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]
Contest:
9:00 PM on 09.02.2009
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It sounds like they clearly intended to milk the franchise and spread content out between the sequels, instead of focusing on delivering a really great #3.
I've been hoping for a SW Battlefront 3 since that "teaser" video released a last year. It had this ground to air to space thing that made me jizz. This is just the worst cock tease. Seriously LucasArts, get on that shit, I would buy it.
I guess I am disappointed that the franchise was closed but if it kept following it's current path (sort of like Lord of the Rings Conquest did) then I don't really miss it all that much.
10 million people bought Battlefront One and a metric shit ton bought number two. Just bring back the series I love... please. PLEASE! *drops on knees pleading and weeping*