STAR WARS 1313: Inside the Cancelled LucasArts Game

In 2012, LucasArts announced Star Wars 1313. 5 months later, LucasFilm would be sold to Disney, LucasArts would close and the project would be cancelled. What happened to the project? Did it really star Boba Fett? And how did it connect to the forgotten Star Wars TV Show Underworld?
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Sources:
Force Unleashed Development
• Making of - Star Wars:...
Schreier, Jason. “Star Wars 1313.” Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, Harper Paperbacks, New York, 2017, pp. 249-272.
bookshop.org/p...
LucasArts and ILM: The Convergence of Games and Film
www.ign.com/ar...
Staff of Kings Beta Footage
• [PS3, 360] Indiana Jon...
Robilliard’s Story (mentioned in BS&P) 1:31:00
www.youtube.co...
1313: A Combined Lucasfilm
www.polygon.co...
Rodriguez resigns
www.ign.com/ar...
Blackman Departure
www.gamedevelo...
Lucas Arts
www.latimes.co...
Paul Meegan Departure
www.engadget.c...
Boba Fett
1313 Concept Art - Boba Fett
www.slashfilm....
1313 Unseen Gameplay - Battlefront Archive/Vault Project
• Video
Battle of the Sith Lords - Project Damage/Darth Maul Project Retrospective
www.gameinform...
Daniel Logan cancelled episodes
www.cbr.com/st...
Unfinished Clone Wars Episodes
• ALL Unfinished Clone W...
1313 Press Release
web.archive.or...
1313 Interviews
• Star Wars 1313 gamepla...
1313 Developer Diary
• Star Wars 1313™ Descen...
Is 1313 Next-Gen?
kotaku.com/e3s...
Preview - 1313 going for a mature rating and a grounded experience
web.archive.or...
George Lucas
The Beginning Documentary
• The Beginning: Making ...
Empire of Dreams
• Empire of Dreams: The ...
George on Selling LucasFilm
www.independen...
Disney and Cancellation
George Selling Star Wars
www.independen...
Lucas Selling 154 days after Disney’s Acquistion
techcrunch.com...
Disney Interactive loses
www.latimes.co...
LucasArts shut down
www.businessin...
Disney Shuts Down LucasArts, Fate Unknown
www.nbcnews.co...
Not necessarily killed by Disney
www.slashfilm....
“We’re not throwing anything away”
www.pcgamer.co...
1313 “was always in danger”
www.gamespot.c...
For complete sources visit luckstat.com
Get in touch here:
/ luckstatevan
/ luckstatevan

[@LuckStat]

Hey thanks so much for watching! I make a lot of videos about cancelled video games and recently covered the history of Battlefront developer Pandemic Studios, check it out here! kzbin.info/www/bejne/kKLbgaekebaMorcsi=PHmNUtR4bWpHjskR

[@rsotuyo15]

First the Halo MMO, now 1313. You're slowly adapting each game mentioned in Blood, Sweat, Pixels lol. In all seriousness idk if you have read it but its sequel, Press Reset, is really good. One game i think would work well for one of your videos is The Bureau XCOM Declassified, its development is so chaotic yet tragic.

[@LuckStat]

Definitely was hesitant to do this one because I didn't want to feel like I was repeating Schreier's work, but I felt it'd been long enough that I could give 1313 some extra context. I've got Press Reset but I haven't read it yet (maybe I'll pick it up when I'm running short on ideas 😉). XCOM Declassified is also on my list, actually! I'm not sure if it'll happen this year but it's one I've been wanting to cover

[@trentoatman2998]

There has to be an irony, while watching this video about the legacy of failed Star Wars development cycles, I got an ad for one of those Star Wars iPhone games.

[@LuckStat]

Oof. That’s really depressing actually

[@wildsheeppress]

This is so well done. I've been such a Big George defender my whole life. The older I get the more... nuanced that defense gets lol. (also that outfit at 9:27 is peak E3)

[@SJQVlogs]

Holy shit why does this only have 5k views its insanely good

[@LuckStat]

you're tellin' me! sharing's always a big help!

[@ChristianPierce]

this channel deserves a million subs, great video as always

[@Dass_Jennir]

LucasArts' fate really is a tragedy. A bit of an idealistic take; but one can only imagine what the current gaming landscape would be if Lucas' foothold in the industry was still here to push forward technology and concepts like they did in the 90s and early 2000's, and like how ILM still does for its own medium to this day.

[@LuckStat]

Definitely, their work with Euphoria (and its eventual use in GTA IV) is a great testament to that. But I also just miss their bigger multimedia projects like Shadows of the Empire. Feels like nobody is doing it like that anymore

[@nofacedgoldfish6216]

Friendly reminder that Iron Man had the power to un-cancel 1313 with just a snap of his fingers, but he instead used the Infinity Stones to turn Purple Josh Brolin into protein powder. It's all Tony's fault.

