Articles

SAM N MAX 2:

THE MOST IMPORTANT GAME OF THE 2004 E3

By Randy Sluganski

So, was the recently cancelled Sam n Max 2 at the 2004 E3?

Of course it was and its influence was unavoidable. In fact, it was probably the single most talked about adventure game of the E3.

Its whispered name smoldered in the air and hovered over the E3 like a heavy sigh. Small developers wondered aloud how their project could succeed if a company as influential as Lucas Arts had no faith in the genre; large developers capitalized upon the cancellation as an excuse to justify the demise of their own poorly managed projects.

As I appeared on a live radio show that was coincidentally situated across from the Lucas Arts meeting room, it seemed that everyone who passed made mention of the cancellation as they walked by the Lucas Arts meeting room.

In fact the cancellation may have led to a new phrase being coined for when I asked Funcom if there was any chance that Dreamfall – The Longest Journey sequel – might “pull a Lucas Arts,” the developers laughed and responded with a resounding ‘no,’ never asking for any further clarification as to what I meant.

As for Lucas Arts, they were in attendance and had both convention hall security and a Star Wars storm trooper guarding their entrance (seriously!). Like a child, I spat in the general direction of their door, if nothing else it made me feel a little better.

The once influential and mighty Lucas Arts did though have at least five thousand Star Wars games on display (okay, it was only five) and they all could have been the same game with different names and no one would have been the wiser. It seems that their days of leading the industry in creativity and innovation are just a fading memory.

Twice during the 3-day event, I found myself standing in a line behind attendees whose name tags identified them as Lucas Arts employees. Both times I initiated a conversation with others in the line about Sam n Max 2’s cancellation, my voice just loud enough for the Lucas Arts employees to overhear. They seemed to almost involuntarily cringe whenever Sam N Max was mentioned, or maybe it was just hopeful wishing on my part.

But rumors and innuendo were the course of the day as stories we heard from reliable sources the first day of the show snaked around the convention center and were then repeated to us by other sources the final day of the show.

Now Just Adventure has never been a site to post rumors and we have, in fact, allowed ourselves to be scooped many times as we wait for factual evidence or a press release.

But just this once, let’s indulge the rumor mill. After all, what Lucas Art did was not fair to the adventure community or even the entire industry for that matter.

Now we will not reveal anyone who spoke with or where we may have overheard any rumors or innuendos, but you are adventure gamers after all, let your imagination go wild:

• At the time of its cancellation, Sam n Max 2 was anywhere between 85 – 95% complete. But Lucas Arts was unwilling to allocate further money to development costs.
  
  
• Game packaging and marketing were expected to add millions more to the budget. While most companies do not even spend that much on game development, Lucas Arts does not understand the meaning of word-of-mouth advertising.
  
  
• Lucas Arts legal rights to the Sam n Max characters expire in one year, at that time the rights revert back to the character’s creator. What happens then is anyone’s guess.
  
  
• Lucas Arts may offer the game for sale to some interested parties, while this is highly unlikely, there are supposedly groups of investors attempting to purchase the code.
  
  
• If Vivendi’s Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude is successful, then Lucas Arts may reconsider and release Sam n Max 2. Nothing more humbling than riding the coattails of success of another company.
  
  
• There are reports that those who have actually played the game claim it was fantastic. Of course these glowing reports may actually just be efforts to discredit Lucas Arts by further tarnishing their reputation – if that is indeed possible. It would be too easy to claim the game was horrible and buggy, for then the uproar over the cancellation would seem justified.

So now let’s play devil’s advocate and state that the cancellation of Sam n Max 2 was the best thing that could have happened to the adventure genre.

Consider the following – if Sam n Max 2 would have been a financial flop or even if it had even just broke even, it most certainly would have been the death knell for the adventure genre. After all, if the mighty Lucas Arts could not market a triple ‘A’ adventure title, then what smaller companies would be willing to even take a chance? Now, not only will we never know and can only speculate, but numerous developers and some publishers are determined to prove Lucas Arts wrong.

It is rumored that several ex-employees of Lucas Arts are now interested in developing their own properties. Now instead of one blockbuster game, we may have quite a few smaller, high quality games that would revitalize the entire genre and attract attention from the mainstream.

Lucas Arts has lost touch with the adventure gaming public as is evident by their cancellation of Sam n Max 2 and a Full Throttle 2 game that was more fighting than adventure. They became lazy and complacent and were resting on their past laurels. As other large companies have come to realize that specialty sites like Just Adventure are invaluable in today’s marketplace, Lucas Arts is still using a marketing plan that is ten years behind the time by throwing away advertising dollars on sites and magazines that haven’t been read by adventure gamers in years and expecting a game to sell half-a-million units in a depressed pc games market.

Adventure games are not, nor have they ever been, blockbuster products. They are what is known in the industry as ‘evergreen’ games because they sell month after month for years, steady but never spectacular yet in the long haul many of the games show impressive sales figures. But unfortunately, all that matters in today’s marketplace are the sales figures for the first two months as retail space is at a premium and slow but steady is no longer welcome in the industry.

So what was the most important adventure game at this year’s E3? Well, if you haven’t guessed by now, it was Sam n Max 2.