LucasFilm Games is Back

In case you missed the annoncement, Disney has brought something out of the vault for the first time. Well, maybe not the first time, but Disney definitely wants to get back into the gaming business in some capacity more than just an exclusive contract with EA for Star Wars games. Disney has announced the return of LucasFilm Games, which used to be known as LucasArts back in the early nineties, who were behind some great games before they treaded into mediocrity and were eventually shuttered. This won’t be a return to development but more of banner where all things Lucas will fall under and be tightly monitored.

This announcement came as a bit of a surprise considering that it was less than a decade ago that Disney announced the closure of LucasArts. Here’s what they had to say back then “After evaluating our position in the games market, we’ve decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimizing the company's risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games” Many jobs were lost and the first iteration of that licensing model became a ten year exclusivity deal with EA in 2013, which would have come up for renewal in just a few years.

Un-Exclusivity

Fast forward to today and we now have Disney doing a reevaluation of their position in the gaming market. My thoughts were that Disney has been happy with the games that came from EA, but likely felt like there was money left on the table as the time to develop games does take a long time especially when a few of those games get cancelled along the way. EA was able to launch four AAA Star Wars games as well as one mobile game so far. There are the two Battlefront entries from DICE, Fallen Order from Respawn, and Squadrons from Motive. There was also Project RagTag from Visceral which was cancelled in 2017 along with the closure of the studio.

The first Star Wars Battlefront in 2015 ended up selling over 14 million copies and the sequel despite its rocky launch ended up selling quite well eventually after enough support from DICE. According to an EA financial report in 2019, the Battlefront series had sold a combined 33 million copies. When looking at a much better received game, Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order from Respawn sold over 10 million copies, EA announced at an earnings call in early 2020. Fallen Order is easily the most well received game out of that group but sales wise most of those games have sold very well. Sadly, both of these companies probably prefer a better selling game as opposed to a better reviewed game.

New Opportunities

After the declaration that LucasFilm Games was returning in a different format, a few additional announcements were made in the following days. One, was that Ubisoft would be developing an open world Star Wars games which is going to be handled by their in house studio Massive, who are they team behind The Division series.

LucasFilm Games wanting more Star Wars games isn’t much of a surprise, nor is it much of a surprise to see the company want to expand from the exclusivity deal with EA. We also have more of an idea of what this open world Star Wars game will look like since its being developed by the team that created the Division as well as using the same Snowdrop Engine.

The more surprising announcement was that there is going to be a new Indiana Jones game. Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings from LucasArts was the last original game using the IP and that was back in 2009. There have been a few Lego games since as well but I wouldn’t classify those in the same category. In addition to Massive developing an open world Star Wars game, LucasFilm games announced that Bethesda would be developing a new Indiana Jones game. This new game is being handled by MachineGames, who are most famous for their revival of the Wolfenstein Series, and being executive produced by Todd Howard.

On a quick tangent, Now that LucasFilm Games has opened the door to other developers using their IP instead of just EA, I would love to see a narrative based, point and click or something more in the vein of what Telltale was doing with the Walking Dead. That series was able to reach some great heights because there was a huge niche that was able to be filled but unfortunately spread themselves too thin and didn’t adapt the engine with the advancing technology. There is still a niche that could be filled using Indiana Jones in that formula.

Indiana Jones and the MachineGames

According to the press release from Bethesda, this will be a “standalone adventure starring the legendary archaeologist will tell a wholly original tale set at the height of the career of the famed adventurer” There are a few things that you can unpack from this very small statement and I think the most important is that it will be an completely new adventure.

MachineGames was able to breathe life back into the Wolfenstein franchise back in 2014 with The New Order along with the sequels and prequels they have released since. MachineGames have done some fantastic work creating a great narrative, an alternate timeline and made BJ Blaskowicz, a character with depth.

If MachineGames is able to create such lore and great storylines from the source material of Wolfenstein, then it is very enticing what they might be able to do using the source material of Indiana Jones. There is also one giant nazi elephant in the room and that is what kind of game will this be? Obviously, judging by MachineGames pedigree, it would seem that it would be a first person shooter and while they could probably create an excellent first person Indy title, you have to assume that it will be a third person action adventure game.

It goes without saying , but one thing that would likely have to be done is that the violence that MachineGames in known for would have to be turned way down as Indiana Jones is generally known to be a PG-13 type of franchise. This is obviously despite ripping out beating hearts, face meltings and instant death when drinking from the Holy Grail.

It may have taken a while to finally arrive here but if MachineGames creates a third person Indiana Jones game, what is the result going to be? Taking a look at some of the most high profile studios that have taken the leap from exclusively developing first person shooters to third person adventure should help give us an idea. Here are two great examples that might help shine a light.

