchasing the license&comma; and one high profile game that was in development was canned&period; That game is none other than the highly anticipated <em>Star Wars 1313<&sol;em>&period; The gaming world lost a great developer when LucasArts finally closed its doors&comma; this was the studio that brought us <em>Maniac Mansion<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Grim Fandango<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Star Wars&colon; Bounty Hunter<&sol;em>&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;retro-review-star-wars-republic-commando&sol;"><em>Star Wars&colon; Republic Commando<&sol;em><&sol;a> just to name a few&period; Most of their releases are beloved cult classics that really stir up the nostalgia when they&&num;8217&semi;re replayed&period; Replaying <em>Day of the Tentacle<&sol;em> on my Vita really brought some childhood memories back&comma; and it is sad that no new children will have LucasArts to look fondly back on&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m thinking that <em>Star Wars 1313<&sol;em> would have been another great LucasArts title but we will never know now&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>https&colon;&sol;&sol;youtu&period;be&sol;p9dvxA5M8SI<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Rumors of this new <em>Star Wars<&sol;em> game leaked out in May of 2012 when LucasArts trademarked the title&comma; <em>Star Wars 1313<&sol;em>&period; LucasArts then announced the title&comma; revealed official gameplay&comma; and trailers at that year&&num;8217&semi;s E3&period; The title was being developed using the Unreal 3 Engine and was said to be the early adventures of Boba Fett on Coruscant&comma; and to be in a similar vein of <em>Star Wars&colon; Bounty Hunter<&sol;em>&period; No Force jumps or Lightsabers in this game&semi; instead players would be relying on bounty hunter gadgets&comma; wits and a good blaster at their side&period; Personally I enjoyed <em>Bounty Hunter<&sol;em>&comma; it was nice to see the seething underbelly of the Star Wars Universe&comma; and being able to play as one of the most badass bounty hunters didn&&num;8217&semi;t hurt either&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>About a year passed and the world was shocked with the news that Disney has purchased all the rights to Star Wars from George Lucas&period; On March 1 2013 <em>Star Wars 1313<&sol;em> was officially put on hold by one Disney representative&comma; but there was another who gave us a new hope and stated that development had not been stopped entirely&period; One month later on April 3&comma; 2013 Disney announced that LucasArts was being closed down&period; They fired a majority of staff and kept on a few to run the licensing department&period; At that time the fate of <em>Star Wars 1313<&sol;em> was sadly expanded upon from a Lucasfilm representative with the following statement&comma; &&num;8220&semi;After evaluating our position in the games market&comma; we’ve decided to shift LucasArts from internal development to a licensing model&comma; minimizing the company&&num;8217&semi;s risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality <i>Star Wars<&sol;i> games&period; As a result of this change&comma; we&&num;8217&semi;ve had layoffs across the organization&period;&&num;8221&semi; <em>Star Wars 1313<&sol;em> found itself in some murky and uncharted waters&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;123358" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-123358" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-123358" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;03&sol;29000143&sol;star-wars-1313&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Star Wars 1313 - LucasArts&rpar;" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-123358" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Star Wars 1313<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; LucasArts&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Fast forward to May 2013 and Disney announces a partnership with EA games to develop and publish <em>Star Wars<&sol;em> games&period; EA has only released one title since this announcement and while it was a fun shooter&comma; it was no <em>KotOR<&sol;em> or <em>Republic Commando<&sol;em>&period; At the time of the announcement when pressed about older LucasArts games no comment was made of the fate of young Boba Fett&period; At the beginning of 2014 LucasArts decided not renew the trademark for <em>Star Wars 1313<&sol;em>&period; Generally when a trademark is abandoned the game is lost&comma; but in 2015 Kathleen Kennedy had some encouraging words for gamers&period; In an interview she praised the concept art for the game and stated &&num;8221&semi; &lbrack;it is&rsqb; something we’re spending a lot of time looking at&comma; poring through&comma; discussing&comma; and we may very well develop those things further&period;&&num;8221&semi; Two years have passed since the interview and with E3 right around the corner and a rumored game from Visceral &lpar;an EA developer&rpar;&comma; things might be looking good&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>For those of you who can&&num;8217&semi;t place Visceral&comma; they are the developer that brought us the <em>Dead Space <&sol;em>trilogy and really haven&&num;8217&semi;t been heard from since<em> <&sol;em><em>Dead Space 3<&sol;em> dropped&period; Hopefully they have been secretly working on <em>Star Wars 1313 <&sol;em>because they really are the perfect developer for this title&period; No one does over-the-shoulder shooters better than them&comma; except maybe Capcom or Epic Games&period; I feel that they would be the perfect team to resurrect this title&period; They know how to tell a story&period; Issac&&num;8217&semi;s tale is one weaved within mystery and a gripping narrative&period; Graphically they are geniuses&comma; just being on the <i>Ishimura<&sol;i> can give one goosebumps&period; In terms of character design&comma; I would love to see the types of aliens and enemies they would come up with for young Fett to spar with&period; This is what one would call a match made in Heaven&comma; but we would have to depend on EA for a good decision&period; And when it comes to EA&comma; only thought comes to mind&colon; &&num;8220&semi;I have a bad feeling about this&period;&&num;8221&semi; We&&num;8217&semi;ll have to wait and see&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;