Why Obsidian may not be designing KotOR 3 or any Lucas Arts projects:

[The Source]

Why Obsidian may not be designing KotOR 3 or any Lucas Arts projects.

(Theory only)

 

Even though I have been hearing intresting things about the possible existance of a KotOR 3, I don't think there will be a concept developed until the year's end. Every time I visit Lucas Arts, they seem to be too busy with: Battlefront, Galaxies, Empire at War, etc... I don't think that they know what to do with the series, and Obsidian's unprofessional handling of the aftermath. I believe this will make Lucas Arts take their time. I would too. If you think about it, KotOR 2 is a major public relations mess. I know many people don't see it that way, but look at all the event that occured between now and its release in February: 1. Fans find cut content. 2. Obsidian explaining the cut content. 3. Article released by Obsidian about their side of the story. 4. We never truely hear what Lucas Arts is thinking. 5. The Movie and Sound patch was debated over for three months. 6. The questionable sales. 7. Obsidian's story/script was not taken by a good amount of the Star wars fans. (People complaining about the story not being complete.) 8. An online petition, which fans put together about making KotOR 3, or the other one that is out their somewhere about fixing KotOR 2.

 

Releasing a comicbook maybe their way in taking steps to heal the franchise. We never will know what actually happened between Obsidian and Lucas Arts behind closed doors.

 

All I know is that:

1. If the developer I hired didn't meet the deadline I give them, with the quality that people expect from my products, I would not hired them again.

 

2. If a developer releases an article about the flaws found in my product, and they created the flaws, and then tried to turn the public against me, that would be the end of our buisness arangements.

 

Buisness is buisness...

[igyman]

I agree with you completely. I don't understand why Lucas Arts even chose to give the KoTOR 2 project to Obsidian instead of Bioware, since Bioware was the one that made the first part and did an excellent job, by the way!

 

I have nothing personal against Obsidian (why would I have), they had good ideas, but they weren't very good at turning them into reality.

[Jackel]

I agree with you completely. I don't understand why Lucas Arts even chose to give the KoTOR 2 project to Obsidian instead of Bioware, since Bioware was the one that made the first part

Bioware refused to do it, thats why. They really didn't want to do the second game. Or any IP's that belonged to another company. They were ready to get on with their on ideas and were doing them. LA came to them with K2 and Bioware suggested Obsidian make it.

[igyman]

Damn. How did you find that out? Don't take this the wrong way, it's just hard to believe that Bioware would refuse to make a sequel, if they made a great first part of the game.

[Jackel]

It is, and has been, common knowledge for a long time. It was never kept secret that BW didn't want to make the sequal. And it's not really that hard to believe. Just look at id with Quake and Wolfenstein. They farmed those out to other companies even though they had created the first games in the series and owned the copywrites etc to them.

[igyman]

OK, but I'd still like to read an article/announcement/whatever that says that. I'm really surprised by this, since all I heard is that Lucas Arts decided to give the project to Obsidian and that some of the most experienced RPG developers are at Obsidian.

[The Source]

OK, but I'd still like to read an article/announcement/whatever that says that. I'm really surprised by this, since all I heard is that Lucas Arts decided to give the project to Obsidian and that some of the most experienced RPG developers are at Obsidian.

I would like to see evidence as well. I keep reading that BioWare decided not to work on KotOR 2, but I have never seen an article about it.

[Point Man]

That's why LucasArts needs to hire the people who make all the excellent mods for KOTOR and TSL to develop KOTOR 3.

[Darth Sun_Tzu]

It is, and has been, common knowledge for a long time. It was never kept secret that BW didn't want to make the sequal. And it's not really that hard to believe. Just look at id with Quake and Wolfenstein. They farmed those out to other companies even though they had created the first games in the series and owned the copywrites etc to them.

 

Thats what i heard also. They had Jade Empire on the go and another in development so they did not want TSL. As for a press release saying so, I'd have to look, it has been some time.

[Vibro]

If LA don't have a developer by now they will certainly be looking for one. They won#t want to waste any time at all. The KOTOR series has a huge fanbase and is a big earner, they wouldn't turn that down. I believe they will go with Obsidian again.

[The Source]

Thats what i heard also. They had Jade Empire on the go and another in development so they did not want TSL. As for a press release saying so, I'd have to look, it has been some time.

That would be an intresting read.

[Clone L68362]

That's why LucasArts needs to hire the people who make all the excellent mods for KOTOR and TSL to develop KOTOR 3.

 

Except that we'd all be bickering over whether or not to play as Revan or a new PC, and the game will never be finished

[Phaedra36]

I have a simple solution, flip a penny or do eeny-meeny-miney-mo! Lmao.

[Darth Sun_Tzu]

That would be an intresting read.

 

Can't find anything now but that was 2 years ago. Anyway i think the infomation was mostly passed down through the forums. I guess that we will never know for sure now whether it was just assumed or official. To be honest i can't be bothered to try to find anything, its not that important but i can say that the impression i got was that bioware did not want it because they were too busy with their own projects.

[The Source]

Can't find anything now but that was 2 years ago. Anyway i think the infomation was mostly passed down through the forums. I guess that we will never know for sure now whether it was just assumed or official. To be honest i can't be bothered to try to find anything, its not that important but i can say that the impression i got was that bioware did not want it because they were too busy with their own projects.

If I had an opportunity to create my own project, outside of everyoone elses, I would take the opportunity as well.

[Azuth]

Can't find anything now but that was 2 years ago. Anyway i think the infomation was mostly passed down through the forums. I guess that we will never know for sure now whether it was just assumed or official. To be honest i can't be bothered to try to find anything, its not that important but i can say that the impression i got was that bioware did not want it because they were too busy with their own projects.