Guerilla Games

The first studio that comes to mind is Guerilla Games and how they pivoted away from Killzone after two decades worth of good to great games and created one of 2017’s best games with Horizon Zero Dawn. Since 2004 and the release of the first Killzone, Guerilla Games has been working exclusively with Sony developing the first person shooter series. That is thirteen years of only being known for one thing, first person shooting. No one could have predicted the change in direction that Guerilla would have taken before it announced Horizon Zero Dawn, much less anticipate the title to be any good.

In the case of Guerilla Games, the Killzone series, intially dubbed to be the Halo killer for Sony, fell into mediocrity until the release of Killzone 2 which has an average review of 91. This would also mark the high point for the Killzone series, as review scores would fall for the release of Killzone 3 and even farther for the PS4 launch title Shadow Fall. Despite the sales improving as the series grew older, Guerilla knew that it either had to adapt or eventually the Killzone well would run dry. Developing a new engine for Shadow Fall was likely done with Horizon Zero Dawn in mind and it was this change of direction plus excellence in engine design that propelled Guerilla to new heights.

Horizon Zero Dawn would go on to be one of the best reviewed games from the studio at a time when gaming reviews had evolved from a simple checklist of graphics, audio, story, controls, to now judging games like any other form of art. It would also go on to be easily the best selling game that Guerilla has made to date. According to Sony in early 2019, Horizon had sold more than 10 million copies and since then has likely sold another 1-2 million units on console in addition to be ported to PC in late 2020.

Guerilla Games is a shining example of how a studio can step outside of their comfort zone and still deliver something on a similar level of quality or even greater than what they are known for. It was also likely this change of direction for the studio that greatly helped managing director of Guerilla Games, Hermen Hulst be selected as the new head of worldwide studios for PlayStation.

Respawn Entertainment

If you follow Vince Zampella’s career beyond the formation of Respawn Entertainment, then you will see that there is an even longer history of first person shooters dating back to some of the earliest Call of Duty games. However, once things fell apart at Infinity Ward and Respawn was formed, Vince and the rest of the studio did what they were best known for and created an amazing first person shooter: the Xbox exclusive, Titanfall, which was followed up a few years later with the mulit-platform and fantastic sequel Titanfall 2,

The big difference is that Respawn isn’t following the same path that Guerilla did; Respawn hit the wall running. Titanfall was a hit with both critics and fans. The game sold over ten million copies, which was noted in a thank you from Respawn and it also has an average review of 86. Titanfall selling as well as it did was quite note worthy since it was exclusive on the slow out of the gate Xbox One. The sequel only improved upon the original in almost every way, except for sales.

Titanfall 2 was notoriously shoved into a poor release window one week after Battlefield and one week before Call of Duty. Two series that have been around for decades and don’t rely on timing and marketing for increased success. Despite being their best review game to this day, Titanfall 2 only managed to sell around four million copies based on industry estimates, which largely fell short of the public goals of 9-10 million in the first year that EA projected.

In 2019, Respawn surprise released Apex Legends as a free to play game, which was a interesting take on the very hot Battle Royale genre. Once again this was another success getting over 70 million downloads in its first year, but it was later that year that Respawn proved they were just more than a developer of great first person shooters as Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was finally released.

Fallen Order was a blend of many great ingredients from many great games including Metroid, Tomb Raider, Dark Souls, and many others but it knew just the right balance from all of these great titles. Fallen Order also offered a great canonical take on the Star Wars universe that was noted from fans and critics. Yes, 2019 was a slower year for games, but it still managed to get some game of year awards from many different sites and outlets. It also sold very well, selling over ten million copies in around the first six months as noted in an EA earnings call in mid 2020.

MachineGames

One of the negative consequences of MachineGames being tasked to make Indiana Jones relevant again in the gaming world is that based on the studios smaller size might come at the expense of the conclusion of Wolfenstein. The mainline Wolfenstein trilogy might be put on the side burner if development of the Indiana Jones takes priority. Hopefully, the epic finale is well in development and will be completed first as MachineGames is only around 50 people. There is also the possibility that with the recent acquisition from Microsoft that the team will be able to increase their budget and expand. The only drawback could be that if they get too big then they might lose the magic that allows them to craft the games they are known for.

If history has taught us anything with developers that are more or less pigeonholed as first person shooter specialists, then this new Indiana Jones game should be just fine. Not to apply too much pressure onto MachineGames but when looking at Guerilla and Respawn, this has potential to be the best game they have made to date.

This is no small feat though, as MachineGames have made some great games in the Wolfenstein series and the bar is high. Despite being half a minute, the small trailer showcasing the announcement did enough to assuage fears that they might not be the right studio for the job. The crackling of the vinyl playing the theme song, the vintage typewriter and the famous whip prove that MachineGames understand what makes Indiana Jones special.