The International House of Mojo

Simon Jeffery, ex-LucasArts head honcho, is hitting the big time: SEGA announced today that they are integrating their American and European management teams to "drive growth in western markets." And who is SEGA of America's new President/COO? Simon Jeffery himself.

We wish Mr. Jeffery good luck.

So Mercenaries looked pretty shit when it was first announced. We pissed on it a lot. Then we saw it at last E3, and we were actually pretty amused. The game didn't look too bad, though we thought it might have only seemed cool because the guy demoing it kept dropping dozens and dozens of jeeps from the sky and blowing them up, to show off the engine, and because it was awesome. Well, maybe Mercenaries isn't shit after all.

The game got a 9.1 on IGN and a 5 out of 5 on GameSpy. If that isn't enough to at least make you question your assumptions about how the game is guaranteed to be a terrible waste, take a look at its page on GameRankings, where it's averaging 90%. I have no clue if the game is genuinely good or not, but we were obviously a bit too hard on it when it was initially announced. First impressions are a bitch.

In other Mercenaries news, there are two tongue-in-cheek TV ads for the game (one, two) which some may find amusing. They are at least trying here. I suspect Mercenaries will do pretty well.

IGN brings word that Mercenaries has gone gold for both Xbox and the PS2. The game is set to ship on January 10th.

What do you mean you don't care?!

Source: IGN

Theforce.net is reporting that the latest UK PC Zone magazine has Star Wars: Empire at War (the new RTS developed by much of the old Command & Conquer team at Pteroglyph Games) as the cover story. Readers are reporting "This new PC game is set two years before ANH with a certain amount of cross over from Episode 3. It appears to include ground battles set in desert and greenland areas with attacking AT-AT's and a new Imperial ground based vehicle called "TIE Crawlers"... The action also takes place in space with rebel fleets taking on Star Destroyers".

By the looks of the magazine scan, it's scheduled for an Autumn 05 release.

Source: Theforce.net

As recently pointed out in the Mojo forums by woodenstool, LucasArts have put online a gaming survey which concentrates on Indiana Jones gaming in the latter half. If you're an Indy fan, or just have some opinions to share on The Emperor's Tomb you might like to take the survey yourself.

Source: Mojo Forums

In an itriguing thread posted at The Inventory, a spokesperson for Bad Brains Entertainment (who have just picked up Autumn Moon's Vampyre's Story) made an astounding comment;

"...also there are negotiations with LucasArts but I can't get into detail here. Maybe this will be the surprise release of 2005. The game you all wanted but didn't get (except for a fine trailer)..."

Read the whole thing, and followup comments here.

Source: The Inventory

In a new interview with LucasArts president Jim Ward, he reveals that a new Star Wars RTS game is in the works.

As a result, we will have new live-action and animated TV shows over the next few years, and I think there's a bright future there for games based on these new properties as well as original "Star Wars" games like a new real-time strategy PC game that Petroglyph is developing for next year. This game will take the (real-time strategy) genre in a new direction and will balance gameplay between the hard-core gamers who buy these games and the broader audience that's familiar with the "Star Wars" brand.

The Insanely Great status of the game is yet to be confirmed.

Source: Reuters

From a heads up by Indy3 in the mojo forums, The Indy Experience has just posted an interview with (former) long time LucasArts employee Hal Barwood, concentrating mostly on Fate of Atlantis and Infernal Machine. He also hints at his future;

Now that I?ve left LucasArts, I?m reviving [finite arts] for a freelance whirl in game design and writing.

Click here for the full article. No mention of that RTX sequel, though.

Update by ATMachine: Thanks to this interview, I've managed to add some information on a previously unknown game to the Mixnmojo Database.

Check out our entry on Indiana Jones and the Garden of Life.

Also, I've updated Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix's entry with a few new factoids.

Source: The Indy Experience

He doesn't reveal that secret of course, just that the oft-quoted "Disneyland's 'Pirates of the Carribean' was the inspiration for Monkey Island" may not be the whole truth. Or the truth at all.

You won't even find a pilfered quote here from Ron's post on his grumpygamer.com blog to drag you in because if you have no interest in Mr Gilbert talking about Guybrush's origins and the inspiration for the MI games, then really, you're on the wrong site.

Source: Grumpy Gamer

According to a report that recently showed up on gamesindustry.biz LucasFilm's new Singapore based animation facility may be used for videogame development.

