Star Wars Meets Mass Effect by zarnala

EA Opening New Los Angeles Game Studio, WIll work on Star Wars Games

Electronic Arts fresh off announcing it cut 10% of its workforce to trim costs, is investing in a new Los Angeles studio for its Stockholm-based DICE game developer with the goal of poaching talent from rivals like Activision Blizzard.

The DICE unit, purchased by EA in the middle of the last decade, will be a key cog in the creation of a new series of Star Wars videogames. Walt Disney announced last week that it enlisted EA to make Star Wars games weeks after closing its LucasArts games division.

As DICE begins the initial phases of sketching out ideas for a new Star Wars game, it is in the process of opening a Los Angeles office this month to help with recruiting talent, General Manager Karl-Magnus Troedsson said in an interview at the Stockholm office.

“There is an extreme talent pool over that we want a part of,” he said. “It’s no secret that our main competitor is there,” referring to Activision’s Infinity Ward and Treyarch operations, which use Southern California studios to work on the popular Call of Duty game that outsells Battlefield.

While not divulging specific numbers, Mr. Troedsson said the DICE studio represents a significant investment with plans to add 60 staffers by the end of 2013. He said the firm is looking to add the best talent in the business for the venture, and that DICE needs to expand its wings following the success of the Battlefield franchise.

The new DICE studio comes on the heels of tough actions taken to slim down the wider EA operation. About 900 of the company’s 9,000 employees recently were cut in order to achieve a 20% operating margin.

Mr. Troedsson said DICE will strive to maintain its Nordic work environment, where managers are known to make decisions by consensus and employees are afforded long parental leaves to care for children.

DICE also expects that the opportunity to work on the next Star Wars games attract talent from rival firms. “People stood up and cheered, when I announced that we were working on Star Wars,” he said, indicating the same enthusiasm could be used in recruiting.

He said creators of the new Star Wars game are looking at either creating an entirely new experience or piggybacking on an older Star Wars game series.

Mr. Troedsson, who describes himself as a passionate gamer with an interest in motorcycles, said he is a fan of classic Star Wars games. “For me it’s a boys dream come to life, I’ve grown up with Star Wars.”

The new studio opened its doors recently, and has brought in some EA employees who worked on the Medal of Honor series, as well as outside talent.

xofcommander:

Star Wars: Actors Unmasked

May The Fourth Be With You

Star Wars 1313 was a Boba Fett game

Before It Was Cancelled, Star Wars 1313 Was Going To Be About Boba Fett

We’ve learned a great deal about Star Wars 1313 over the past few months, and today we’ve got one more huge detail thanks to a reliable Kotaku source: last year, just before E3, LucasArts shifted focus and turned it into a game about the masked bounty hunter Boba Fett.

This happened last May. Star Wars creator George Lucas looked at 1313 - which at that point had been scrapped and refocused multiple times - and told the team he wanted it to be about Boba Fett, the mercenary whose origins as a clone were revealed in the Star Wars prequel movies.

You can see concept art from this version of Star Wars 1313 above. Boba Fett stands over someone who looks a whole lot like Bossk, a lizard-like bounty hunter who Fett has apparently captured. They appear to be in the seedy underworld of Coruscant.

Sadly, LucasFilm cancelled the troubled game yesterday, when they shut down LucasArts, the 30-year-old video game studio responsible for 1313, among many other games. Although LucasFilm has said that 1313 and the studio’s other cancelled game, Star Wars: First Assault, could be licensed out to other developers, I’ve been told by multiple sources that chances are very slim. Development on the game had been on hold since last fall, as we reported in February.

“They ended up with movie tech that wouldn’t fit in a game, and game tech that wouldn’t fit in a movie,” a source told me. “1313 was always in danger of not being made.”

Kotaku

Disney Shuts Down LucasArts, Cancels Star Wars 1313 And Star Wars: First Assault

Staff were informed of the shutdown this morning, according to a reliable Kotaku source. Some 150 people were laid off, and both of the studio’s current projects - Star Wars: First Assault and Star Wars 1313 - were canceled.

“After evaluating our position in the games market, we’ve decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimizing the company’s risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games,” Disney said in a statement. “As a result of this change, we’ve had layoffs across the organization. We are incredibly appreciative and proud of the talented teams who have been developing our new titles.”

This comes after weeks and months of rumors involving the studio, which was acquired by Disney last fall. In September, LucasArts put a freeze on all hiring and product announcements, which many staff saw as the beginning of the end. Today, it’s official: the longrunning studio is no more.

LucasArts representative says Star Wars 1313 could be saved through licensing

Star Wars 1313

You’ve Reached Level 1313

Star Wars Concept Art by Amy Beth Christenson