Before it was shut down, LucasArts worked at a glacial pace. The studio said that it planned to make Star Wars and Indiana Jones games using NaturalMotion’s Euphoria physics engine as early as 2004, but it wasn’t until 2008 that they actually released Star Wars: The Force Unleashed to showcase the technology. It’s that history that made so many people skeptical about the future of Star Wars 1313 when it popped up at E3 2012. A graphically advanced shooter exploring the seamy underbelly of the Star Wars universe seemed like it would be years away from release. Now though, it likely won’t come out at all. What would the game have been, though? Which characters would we have crossed paths with in LucasArts decent into the city planet Coruscant?
Sources from within the studio speaking with Kotaku’s Jason Schreier said that the game wouldn’t star a new human character as seen in the demo of the game shown by LucasArts across 2012. Instead, the game was going to actually be a sequel of sorts starring one of Star Wars’ best-loved characters: the bounty hunter Boba Fett.
It may have ended up being a dud, much like the Force Unleashed games, but as with anything that has been cancelled, it will likely go down in history as the game that people have been clamoring for since LucasArts made the disappointing PlayStation 2 game Star Wars: Bounty Hunter starring Jango Fett, Boba’s less interesting father from George Lucas’ film Star Wars: Attack of the Clones.
Little work had been done on Star Wars 1313 since Disney acquired LucasFilm for $4 billion in October. Development was stopped in the fall while the studio’s new owner decided whether or not to keep developing games in house.
“1313 was always in danger of not being made,” said Kotaku’s source.
Fans disappointed that they won’t get to play a game starring Boba Fett should take heart. Disney has insisted that Star Wars video games will still get made, they will just be made by outside studios using the license. With a Boba Fett movie on the horizon, there’s little doubt that one of those licensed games produced by an outside studio will star Han Solo’s nemesis.
LucasArts is just the latest Disney-owned game development studio to get shut down. Since 2009, Disney has slowly closed all of its biggest studios, including Split Second studio Black Rock and Epic Mickey studio Junction Point. Tent pole releases like the upcoming Skylanders competitor Disney Infinity have been farmed out to independents like Avalanche Studios (Just Cause).
