Star Wars: Battlefront III was 99 percent complete! D:

[Blacksite]

Star Wars: Battlefront III was 99 percent complete before it was canned by publisher LucasArts, developer Free Radical co-founder Steve Ellis has said.

“It felt like we had turned a corner as a company,” Ellis told gamesTM magazine (via NowGamer). “We had had a dark period during the development of Haze, we’d had problems with our tech and we'd had some growing pains as we expanded to the size we needed to be, but it really felt like we were finally coming out of the other side intact.

“We were making a game with very high ambition. You could start a battle on the ground, jump into a ship and fly into space, continuing on to dock in a capital ship and continue the battle there. We’d had to build all kinds of new tech and overcome numerous technical challenges and limitations but we had done it.

“We had a 99% finished game that just needed bug fixing for release. It should have been our most successful game, but it was cancelled for financial reasons. I’m happy that people did at least get to see what we were working on and share the team’s enthusiasm for it.”

According to Martin Wakeley, a project manager at Free Radical during the time, the studio’s relationship with LucasArts was “becoming more distant” due to the studio’s change of direction.

“I wasn't party to all the ins and outs but we had both our games signed with them, and it became apparent we needed to look for other projects fast,” said Wakeley. “The management were very open and we were kept informed of all developments. We worked hard to try and get some projects signed but it wasn't to be. The writing was on the wall for a long time but people stayed loyal rather than jumping ship.”

via Gematsu.

I didn't realize they were that far into development. Wow.

[DarkVincent07]

This is absolutely fucking insane and depressing. Financial issues? it was 99% done just loose some money then put it to market. The game would have sold. Well.

[Blacksite]

Indeed. This game, as well as a Knights of the Old Republic III, would have made a pretty penny for LucasArts.

[Fijiandoce]

the tech looked 99% done, if i recall; there was some footage of what point battlefront 3 had reached. although functional, it had really low-res textures uneven framerate, bugs....

getting that final 1% would have taken an extraneous amount of time
i think it was Polyphony who showed how hard their team were working on their games' bugs. ie sleeping under their desks..

all the same, it is disappointing. i loved both 1 and 2!

[C-Carcharias]

Couldn't they have sought out community funding platforms to solve their financial difficulties? I'm sure if they had said, "here's what we've done so far with BFIII, we just need your help to finish it off" they would have been flooded with donations.

[DarkVincent07]

Couldn't they have sought out community funding platforms to solve their financial difficulties? I'm sure if they had said, "here's what we've done so far with BFIII, we just need your help to finish it off" they would have been flooded with donations.

Hopefully all the work they have done and assets will be put to use one day, even if they need significant enhancing due to tech changes. From the leaked videos it sounds like they had a very very solid foundation of the game and like Fija said, just needed lots of technical work

[Joe Zombie]

I would have loved to see this game come to fruition. The video I saw of it was fantastic, being able to fly into space IIRC. It looked like an enormous game.

[Blacksite]

Couldn't they have sought out community funding platforms to solve their financial difficulties? I'm sure if they had said, "here's what we've done so far with BFIII, we just need your help to finish it off" they would have been flooded with donations.

Well, they would have to announce the game first. But they might have disliked the idea of relying on the fans to help with funding.

[XMW]

LucasArts, stupid as fuck you are.

[T0PGUN]

fucking cock teases

[Lethal_NFS]

From the videos I watched, this does NOT look 99% finished. 70% seems more likely.

[podsaurus]

*sigh* R.I.P BFIII I could have loved to play you

[TDbank24]

What an absolute shame.

Star Wars: Battlefront III would have been awesome. I have no doubts about it.

[LfCpS3]

Lucas Arts can go and burn for all I care, they choose to make the same old crap that lasts for like 3 months and cater to the kinect than ACTUALLY make a game that is wanted by many people?

I bet if they do make it now, it will probably suck and feel so dumbed down to cater to your typical gamers now a days.

Really don't deserve the rights.

Right next to no Time-splitters this gen in terms of disappointment.

I would literally take TS or battlefront 3 over any game announced and released this gen ( except GTA)

[DreDayDetox]

The feels...

[Cybertox]

That is just stupid. Not releasing a game which was 99% completed.

[D3seeker]

damn

[LegendaryAim]

Oh man...huge disappointment. Two games I really were looking forward to were The next Bioware Star Wars game and Battlefront 3...imagine how I felt finding out that The Old Republic was a fucking MMORPG and Battlefront 3 was cancelled

[Bravo9zero]

Indeed. This game, as well as a Knights of the Old Republic III, would have made a pretty penny for LucasArts.

It pains me this game probably won't ever be made
Kotor 1/2 are fantastic games, imagine what they could be like on current hardware?