After a recent interview with Kathleen Kennedy, the head of Lucasfilm, a ray of hope was presented to Star Wars fans and gamers. The much anticipated game of E3 2012, titled Star Wars 1313, might still happen, because work at LucasArts was never scrapped.
For those late to the Star Wars 1313 drama, the game was being developed by LucasArts some years back. It turned heads at E3 before Disney purchased the company (and all other things Star Wars) and seemingly cancelled it by the laying off of much of the staff and distributing gaming licenses elsewhere.
All we really knew of the game’s plot was that it was to follow an unidentified explorer in the city of Level 1313 of Coruscant. There was a combat focus shift from the assumed Jedi powers to hand-to-hand skills and tech-based weapons, similar to the Star Wars: Bounty Hunters game from 2002. It meant to tell the story surrounding the “early years of Boba Fett.”
What once could be was then assumed to be a scrapped project as Disney moved in. This was an especially common assumption after EA Games and other AAA companies were granted licenses to create the Star Wars games. It was a strategy that was meant to decrease risk of loss to the company and increase its portfolio. It gave Disney various games in a wide range of styles, but no 1313.
However, Kennedy makes mention of this old fossil that could still be:
So our attitude is, we don’t want to throw any of that stuff away. It’s gold. And it’s something we’re spending a lot of time looking at, pouring through, discussing, and we may very well develop those things further. We definitely want to.
Does this mean that they want to use the content to keep creating the Star Wars 1313 game, or simply use its concepts to move forward with a film involving bounty hunter Boba Fett. (I mean, have you seen that concept art? Way to go, Gus Mendonca.)
All that is certain is the work that the developers put in so far is still there. They still look at it, they still develop some pieces of it, and wonder what will become of it. So since 2012, the game has been silently on hold, waiting for someone to pick it up and unleash it to the world in completion.
It’s kind of like a little Pandora’s Box, but with good things happening between the awesome of Star Wars and the hands-on fun of video games.
Many, including myself, choose to believe that the dream of 1313 hasn’t died at the brink of this little discovery. The information and work is there, and there is access to it as it still continues to develop. They’re fleshing it out to what could be a really great end result. All it needs is a license and a little push.
