Lead designer at Naughty Dog says Star Wars Battlefront 3 was 'legit incredible' and LucasArts cancelling it was 'an absolute crime'
Free Radical was a British game studio of ex-Rare devs best-known for the TimeSplitters series, and almost as well-known for the disastrous flop of PlayStation 3 exclusive Haze. Free Radical went bankrupt shortly after releasing Haze, but the death blow might've really come from the cancellation of Star Wars: Battlefront 3, an ambitious game intended to mix on-ground strategy with spacefaring dogfights: You controlled your character on the surface in gigantic battles, but could hop in a ship and zoom up into space. The above video is a leaked internal showreel from 2008.
Free Radical was several years into development when it decided the project needed a delay, went to LucasArts, and discovered that LucasArts would rather cancel the game and cut its losses. It was a brutal decision, especially considering the cancellation came when Battlefront 3 was «2 yards from the finish line,» one of the former developers said this week. «An absolute crime.»
Ever since news and footage of the project leaked, including irresistible stuff like the concept art for 'dark' Obi-Wan Kenobi, fans and the people who worked on it have wondered what might have been. Michael Barclay was a junior designer at Free Radical at the time and is now a lead designer at Naughty Dog, credited on games including The Last of Us: Part II and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. Responding to one of those game dev twitter prompts about the «one that got away» in your industry career, Barclay said(opens in new tab):
«I feel like it’s been long enough now to come out and say Star Wars Battlefront III was gonnae be legit incredible and the fact it got cancelled 2 yards from the finish line is an absolute crime. Gamers don’t know what they were robbed of.»
Impressive
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