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.