[@LuckStat]

You know what? I'm gonna say it then, I'm glad Iron Man's dead

[@nofacedgoldfish6216]

@@LuckStat So am I.

[@baki484]

What the hell are you on about?

[@nofacedgoldfish6216]

@@baki484 The joke is that Iron Man, when he had the Infinity Gauntlet, had the ability to do whatever he wanted, such as un-cancel the development of Star Wars 1313, but he didn't.

[@baki484]

​@@nofacedgoldfish6216 the joke doesn't work.

[@RetroActiveGM]

Selling Lucasfilm to Disney was a mistake. And I think Lucas knows it.

[@ghostwarrior3878]

Let's damn well hope so...

[@imbatman4905]

You can't resist to Satanic NWO big corporations.

[@Commander_Shepard.]

After his "white slavers" remark, yeah probably.

[@mattduplissey]

Idk $4B might be worth the price of anyone’s attachment to a franchise lol

[@Whatacomedian_]

What?!?! He was happy he swindled disney for all the money. He knew star wars was tapped creatively.

[@OrthrusPlays2500]

This channel covering about canceled games or games with a troubled/long development is really interested to me. Keep up the great work! I'd love to see you cover Beyond Good and Evil 2 in the near future, I feel like that would be an interesting video to watch!

[@LuckStat]

I’ve been kicking around a Beyond Good and Evil 2 video for longer than Luck Stat’s been around, actually. Always worried the second I make a video about it, they’ll release it

[@TheLastArchive]

Your videos are always well researched and well made. Keep up the great work.

[@tenshi2520]

I watch a lot of gaming journalism and documentary channels, but your videos always have so much information I never see anywhere else. Great work! 👍

[@LuckStat]

I really appreciate that!

[@trogdorrules]

I really wish that when projects like this get cancelled, the assets would get released to the public. One of my personal favorite projects that was cancelled was Prey 2. I would have loved to at least see or get to play some sort of build, even if it was rough. So much hard work done by these developers just disappears because of the suits.

[@ghettochicken8420]

any canceled star wars show/game gives me depression

[@LuckStat]

then don't click on this video (or do I'm not your therapist!) kzbin.info/www/bejne/r3etaZ-BnKujsLc

[@ghettochicken8420]

@@LuckStat aw man 😭 i know this ones gonna hit, watchint it right now

[@MattyStoked]

I will never not be sad that we didn't get this game, or the Underworld TV show. Incredible video mate, every one a banger ❤

[@LuckStat]

While 1313 hurts, Underworld still keeps me up at night. Still would've loved to see weird Lucas-era Star Wars on TV

[@PetrilloCinema]

Plain and simple. If George hadn't passed the torch to Disney, we'd be in an eternal Golden Era of Star Wars. That said, I will always maintain hope because of the success of projects like the Mandalorian, Andor, and Rogue 1.

[@LUKAS_956]

Only problem was the financial support for the projects

[@mercthejerk8945]

if star wars 1313 came out today it would probably be one of the biggest selling games ever

[@bingbong6837]

That piano at the end hit.

[@MidnightRayne]

16:37 And I still believe….where it still CAN be headed Edit: Seriously awesome jobs putting this together. Nice to see our childhood dreams still being remembered and protected. Their stories told

[@LuckStat]

Thank you so much! That's always the goal. It definitely feels like 1313 is on the minds of those who are developing future Star Wars games. Really think whatever Robilliard and Hennig cook up will be very close to 1313

[@ScottsGameAsylum]

That was a cool vid mate. I'm not the biggest SW enjoyer but a dark cyberpunky SW would have pulled me in. But of course, it's too edgy for the slop merchant's that want to reach the widest audience's, oh well!

[@LuckStat]

In another timeline this would've been a great Game Asylum review for sure. Lots of jokes about Jar Jar Binks and at least one instance of you calling David Cage a moof-milker guaranteed

[@aidnyan]

@@LuckStat hey that david cage star wars game is still set to come out(oh god)

[@el_chico1313]

i would like actually a story within the star wars universe that does evolve around protagonists completely detached from ur jedi rebel alpha team

[@hectormontes7056]

I’m so glad that EA exclusivity deal is over. I hear they’re shooting for 2 games a year, with Outlaws and Hunters being the 2024 games. Those aren’t amazing, but it marks the beginning of more Star Wars games from more people.

[@TheJiffy]

Impressive as always, Luck Stat. Quality content to aspire towards.