A new job advertisement posted by game publisher LucasArts suggests that the Singapore digital animation studio opened by parent company Lucasfilm earlier this year may be set to focus on videogame work.

LucasArts is currently advertising for a human resources director, who would be required to deal with "heavy travel... to office in Singapore," with the job description implying that over 50 per cent of the new director's time could be spent in the Far East location.

Considering LucasArts current policies on internally developed titles, this may mean some of the crunch work for 3rd party games published by LEC is done out of Singapore.

For more background on the Singapore Animation facility itself, read this LucasFilm press release.

Source: GamesIndustry.biz

LucasArts.com has today launched the LucasArts Game Discussion Message Boards. What's new is that now you can discuss at the moment four LucasArts games, and your passion for them, or questions about them, within LucasArts official site. The LucasArts Technical Support forum just got a big brother. You can currently discuss these four games: Mercenaries, Star Wars Battlefront, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, and Star Wars Republic Commando. The individual gameforums each have their own gamebanner on the top each page, which kind of nice, and is easier to recognize which forum you're on. The LucasArts site don't have a "Recent Activity on the Forums" on their front page yet though. You need a Lucas Online membership to post threads.

According to this story at Times Online, ex-LucasArts president Simon Jeffery has got himself a new job as marketing director at hobbyist/model company Hornby, after a year or so "spending time with family."

While president of LucasArts Simon, as many of you know, tried to breathe life back into many of LucasArts' old franchises like Full Throttle, Sam & Max, and the Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe series, but sadly was rarely successful, causing him to leave the company around a year ago. We wish him good luck etc at his new gig, and expect numerous free model kits to tinker with in exchange for saying so.

It's been a long time coming. Post-Episode 1 brain-drain, post-Simon Jeffery-era-crumbling, and post-Sam & Max 2-axing, the topic is always raised: "I bet next, LucasArts is going to shut down all their internal development and just become a Star Wars publisher." Well maybe they haven't done that yet entierly, and maybe that's not really their long term plan, but based on the statement released today, for now, they are pretty damn close.

LucasArts confirmed today a major restructuring of its development studio. It marks the first change within the company since Jim Ward took over as president in May. ?Since joining LucasArts in early May, I?ve taken a hard, critical look at our business. I?ve come to the conclusion that to make LucasArts thrive and to position ourselves for the long-term future, we need to make some fundamental changes.? [...] As a result of the restructuring, 31 people from the development studio were laid off as the company will be concentrating on fewer titles.

The 31 layoffs are almost entirely from internal teams working on unannounced games. The internal Republic Commando is still on schedule. Gamespot has a little more on the story.

We'd like to wish the best of luck to everyone let go by Lucasarts in the past couple days (and months). Hopefully we'll be hearing from (and writing about) you all very soon.

Source: WMI

"There is currently no plan to reduce staff."

Ron Gilbert's updated his blog today with a very short update titled "Major Layoffs at LucasArts?" We have no clue, but honestly would anyone be surprised? After the previous big layoff, the "No bonuses!! >:(" announcement, and other rumors that have been flying around, we're left wondering if there's anyone left in the building.

More on this if it develops.

Update: Ron Gilbert has come up with more info, which he may be making up off the top of his head, but probably isn't. "All internal projects canceled except one ( don't remember the name, probably something to do with Star Wars ). 50 people let go. Or, maybe I'm just making all this up because I'm bored..."

Update: Gamespot now has the story as well.

...well, LucasFilm Games, really. And we're talking 20-25 years ago. A post on slashdot has revealed some articles by Chip Morningstar about the early LucasFilm Games' MMORPG predecessor 'Habitat' and better yet, this detailed report about the establishment of, and mindset within LucasFilm Games.

Crazy stuff awaits you...<:MORENEWS:>

...Because of the phenomenal success of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, Lucasfilm existed in a weird kind of bubble that made it very different from other companies, especially companies in the computer games industry. Most of this weirdness had to do with money, or expectations about money. The basic attitude can be summed up as, "we are Lucasfilm, people will pay us."....

...This frame of mind colored everything. It lead to a couple of fundamental constraints that rather tightly restricted what we could do. The first rule was that we were not to do anything that required spending the company's own money. We could do pretty much whatever we wanted, but we had to get somebody else to pay for it, arguments about ROI not withstanding. The second constraint was that although we had a fairly high level of creative freedom, we were absolutely forbidden from doing anything that made use of the company's film properties, especially Star Wars. That was viewed as just like spending money, since these properties were, in effect, money in the bank. If somebody else wanted to make a Star Wars game, they had to pay a hefty license fee, and so we made money no matter how well or how poorly their game did, whereas if we made such a game ourselves we would be taking all the risk if it bombed (and never mind that we'd also get 100% of the upside if the game was a hit).

