Another day, another teaser for a Spike Videogame Awards premiere.

This time, it's for an upcoming Star Wars game. Since no real information is given about the title, and only recycled footage from prior games in the franchise is shown, you may as well not watch the video.

You know what that means: speculation time. I'm willing to bet this will end up being a new Battlefront game. Even though the fate of Star Wars: Battlefront III has been questionable with the fall of Free Radical, LucasArts would have gotten back the rights to the project. Hey, it could happen.

My next guess would be a follow-up to The Force Unleashed, since so much energy was spent on the crazy-ass engine for that game. And my third, borderline-impossible-but-I-can-dream-anyway guess is another Rogue Squadron game.

If you're excited about the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic, you may have a chance to get your hands on the MMO early -- Shacknews is reporting that beta signups are now open. The process sounds fairly standard: fill out your information, upload a DxDiag file, and sit around and wait hoping that you're chosen to participate.

LucasArts has said that there will be a limited amount of people accepted (big surprise), and that the earlier you sign up, the better your chances are of being chosen. In order to register, you need to make an account at the website and select 'pre-release testing option' from the account page.

What are you waiting for? Go sign up here!

Who likes the Star Wars Jedi Knight games? A lot of people, apparently. I'd be willing to bet if you started up Jedi Academy right this second, you'd be able to find a match online. Then again, the same could be said of quite a few Star Wars titles that have an ongoing following so many years after launch.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Steam has added the Jedi Knight series to its massive collection of downloadable games. The games are pretty affordable individually, but you can also get them all for $19.99 and save yourself a few bucks as always.

In other Steam/LucasArts-related news, there's a great promotion happening now. For $9.99, you can be the proud owner of LOOM, The Dig, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and The Last Crusade. Uh, can I get a "hell yeah"?

Star Wars Galaxies isn’t dead -- far, far from it actually. Earlier this week developer and caretaker Sony Online Entertainment announced that it plans to kill over ten servers because the MMO’s player base is so damn lively and energetic. And it was all a part of a glorious plan. Apparently, SOE has been allowing players to transfer their characters (for free) to other, more populated servers. As a result of the mass migration, SOE now has a license to pull the plug on the less populated servers.

But, oh no -- plug-pulling is not a bad thing. This is Star Wars Galaxies we’re talking about here. Playing the MMO is like touching God’s face or watching a butterfly spread its wings for the first time. It’s beautiful and glorious and wonderful.

The servers -- twelve total -- will be killed on October 15th at 5 PM PDT. Thirteen servers will remain from the original amount. If you were wondering why exactly this is good news, check out this official statement:

"Due to the overwhelming success of the recent Free Character Transfer Service, we want to inform you that on October 15, 2009, at 5:00 PM PT, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) will close the following 12 Star Wars Galaxies servers."

"The Free Character Transfer Service launched earlier this year with the intention of allowing players to transfer to servers with more active communities, creating a more vibrant and memorable Star Wars Galaxies gaming experience. The Free Character Transfer Service was a phenomenal success, leaving the less active servers in an undesirable position. In order to help streamline the current and new user experience, we have made the decision to close the less active servers and focus on the thriving Star Wars Galaxies servers."

The names of the servers -- if this concerns you -- is listed below the fold. We know all of you care deeply about this game, so be sure to check it out.

[via G4TV]

view full story + comments

The Star Wars: The Old Republic subscription model -- or lack thereof -- is still being worked out. In a conversation with GI.biz at gamescom, LucasArts head honcho Darrel Rodriguez said the studio is considering several different MMO models reflective of the way people in other territories play.

“Yeah, we're considering it all, absolutely,” Rodriguez-san said. "You start looking at how different communities, territories such as Asia, actually play games, and we start to consider it all - especially if we want it to be a worldwide phenomenon."

Regardless of model, Rodriguez believes TOR will be around for a long time. He believes the IP being used for the game -- as well as the game’s quality -- will keep the MMO alive.