[@mightywilhelmi788]

just found your channel recently and I just wanna say I really like the stuff you cover. Even if its a franchise I hardly care about, its still very interesting. Keep up the good work man. Some of the most well formatted research I ever seen

[@TheBigGMan123]

They Cancelled "Star Wars 1313" for star wars outlaws? Yeah the Insane have taken over LucasArts.

[@LuckStat]

Well, not really. Lucasfilm Games (who controls the IP now) isn't a developer like LucasArts was, they're more of a manager of the license. Outlaws and 1313 cover similar subject matter, but would have been very different games set at different times.

[@420Pila]

Just imagine the astonishing success it would have been a cyberpunk open world game on the Star Wars universe.

[@Grandtemplar305]

Would of been perfect

[@vMadMatt]

I hadn't ever heard this was supposed to be gears like, would've been cool to see how it turned out/aged Also, fuckin George Lucas man

[@LuckStat]

I feel like he comes across extra chaotic in this one

[@patrickbyrne5070]

Lucas has always been an idiot and bad filmmaker. Most good ideas werent his or he ripped them off. The prequels were a dull mess. Empire- objectively the best movie- he didn’t even direct. He doesn’t even understand the world “he created”. Because he didn’t. And went onto scupper and destroy many great ideas that could’ve put many great Star Wars experiences out there. Personally I’m sick of the whole franchise and Disney has nailed the coffin. But I was always curious about 1313 and this was a well made vid. Cheers dude

[@LuckStat]

I appreciate the kind words, for sure. I think Lucas is always a very polarizing figure, and my relationship with his work has always been kind of complicated. Over the years, I think I've come to accept that at bare minimum he was very good at giving experts in their respective field the tools they needed to innovate. Ben Burtt, John Knoll, that first ILM crew, Pixar, the EditDroid team and so on got their starts under Lucas and would go on to change how movies were made and experienced. Doesn't mean he always makes good movies by any means, though, and it definitely doesn't mean his decisions were always great, especially towards the end there.

[@Person-wz6iy]

The original protagonist was named Rak Jarren.

[@adalbertoorellana7232]

So years later we got to see alot of this in the Mandolorian show including the concept of Boba finally killing Bane

[@LuckStat]

It's like I always say, "nothing at Lucasfilm is ever thrown out"

[@ad7799]

Wish they leak the build someday...

[@thenationaltimelyactionhou9328]

Great video dude, I wish we got 1313.

[@drag0nh4wk]

This game is the Star Wars Outlaws that we never got, sadly we were given another steaming pile of Ubisoft copy and paste crap instead.

[@paytonmagana8674]

I sometimes feel a small spark of hope that maybe one day these projects can be revived or adapted into something else resembling what it was supposed to be in the first place, I’m hopeful is all I can say

[@LuckStat]

Very curious about what Skydance New Media does. I don't think the story is definitively over

[@Wuke321]

fav channel covering one of my fav games

[@LuckStat]

damn fav comment

[@JustGeorgiaxD]

I didn’t know it was a boba game 😭 makes me want it even more

[@dexterello]

Would love to see a similar video about the canceled Prey 2

[@LuckStat]

You're not the first to say this, actually. It's on the (admittedly pretty long) list!

[@CheeseWorks-vj4yi]

Great work as always Evan.

[@LuckStat]

Really appreciate this, Cheese

[@TheTyper]

8:22 - "They're friends!"

[@LuckStat]

Singlehandedly the wildest George Lucas story

[@devollo98]

Can you talk about the cancelled Traveller Tales' The Hobbit videogame? It would be interesting know more

[@LuckStat]

I'd not heard of this, actually. It looks really cool, not sure I could uncover much more than what's already out there but I'll definitely add it to the list.

[@pale_lad1252]

Still hoping this can come back one day. LucasFilms still has access to the trademark, and the higher ups have to know fans want this badly. If not a revival of this at least a spiritual successor.

[@EinfachNoah]

selling star wars hurt it soo much

[@corriedotdev]

How odd for this to appear just as I hearing about the story in the blood and pixels audio book. Crazy! Game legit looks great like.. damn genuinely a loss

[@Hellfire1862]

They canceled it because they’re tired of making old characters famous that is the reason they did that Disney does not want old characters anymore. They want to come out with these new characters and the new characters are just total shit.

[@anthonyyoutubefan7567]

To this day, I wish/hope We get Lucas' multimedia initiative of SW: Underworld, SW: 1313 (be it about a brand new bounty hunter or Boba Fett), which was supposed to tie in with the Coruscant Nights trilogy of books. Even the video game, Ragtag seems interesting. Once, StageCraft/The Volume was created, I don't understand why Kennedy & Co. didn't attempt to relaunch Lucas' series, instead of green-lighting something like, Andor. Then again, it seems Kennedy (and Disney) very much wanted to do original things, without being connected to George Lucas' plans and ideas...which makes absolutely NO SENSE. Thanks for the distillation, Man.

