Recently, multiple sources associated with developers Free Radical have taken to the media to fault LucasArts for the failure of the third installation of the Star Wars game Battlefront III.
An ex-employee of the LucasArts camp has heard the chatter and is responding in kind, throwing jabs right back at the developers.
Commenting anonymously to GameSpot, the source countered claims that LucasArts did not support the title and sabotaged both the game and the developer:
“I was at LucasArts during this time, working on Battlefront III, and remember it well. Everybody from producers to marketing was 100 percent invested in making the relationship work,” the source said. “We were desperate for a next-gen followup to Battlefront (the claim that the project was sabotaged for financial reasons is ludicrous. The [Battlefront] franchise was a huge money maker at the time). When Free Radical continually missed dates and deliveries, [former LucasArts presidents Jim Ward and Darrell Rodriguez] made many ‘good will’ whole or partial milestone payments to keep the project going.”
The source goes on to call foul on the claim that Free Radical was 99 percent done with the title that they pegged as the most ambitious game in the franchise. Allegedly, the game was “mediocre” and only about 75 percent complete.
The source places responsibility squarely on Free Radical, now Crytek UK.
He opines that the devs fraudulently misrepresented themselves for monetary gain, and operated much like a “Ponzi scheme.” Allegedly, they redirected manpower and money from the LucasArts endeavor to play catch up with the inevitably failed Haze, leaving Battlefront III under supported He goes on to criticize the devs for being dishonest about their progress, an inability to meet critical initial deadlines, and claims that they were also not able to meet new deadlines set for them.
Steve Ellis, co-founder of Free Radical, responded here.
