The curious case of Star Wars 1313 rumbles on today. Following Wednesday’s closure of LucasArts by Disney, a source over at Kotaku has revealed that just before the game’s showcase at last year’s E3 conference, head honcho George Lucas shifted the story’s focus to Boba Fett – the masked bounty hunter.
The announcement of the game itself was one that stoked excitement across the massive fan base back in June. Star Wars 1313 was a visually impressive shooter that looked poised to explore the rich underbelly of the sprawling universe. And, in light of this recent news, if the game did in fact center on Boba Fett when released, you could well imagine fan boys racing to pre-order the title faster than a T-65 X-wing.
Unfortunately, after the initial reveal of LucasArts’ latest game at E3 2012, fans experienced radio silence until Disney’s acquisition in October of last year, and even then questions remained unanswered. Of course, LucasArts were quite renowned for developing at a slow pace of late given their internal struggles. Additionally, given that the studio’s last major triple-A release from the galactic canon was the critically ambivalent Star Wars: The Force Unleashed – mind you, it was LucasArts’ fastest selling game – you can understand the apprehension felt in the immediate aftermath of Star Wars 1313’s reveal.
In fact, Kotaku also reported that the game’s fate was always uncertain.
“They ended up with movie tech that wouldn’t fit in a game, and game tech that wouldn’t fit in a movie. [Star Wars] 1313 was always in danger of not being made.”
Now that LucasArts is a mere shell of its former self – Disney have essentially downsized the company from a development studio to a licensing model – it would seem that Star Wars 1313 will continue to float aimlessly in zero-gravity development limbo for some time yet. In saying that, gamers who took an interest in Star Wars 1313 shouldn’t bury their hopes just yet. Considering that Disney have stated that properties owned by LucasArts will be handled by third-party developers in future, plus, the fact that the studio is considering to produce a spin-off movie featuring Boba Fett gives the unstable game some future hope, even if it’s just a little.
Would you have liked to play a video game based on Boba Fett? Or do you think, given the recent news, that the idea of Star Wars 1313 seeing the light of day is just wishful thinking? Let us know below!