[@LuckStat]

I sort of get the impression that its more developed pieces did get used in places and repurposed at least in some way, again the Rogue One connection and I think the feel of Andor sort of started from there but yeah, it's weird nothing more has been seen. I know that writer's guilds are very protective of who made what characters and returning to those 50-odd scripts would mean paying those writers royalties (this is why ILM's John Knoll has a writing credit on Rogue One), plus that time period getting really busy in the new canon and the way it sounds like little regard was given to the budget of the episodes all kind of pile on to mean that what was actually usable would involve rewriting, repurposing and potential legal headaches for a true post-buyout Underworld project. That being said, I would give almost anything to read even a single script from that writer's room.

[@ares12351]

How does this look better than outlaws in like every way?

[@Retrohut305]

Holy crap why doesn't this video have more views

[@LuckStat]

Buddy, I don't know (Appreciate the support, sharing's always a big help!)

[@joshc4570]

I cant believe we got UBI's trash Outlaws over this. Lucasarts/Disney have never had an idea of how to handle the video game side of the IP

[@Thomas-Bradley]

Imagine a GTA-like game set in a Star Wars Universe! Why has no one thought of this again?

[@LuckStat]

While I know people haven't been super satisfied with it, I think this is kind of the pitch of Outlaws. It would be so cool to rampage through Coruscant, though!

[@aidnyan]

no wonder star wars cant seem to move past memberberries, lucas himself was doing it

[@Krondon-SSR]

that was wilson bethel? Man i looved him in Daredevil S3

[@stinky_mustard]

Perfect analysis of the game i hope we can see it in the future we deserve a game where were not a stupid character with a silly pet i would have definitely been alot happier if star wars outlaws had character customisation not just being a boring human lol

[@mooviedude141]

Here after reading blood Sweat and pixels.

[@ManicOnTheBeat]

So they cancel this game but give us shitty OUTLAWS

[@gimmeyourrights8292]

This game and the cancelled Darth Maul would've been so cool if Lucas didn't keep interfering.

[@TriggerJim88]

There are disney+ shows that feature some connection to the complicated web of crime syndicates in the universe? Which ones?! Are we watching the same shows?! I haven't seen crime syndicates featured in anything Disney+. I've seen em miss the mark every time, but a featured connection?!?

[@LUKAS_956]

They really should’ve made the show and the game instead of selling out the IP 😢

[@nexus8917]

Everything....just gone...

[@tiggytheimpaler5483]

I love george but holy shit he really should have just let the gamers make the games. I do like the idea of a deep legacy game happening after the Krayt Empire stories of Darth Talon using an army of cloned dead sith or something

[@Dass_Jennir]

Yeah. It wouldn't surprise me if he, as an outsider, thought game development was still like in the mid 90's by the time he took interest in LucasArts again. Otherwise, I don't see how he could have thought his ever-changing demands feasible. A shame, really. I would have loved to see what LucasArts could have made with George's imput properly given.

[@Drrck11]

Star Wars 1313 would have made for a good TV series.

[@TriggerJim88]

Lame that they tried to cram boba into it.

[@_Emerald_Eye_]

11:50 game name?

[@LuckStat]

Republic Commando! Highly recommended, think Rainbow Six meets Star Wars

[@zackeryparkerson]

Big George. Lol

[@LuckStat]

I started saying this ironically and haven’t been able to quit

[@TheNickwars11]

tbh can't stand george lucas for this decision... could have easily dropped out and still own star wars... he ruined the franchise and for what? money... money he didnt even needed as he was already very rich before selling to disney...

[@LuckStat]

It wasn't about the money. Lucas donated the majority of money to charities surrounding K-12 education

[@LeoNordic]

Damn Disney!!!🤬🤬🤬

[@margiebazanmab]

Gears of starwars

[@Kable472]

I think George Lucas only cares about the money not his fans and his hard work

[@kaior1]

He explains why he sold it

[@baki484]

Weren't people on his case going on about how much they hate prequels? I'd stop production altogether or sell it to an corporation like Disney and washed my hands of it as well.

[@baki484]

​@@kaior1 Why did he sell it?

[@Khainite]

We could have had a cool bounty hunter game with Boba Fett but instead we got fucking Outlaws. Truly this is the worst timeline for Star Wars.

[@Luis20189]

It completely baffles me that George, didn’t care at all giving hope to original main characters and pretty fucking scummy of him to force the development rearrange everything to focus on boba. Don’t get me wrong if we got it today with boba fett name on it, I wouldn’t complain, it is what it is. But I would still prefer Wilson bethal character.

[@baradmemarkermani2184]

I think it would be better than outlaw 🥲 I loved 1313

[@baki484]

Not difficult outlaws is garbage.