"I think the indicators are subscriptions and ongoing interest,” he said, “but just related to the IP in and of itself. So it's a 30-year-old IP and we anticipate that the IP and the quality game that we're making here is going to continue on for a very long time.

"We talk about the business curves of subscriptions, interest and investment it takes to make these games, but at the end of the day it's about making a compelling offering for our consumers,” Rodriguez said.

Good point, but there is something more compelling than an MMO where players can use flashy blue things to hack limbs. It’s kittens. (Puppies are so yesterday.) We haven’t asked LucasArts if TOR has kittens, and we probably won’t. Frankly, we’re afraid the studio will quit talking to us if we ask.

One of the few good Star Wars titles is now available for digital download. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic -- an RPG developed by LucasArts and BioWare -- can be purchased on Direct 2 Drive, IGN Entertainment’s digital download service, for roughly ten bones. A small price for a bangin’ game.

An even tinier price tag is available for registered users on The Old Republic Web site. Until September 15th, Direct 2 Drive is running a promotion that nets all TOR registered users, including new ones, a 25 percent off coupon towards the purchase of KOTOR. The coupon won’t hit inboxes until the 18th, though.

It is also available on Steam.

KOTOR is a good way to waste a lazy holiday. I spent countless hours grinding Sith baddies and exploring the story. If you haven’t played KOTOR, go go go. This thing is worth your time, even if it may seem aged by today’s radial menu standards.

[Update: Forgive me. I was working from an old -- and by "old" I mean a day -- press release here. KOTOR is also available on Steam and considering it's post-3:00 in the afternoon, everywhere else as well.]

Two of my favorite things about videogames are, oddly enough, concept art and unreleased or cancelled games. I like thinking about how games get made, and it's fascinating to sort through the ones that failed along the way. Actually playing unreleased gems is secondary -- they're more interesting to think about and look at. To that end, Unseen64 has some concept art for Star Wars Battlefront IV which was, at one point, in development Chez Crytek UK (formerly Free Radical Design).

Before its demise (and subsequent assimilation by Crytek), Free Radical was supposed to have been working on Battlefront III, but LucasArts reclaimed the rights when the company went into administration and it's currently somewhere in development hell. The fact that concept art was being created for Battlefront IV during development for III suggests, to me, that Free Radical's economic troubles came as something of a surprise. 

While we may never see Star Wars: Battlefront IV (or, hell, even Battlefront III), feel free to feast your eyes on some art from what would have been Dagobah and Genosis, as well as a few vehicles. Here's hoping that, at the very least, Timesplitters 4 makes it out of this mess alive.

[Via GameSetWatch]

One of the greatest travesties mankind has ever committed on itself is having let adventure gaming's prime run its course without a LucasArts Star Wars adventure game using the SCUMM engine being created. It just doesn't make sense that the company who created Star Wars and also dominated the adventure gaming scene didn't make an adventure game based on Star Wars. Thankfully, we have the fans, and they will achieve where LucasArts failed.

Stacy Davidson is one such fan and she is bringing the world Han Solo Adventures, a classic-style adventure game that uses Adventure Game Studio (basically an early version of the SCUMM engine) to pull off the classic look of LucasArts' 80s and 90s adventure games. The game is loosely based on the early life exploits of one Han "I shot first" Solo and will pull from available information, but mostly feature made up fan stuff. The game will be free when it is done and is strictly a labor of love for Davidson so it would be nice if LucasArts lets it slide.

The trailer above gives a little insight into how the game will work, however the final version will not have dialog as Davidson won't be recording voice talent. That trailer was actually part of another Star Wars project, but it's still enough to get your point-and-click trigger finger twitching.

If a report is to be believed, we may be playing Star Wars: The Old Republic next year. French fan Web site Star Wars-Universe is reporting that the ambitious MMO will drop in October 2010. In the piece, the release information is said to come from a Lucas Arts source person. That part might not be true.