You'll be wanting to read the articles in full.

Source: Fudco / Habitat Chronicles

Looks like LucasArts has hired someone to their management team who isn't an ex-Electronic Arts employee. After the recent employee departures/layoffs/firings, LEC was left without a Vice President of Marketing, which is something you generally need to run a medium to large sized game company.

Enter John Geoghegan, a marketing guy who seems to have quite a bit of experience marketing things. I don't think there's much more to say than that. We at Mojo of course wish John the best of luck in helping LucasArts stabilize itself, find focus, and maybe stop sucking.

LucasArts has put up the website regarding their presence at this year's San Diego Comic Con (sadly lacking last year's "Ronda's Journey" blog section). If you're interested in what LucasArts will be up to at the Con this year, take a look. If you're not interested, go visit Idle Thumbs or something. ? ?

An internal memo from LucasArts' part-time president Jim Ward has appeared on the net. Basically, it's an announcement that there will be no bonuses this year, along with a lot of motivational words on making "insanely great games".

The news value of this memo is admittedly low -- after all, it's no secret that LucasArts isn't doing very well -- though we'd be lying if we said the memo wasn't interesting on any sort of level.<:MORENEWS:>

Ward calls for the LucasArts employees to make "Insanely great games that will restore the luster to the LucasArts logo so that when we, and our consumers, see it on our packaging and on our games, we'll all know that the Gold Guy is once again the mark of leading edge innovation, creativity and amazing fun." Where did we hear that before? (Pretend that sentence is linked to an archived Mojo interview with Simon Jeffery, then pretend Mojo has archived articles.)

Sadly, there is no mention of any intention to make less Star Wars games. "Make a difference," the memo reads. "Effect change. Make Battlefront, Galaxies, KOTOR II, Mercenaries, Republic Commando and the Episode III games the best that they can be." While it would certainly help to make the Star Wars games actually good, it's obviously only half the equation.

Okay, given that this is a leaked internal memo, it would probably be unfair towards Mr. Ward et al. to quote from it excessively on forums. Or to make crappy fan art with Photoshopped pictures of George Lucas to go with it. Or, say, a LucasArts hate 'em up game. Though I'd be surprised if -- after crushing all our little hearts with the cancellation of Sam & Max 2 -- anyone still has any goodwill left. At least Jim Ward likes the word "insane", so he probably means well.

Posted yesterday at starwars.com is news of a new cell-shaded Star Wars game based on the original Star Wars movies for the GameBoy Advance. The game is a collaboration with Ubi-Soft & LucasArts - usual GBA partner THQ is nowhere to be seen.

Star Wars Trilogy: Apprentice of the Force will challenge gamers to adventure through the most exciting and memorable scenes from the classic Star Wars movies. Gamers can control Luke Skywalker as he becomes a Jedi Knight, fight Darth Vader and Boba Fett, escape from the fearsome rancor beast, and destroy the Death Star. The game allows gamers to take part in unique co-operative single-player and competitive multiplayer modes, and participate in other memorable Star Wars-based tests.

There are several in-game screenshots and a character montage on the info-page. It's due for release on the same day as the Star Wars DVDs and the LucasArts game 'Battlefront', so if you still have money to spare on that day, and still have a Star Wars fix to sort out, and own a GBA, maybe this game'll be for you.

Source: Star Wars official site

The SF Gate reports a welcome change of pace; Lucasarts hiring new talent.

Around the office at LucasArts, Ryan Wieber is simply known as the "light-saber kid."

The nickname works because he's the video game firm's light-saber special effects guru. It works even better because he really is just a kid.

About a year ago, Wieber was living the life of a normal teenager. After picking up his diploma at Del Mar High School in San Jose, he was taking a few classes at De Anza College and working part time at Blockbuster Video.

That's when a senior effects artist at LucasArts in San Rafael called.

Find out the rest of the information in the full article here.

Update: Here's the background straight from the horse's mouth - Ryan was a regular at theforce.net's fanfilms board. Ryan Wieber: Associate Effects Artist for LucasArts .

Source: SF Gate