 

You're right... it was passed down through the forums with statements like this:

 

http://swforums.bioware.com/viewtopic.html?topic=471185&forum=26

 

Posted 02/22/06 21:20:13 (GMT) by Derek French

 

There are no current plans for another KotOR game from BioWare at this time.

 

We are currently working on Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and another unannounced title.

 

Bioware employees have been making these statements since they finished production on the first KotOR. I'll bet if you search Derek's posts on that forum you would find a 100 such statements.

 

Azuth

[Ztalker]

I always have the feeling that LA is surpressing their developers.

We can opbviously see K2 was rushed, just like Rogue Squadron 3 and so on.

 

I think Bioware wanted to quit because they wanted to make their own games, instead of being stuck to an publisher like LA.

[Point Man]

Except that we'd all be bickering over whether or not to play as Revan or a new PC, and the game will never be finished

So that's what's taking so long in getting K3 out!

[Mister Chief]

You can't say LA puts too much pressure, look at all thier great games. i think it is on the other side. The developers need to get their Sh*t together. If Kotor 3 isn't in production yet after 2 years, I wouldn't expect to see it until 2008.

[Jae Onasi]

I'll just be happy if _someone_ is designing the game, as long as they're good.

[Nuitari_28]

Well i think were going to hear something from lucas arts pretty soon.

 

With no new films to make, they are focusing on game with a massive haul of games spewing from them. We havn't heard one word about KOTOR yet but i think that will change.

With Star wars battlefront 2 out, empire of war or whatever its called, and many other games out, they have only got lego on the devoloping list. (Which will be out sometime in autumn) they are running out of things to do. I dont think they will redo star wars galaxies because it just doesnt contain a large portion of the mmorg market, with such games as world of warcraft miles better. SO I dont really see anything else they can build on except kotor. With the kotor series having a massive loyal fan base, brings in good money. So sometime soon werll hear something from old lucasy himself.

 

So until then...

[Sordes]

You guys should really not be insulting Obsidian for the low quality, well atleast don't make it all their fault. In a recent interview with IGN I think it was, the President (founder of someone) of Obsidian said that Lucasarts wanted KotORII out for the holiday season.

 

KotORII I believe is Obsidians first project and can you really blame them for trying to make a good first impression? Sure, in the end they didn't quite get it done but I wouldn't blame them.

[Mister Chief]

With Star wars battlefront 2 out, empire of war or whatever its called, and many other games out, they have only got lego on the devoloping list. (Which will be out sometime in autumn) they are running out of things to do.

 

I can almost guarantee you that there will be an Empire at War Expansion. they also have Mercenaries 2 (possibly), and an Indiana Jones Game for 360 (officially).

[Char Ell]

You guys should really not be insulting Obsidian for the low quality, well atleast don't make it all their fault. In a recent interview with IGN I think it was, the President (founder of someone) of Obsidian said that Lucasarts wanted KotORII out for the holiday season.

 

KotORII I believe is Obsidians first project and can you really blame them for trying to make a good first impression? Sure, in the end they didn't quite get it done but I wouldn't blame them.

Ah, the infamous "Who is to blame for KotOR II:TSL's shortcomings?" debate. So many people have got to have someone to fault. Oh well, it's human nature I guess.

 

It's always a good thing if one actually provides a link to a source of information so that others can verify one's assertion about what someone else said. I don't know if this <link> is the article you refer to but it's from Feb. 1 of this year and so is fairly recent.

The team also had a firm grasp of Knights of the Old Republic and was glad to get the opportunity to develop a sequel. "It was a game we understood and a game we knew how to make with an engine that was already done," says Feargus. "I hate to say that we didn't think about it; we knew that it was going to be a challenge and we knew it was going to be hard work, particularly in the short time that we had."

 

According to Feargus it was simply a matter of making the pieces fit. "Chris Avalon writes incredible dialogue and incredible design, so we weren't worried there. Our lead artist Aaron Meyers had worked on Planescape: Torment and Icewind Dale and had just gotten off the ill-fated Baldur's Gate 3, so he had a lot of experience building RPGs. Chris Jones was the lead programmer and he had been the chief architect on the Fallout engine and at Troika the Arcanum engine and what would have been the engine for Baldur's Gate 3. You roll all that together and it seemed like we had all the parts that we needed. The arrogant thing was to agree to do it in the time that LucasArts wanted it done in." (bold added)

I read this article again but didn't find anything in it where the Obsidian CEO says that LucasArts wanted TSL out for Christmas. Now I'm not saying that LA didn't want the game out for Christmas because it seems to me like LA did. A 2004 May 4 LA press release, LucasArts E3 2004 lineup to include Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, originally announced that both the Xbox and PC versions would be released in Feb. 2005. But sometime after E3 2004 LA decided to move the release of TSL for the XBox up from Feb. 2005 to Dec. 2004 thereby shaving 2 months off the originally slated development timeframe.

 

So on the one hand you have the developer CEO saying it was arrogant of his company to think they could get TSL finished in the time the publisher, LucasArts, wanted and on the other you have the publisher cutting 2 months off the original development time without much warning. From my POV it doesn't really matter who is to blame for TSL's shortcomings. I'm just someone who played the game and was disappointed with some aspects of it. I'm not the developer or the publisher and my only concern is that this doesn't happen with the next KotOR. Assigning blame doesn't accomplish anything. All I can do is hope that LucasArts and the next KotOR developer learn from mistakes made with TSL.

[The Source]

A deadline is a deadline. If I hired someone who cannot keep a deadline, and produce quality work, they don't deserve to work for me. It is how the buisness world works.