Damnit. Darrell Rodriguez Resigns

[jp-30]

I can't access mixmojo still, just get the expired domain placeholder.

 

Maybe this has been posted already?

 

http://au.xbox360.ign.com/articles/108/1088281p1.html

 

 

LucasArts President Darrell Rodriguez Resigns

Company confirms reports of his abrupt departure.

by Jim Reilly

 

US, May 6, 2010 - LucasArts has confirmed reports that president Darrell Rodriguez has resigned from the company today. A reason for his departure was not provided, however.

 

"Darrell Rodriguez has resigned and we have initiated a search for a new leader," the company said in a statement given to IGN. "Jerry Bowerman - a member of the Lucasfilm Board of Directors and a games industry veteran - will be stepping in to lead the LucasArts executive team during this transition. Lucasfilm remains fully committed to making great games and we continue to invest in our business."

 

An unconfirmed report from Kotaku notes that several members of Rodriguez's executive team have also left LucasArts. It's believed these moves will have no effect on the titles currently in development. Rodriguez was named president of LucasArts in April 2008. Prior to joining the company, Rodriguez served as the COO of EA Los Angeles.

 

[Monkey Mania]

I think I know why....

http://mixnmojo.com/news/96

[Scapetti]

I think I know why....

http://mixnmojo.com/news/96

 

You mean... Darrell leaked it?!?! o_O now it ALL makes sense

[Laserschwert]

How can that be???

 

Damn... it looked like he'd finally nudged LA back on track, and now this?

[Threepwood4life]

I hope they get someone like him again and not Jim Ward otherwise will be waiting another decade for more MI or other Adventure titles.

 

Already since hes left, the most comments I've seen again and again on various sites has been, "Now do Battlefront 3", Wheres Battlefront 3", "Make Battlefront 3" etc...

 

I liked the Battlefront series but its looking highly unlikely they will do another as they seem to only want to release that now on handhelds and not consoles or PC.

[Scapetti]

Lol at Ron Gilbert's post on Twitter

 

"I blame the MI2:SE designer commentary: http://bit.ly/aCb4WR"

 

Like how he links to MixnMojo as opposed to IGN or something

[Laserschwert]

I'm especially worried about the rumor "that several members of Rodriguez's executive team have also left LucasArts". If that's true, it definitely means that it wasn't his choice, and those other team members were either affected as well, or left out of loyalty...

 

Edit: BTW, wasn't there a twitter feed by Rodriguez saying something like being "utterly disappointed"? Might that be linked to this?

 

Oh, and the main page is still not working for me...

[jp-30]

What's his Twitter page URL?

[Threepwood4life]

Darrells is

 

http://twitter.com/drod1000

[Bagge]

BTW, wasn't there a twitter feed by Rodriguez saying something like being "utterly disappointed"? Might that be linked to this?

 

You are probably thinking of Craig Derrick's tweet "Frustrated over a great many things" a couple of weeks back?

[Laserschwert]

Oh yeah, right... mixed them up.

[elTee]

This is quite exciting. I'm eager to see what happens in the next few months

[SyntheticGerbil]

I somehow don't feel like it'll make much impact either way. If something sells, it sells.

 

I hardly know who's really pulling the strings at LucasArts half the time anyway. The secret history interviews seemed to indicate the employees were getting increasingly confused by management's actions from Curse of Monkey Island and beyond. It doesn't even seem like the higher ups were being jerks with laying down the hammer of the law (although that seemed to be more Bill Tiller's beef) but that they had trouble being consistent or even knowing what they wanted to do as a company or what games they wanted to make.

[MusicallyInspired]

Whoa. That was random. Well, if another president like Jim Ward does take over, at least there was enough time for the 2 special editions to come out and prove that they still have a viable market.

[Udvarnoky]

My main concern is that this marks the end of the Steam and Virtual Console re-releases.

[jp-30]

We may never find out the delights of Handsome Halibut.

[elTee]

I can't see someone new coming in and changing their current MO too rapidly. The business arrangements with Steam, Telltale et al are all in place now. It would be very unusual to consider these as detrimental deals for the company.

[Char Ell]

I can't see someone new coming in and changing their current MO too rapidly. The business arrangements with Steam, Telltale et al are all in place now. It would be very unusual to consider these as detrimental deals for the company.

Yes, well, this is LucasArts we're talking about here. IIRC, the last two presidents came in and shook things up pretty good.

[elTee]

Well, I think Ward came in when the company was at its lowest ebb and streamlined things to keep LucasArts viable. Rodriguez inherited a smaller company with presumably less money available, and as such it was easier to return to some classic titles, particularly as there was a mounting internal desire to revisit them combined with an all-time low on the fan satisfaction meter.

 

Can the next Prez disregard that, fire everyone, and cancel all projects? Of course. But the games they're currently publishing are critically successful, popular and profitable. I'm not expecting this news to turn into a kick in the balls.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Well time will tell. Maybe Rodriquez just wasn't the man the for this particular job, and it WON'T mean a massive shake-up... Especially with the successes LucasArts are currently riding.

[Gabez]

Looking at the list of past LucasArts president, and thinking about their history, it seems to be me that two things are true:

 

1) Each president has a different vision or idea for LucasArts, and steers LucasArts in a particular direction

2) Each president inherits many projects from their predecessors.

 

For instance, Rod. inherited both The Force Unleashed and Indiana Jones from Ward's time, and had to wait for them both to be released before taking the company in a different direction (Lucidity and the special editions).

 

The next president will inherit some of that as well, but I'm sure that a new direction will also come, after perhaps a year.

 

A new direction definitely doesn't mean a big shake up, but I do think it means differences in what the company aims to do, which, as far as I can judge it, is the principal role of the president: to lead the way.

[SyntheticGerbil]

My main concern is that this marks the end of the Steam and Virtual Console re-releases.

 

I hope not.

 

It's almost idiotic in this day and age if you have old games that people are still interested to not put them up for sale in some kind of retro or digital download format.

[Char Ell]

Looking at the list of past LucasArts president, and thinking about their history, it seems to be me that two things are true:

 

1) Each president has a different vision or idea for LucasArts, and steers LucasArts in a particular direction

2) Each president inherits many projects from their predecessors.

 

For instance, Rod. inherited both The Force Unleashed and Indiana Jones from Ward's time, and had to wait for them both to be released before taking the company in a different direction (Lucidity and the special editions).

 

The next president will inherit some of that as well, but I'm sure that a new direction will also come, after perhaps a year.

 

A new direction definitely doesn't mean a big shake up, but I do think it means differences in what the company aims to do, which, as far as I can judge it, is the principal role of the president: to lead the way.

I agree on both points. It's just that the last two presidents made significant changes, including sacking a fair number of existing employees. And the "steering" you refer to takes up precious time.

 

Jim Ward came in and fired a bunch of staff, focused on console development, incorporated flashy new technologies into LucasArts games, approved the deal for SWTOR with BioWare, and scrapped a fair number of projects already in the pipeline.

 

Darrell Rodriguez came in and got rid of a number of employees, oversaw completion of TFU, then canceled the Jim Ward-era Xbox 360 and PS 3 versions of Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings as well as SW Battlefront 3. He moved forward with his own initiative to revive the back catalog of LucasArts PC games on Steam and other digital distribution channels while continuing The Force Unleashed franchise left to him by Jim Ward.

 

What I see is a developer/publisher who has had two very different leaders over the past 5 years that took LucasArts in different directions and then bolted. IMHO LucasArts has had one helluva roller coaster ride of late and unfortunately the ride looks like it's poised to continue.