What's new with SW lately? Is it dying?

[MrFilthyIke]

A Clone Wars Sourcebook was announced at GenCon this year. Christopher Perkins mentioned going to the Ranch to meet with the Lucasfilm people and read the script/see animatics so the book would be able to cover Episode III as well.

This sounds most like the way a business arrangement might work between the two..just my 2 cp's

 

[Ranger REG]

What do you mean by that? Should Chris Perkin be influential enough to contribute to the film's story in order to make it ... "game" friendly?

AFAIK, such business arrangement have existed before, with the coming of OCR and RCR (which have new material extracted from Episode II: Attack of the Clones film). I have heard many of the Wizards' writing staff made frequent visits to Skywalker Ranch.

 

[DarkSoldier]

I tell you what I am amazed at is the lack of Clone War supplements. From what I have read from other sources, they had video games, books and even animated shorts to tell the stories of the Clone Wars since the third movie takes place at the end. I am suprised they didn't have WotC put out products that pertained to the Clone Wars.

I might be wrong, since I don't folow it that closely. However, I haven't heard anything that pertained to this time period that is going to come from WotC.

When Lucasfilm authorized the first of the "Expanded Universe" products, the big warning was "Don't touch the Clone Wars." Whatever the Clone Wars were, George wanted to keep them for himself, so he could tell it how he wanted to.

Now, thirty years after a hologram of Princess Leia mentioned the "Clone Wars," we're finally getting down to what that terrible period in galactic history actually was.

Ep3 takes place at the end of the Clone Wars (and, coincidentally, the end of the Republic), and I believe that the events of the Clone Wars are playing out in "real time," as in the war lasted three years, so all the EU stuff is focusing on those events.

Also, WotC's license says they can only put out four Star Wars products per year; they're probably working on the Episode 3 book (maybe titled Clone Wars and Rise of the Empire?), or at least writing an outline of what's going into it. All I know is that it will most likely see release in May 2005 (alongside the movie itself).

 

[Paul_Klein]

WotC's liscense states they have to put out 4-6 books a year.

We can expect the next Star Wars book in March with Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds, followed by Ultimate Adveseries in May.
Also planned for this year is the miniatures game and the Clone Wars sourcebook.

As to WETA and ILM, Peter Jackson and his producers met with George Lucas and his producer at Skywalker Range so Lucas could show them how to do Pre-Viz anamactics (basically CGI storyboards) as ILM were pretty much the people who pioneered that technology with the Star Wars prequals.

 

[Banshee16]

Personally, I don't think the Clone War have started yet. We've only seen the precursor to the war between the Republic and the Secessionists.

All other who have started on the "clone war" bandwagon are probably making non-canon products at the blessing of Lucasfilm. Wizards wants to make their product more canon to the film since they will provide information extracted from the movies, so they won't second-guess nor spoil what will happen in the third and final Prequel film (besides the obvious Anakin-turning-into-Vader stuff).

The best you'll get is more information about Geonosis: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=products/swrpgacc/888870000

The Clone Wars end at the start of Ep 3....I remember reading that....

Banshee

 

[bubbalin]

Well, there's at least one customer eagerly awaiting more star wars rpg books.

and besides, how many games really have that much publicity a while after they're released. Look at Buffy, while they're still doing stuff for it, the publicity has dropped off a bit.

 

[Ranger REG]

Actually, I'm more concerned about Eden's commitment to their d20 Odyssey line than their other wares, since this is a d20 thread.

The latest product they've released is Field of Blood: The Book of War, a d20 product for fantasy roleplaying games.

I'm not worried about Wizards. I'll only worried if the product release date have come and gone, and there is no word -- no communication -- from Wizards. I don't like the company silence, the way TSR acted during their financial problem in the 90's.

 

[bubbalin]

hehe, that was a bit before my time, so I don't know what you're talking about.

But I would say that the silence might partially be because there is nobody left to make the media statements.

 

[Ranger REG]

Most gamers don't know nor care to see the business side of gaming. To be aware of it ... well, they sort of brings them back from the reality they're trying to escape using games as their vehicle.

 

[bubbalin]

No, I'm interested in the business side of the rpg industry, because it doesn't take away anything from me. It's not exactly my reality or financial problem, and as such I don't worry about it.