Free Radical vs. the Monsters

[maxy]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-05-04-free-radical-vs-the-monsters

If things weren't bad enough, Haze soon had another problem. Ubisoft had agreed a deal with Sony whereby the game would become a PS3 exclusive in return for significant marketing support. "I have a tremendous amount of respect for Derek Littlewood," says Haze's project manager Martin Wakeley. "Because it became exclusive late in the project. And to be quite candid, it had never really ran on the PS3."

Haze was released in May 2008, didn't receive the all-out marketing push than Sony had promised, and received a critical kicking, though with hindsight it's a game that, while flawed, is far from the disaster people say. Regardless, it didn't sell - and by now Free Radical had a much bigger problem.

 


Gaming industry is just like any other industry,a giant pile of turd.

What a shock

Good read

[Eel O'Brian]

in hindsight it is still a pretty shitty game

[Momo]

[Brehvolution]

I wonder if Korn was embarrassed.

[cool breeze]

lol I was playing the haze demo the other night.  I have a folder on my PS3 with ryu ga gotoku kenzan, iron man, and other random demos I never deleted.

It's pretty bad.  I remember first playing the demo years ago and gaining a new appreciation for Halo 3.

Conceptually whole juicing mechanic is cool.  Juicing gives you strength, speed, better visibility, and other benefits.  You can stay high for longer by holding down the button; if you hold too long you can overdose and go crazy.  Each time you juice the bar fills up quicker.   But it all feels shallow when you’re playing it.

[Joe Molotov]

Derek Littlewood

[Stoney Mason]

Nice read.

It's a shame nobody made a battlefront game this gen.

[Fifstar]

Yup nice read. I liked the part how they developed Timesplitters 3 and EA didn't want to put marketing behind it because they had a shitty Goldeneye game in the pipeline.

Personally I always felt that Timesplitters was kinda overrated. No game after the original Goldeneye, be it from Rare, Free Radical or elsewhere came close to it.

[Stoney Mason]

Yup nice read. I liked the part how they developed Timesplitters 3 and EA didn't want to put marketing behind it because they had a shitty Goldeneye game in the pipeline.

Personally I always felt that Timesplitters was kinda overrated. No game after the original Goldeneye, be it from Rare, Free Radical or elsewhere came close to it.

The problem with Timesplitters was the sp was just filler and it was before online mp got really big on consoles. I think they just had the absolute worst timing.

[Stoney Mason]

Nice read.

It's a shame nobody made a battlefront game this gen.

What a major Lucas Arts fuck up.

Free Radical said that Battlefront 3 was just about done and they began initial planning for Battlefront 4. Lucas Arts had a change in management so they backed out, they then went to another studio (I think it was Saber Interactive) LA backed out again and Slant Six was making BF3 and data for it was on the Operation Raccoon City disk. Not to mention that at some
point Rebellion was in the mix too. I think the last studio that was rumored to be working on it was Spark Unlimited.

Lucas Arts has been fucked up forever unfortunately. How you have all those licenses and do almost nothing worthwhile with them tops Sega in my book.

[Fifstar]

True about the multiplayer part, I'm just more of a singleplayer person. Who knows, they could have hit it big with a Timesplitters this generation, although it's visual style obviously is very different from the big successful games.

[Bebpo]

Everytime this article comes up somewhere people concentrate on Haze & Ubisoft.

Don't get me wrong, I think Ubisoft sucks, but in this case it seems more like Lucasarts are the jerks that killed Free Radical.  Haze problems seemed like a speedbump, but despite it they were still on track and doing well as a studio with multiple major projects from Lucasarts.  It was Lucasarts being a horrible publisher and Free Radical being unlucky with not getting the Goldeneye contract that killed them.

[Bebpo]

Nice read.

It's a shame nobody made a battlefront game this gen.

What a major Lucas Arts fuck up.

Free Radical said that Battlefront 3 was just about done and they began initial planning for Battlefront 4. Lucas Arts had a change in management so they backed out, they then went to another studio (I think it was Saber Interactive) LA backed out again and Slant Six was making BF3 and data for it was on the Operation Raccoon City disk. Not to mention that at some point Rebellion was in the mix too. I think the last studio that was rumored to be working on it was Spark Unlimited.

It's also worth nothing that this story in the OP has been debunked by multiple sources from within Free Radical themselves as well as Lucasarts employees.  Apparently Battlefront 3 was nowhere near being done at all, and the game was dropped when Free Radical starting telling Lucasarts they couldn't do some of the features in the initial pitch (like space -> earth transition battles) and Lucasarts begun getting nervous about the project being a mess and in development hell, so they cut their losses and ran instead of sinking a ton more money and time in to finish the game and a ton more money into advertising it.

From what I've read on gaf, it seems like the story in the OP has truth to it, but the guy is exaggerating and bs-ing to make it look like Free Radical were the victims and everyone else screwed them over with them doing nothing wrong and just having bad luck.

[Stoney Mason]

Any rationale person realizes there are two sides to every story. This was his version from his position. Of course Lucas Arts or other people will have a different position. The truth is generally never black and white and usually in the middle somewhere.

Of course Lucas Arts in general are no saints themselves and their horrible track record proves it. The same could probably be said for Free Radical.

[Verdigris Murder]

I lol'd at the pictures of Vin Diesel and Blade bit.

[Stoney Mason]

Of course there are two sides. I never indicated that there wasn't. I'm just saying that LucasArts fucked up. Battlefront was incredibly popular (you can still find games on the PC version of BF2) They've had so many developers on this one project but it can't get done? Come on. It's not like their quality bar is incredibly high for games so they must be fucking up pretty hard.

My post was aimed at bebpo. Not you.