Speaking with Destructoid, LucasArts senior PR manager Adam Kahn confirmed that a release date has yet to be announced. He also mentioned no one tied to the project announced a release either.

“There has been no release date announced for The Old Republic, from anyone related to the project,” Kahn said via e-mail.

Of course, the game could launch in September 2010. That part of the larger question Kahn, understandably, didn’t clarify. But whenever we do score the delicious details, we'll let you know.

[via Massively]
 

Now that this thing is officially live, publisher can start flooding the Avatar Marketplace on Xbox LIVE with all sorts of neat (yet useless) promotional crap. Case in point -- today, BioShock 2, Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes, Gears of War 2, and Splinter Cell: Conviction items hit the Avatar Marketplace.

Available in the BioShock 2 store are items like a Big Daddy doll, or a Big Daddy helmet. The Star Wars: Clone Wars store can hook you up with a Clone Trooper costume, or you can go the simple-yet-sophisticated-route with a blue lightsaber. Splinter Cell fans can get some skin-tight, leather espionage outfits... if that's your thing. Each store also has its share of branded t-shirts, some of which we're hoping we can buy "IRL" somewhere down the line; the designs are that cool. 

Of course, be prepared to spend some money -- nothing is free. If you want the full Star Wars look, you'll have to buy the Obi-Wan Tunic and Lightsaber as separate items, which cost 320 and 400 MS Points, respectively. Consider carefully if Avatar cosplay is worth nine dollars. 

Also live are Quicksilver, Addidas, and tokidoki (OMG so cute!) stores. Check out some images we grabbed off-screen in our gallery and after the jump.

view full story + comments

Three Star Wars-licensed SNES titles are headed to the Wii. Downloadable versions of Super Star Wars, Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, and Super Star Wars: Return to the Jedi are all slated to hit the Wiiware in the “coming” weeks. According to official release, each title will be priced at 800 Wii Points

The first title in this videogame trilogy, Super Star Wars, is available today.

If that isn’t enough Star Wars for you, give the “Check Mii Out” and “Everybody Votes” channels throughout the week. Nintendo and LucasArts have paired up to produce themed-content -- polls and Mii lookalike challenges -- for the channels.

Super Star Wars is so forgettable, we forgot about it. But memories of Empire Strikes Back-induced controller slinging are flooding back. Let’s hope those passcodes still work properly.

Microsoft’s latest Deal of the Week is stellar. People who missed the first batch of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed downloadable content can now download the “Jedi Temple Mission Pack” for 400 Microsoft Banana Dollars instead of the usual 800 Microsoft Banana Dollars price. According to Major Nelson’s math, that’s a fifty percent savings on the fictional space content. See? Stellar.

The “Jedi Temple Mission Pack” features the mysterious Sith apprentice. The dashing lad is looking for information about his father in the destroyed Jedi temple. According to the official blurb, the secret apprentice is forced to confront “his inner demons.” Oh, Star Wars.

This DLC debuted in December 2008 and we’re guessing if you enjoyed the The Force Unleashed, you probably already purchased this thing. If you did, give us the low-down. Is it worth the reduced price?

LucasArts has a several secrets it hasn’t shared with the citizens of Earth, but it does plan to give fans and press the dirt soon. In an e-mail sent to San Diego Comic-Con attendees, the studio behind Secret of Monkey Island: SE and a plethora of Star Wars titles teased that numerous Star Wars-related exclusive announcements would be given at its "Star Wars Spectacular keynote."

The e-mail says simply, “there will there will be several world exclusive announcements at the Star Wars Spectacular keynote.”

As citizens of Mumbo-Jumbo-Prime (that’s short, the human tongue can’t pronounce our proper name), we can confirm that this is indeed very hot information. Earthlings will want to be reading Destructoid the very second when LucasArts finally makes this information available to to them.

[via Joystiq]