I'm conflicted. Nostalgic teenage Kaffis is sad to see one of the most prolifically awesome developers in his life shut down.
Present day Kaffis Mark V, on the other hand, has recognized that LucasArts hasn't been making the games they used to for a long time. It's not like we've been seeing the glory run of The Empire Strikes Back (1992), Sam & Max (1993), TIE Fighter (1994), Dark Forces (1995), Shadows of the Empire (1996), Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight (1997), Rebellion (1998), X-Wing Alliance (1999), and Force Commander (2000) in the last decade.
They haven't made a space sim in fourteen years. They haven't made an adventure game in nearly as long. The Force Unleashed was decent, but not nearly as amazing as Kyle Katarn's adventures.
Instead, their primary role has been to Rogue Squadron arcade games and farm out Lego games, sub-par multiplayer console FPS Battlefront series to try to get the Halo/CoD crowd, and slap the Star Wars brand on various already-popular social crap like Angry Birds.
Am I a bit disappointed that 1313 got canned? Yes; while I wasn't holding out hope that it would be the second coming, there was some cool concept art and story material to be mined there. Hopefully, Disney (or Fantasy Flight) are smart enough to repurpose some of the work to support the Edge of Empire product that's forthcoming in the pencil and paper RPG world, and that the marketeers are savvy enough to capitalize on the buzz 1313 produced to rope some more gamers into pencil and paper.
But Chris Roberts is making a space sim again, and Telltale has been a good custodian of the Sam & Max franchise already for several years now, so my inner teenager is nostalgia-secure.
_________________ "Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee "... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades
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