Star Wars 1313 was officially announced at E3 2012 (albeit behind closed doors), but we’ve yet to hear anything from LucasArts since then.
Nearly a year later, we understand that LucasFilm was busy being bought up by Disney, but we wonder about the fate of the ambitious game.
1313 is actually a story set in the seedy underbelly of Coruscant, below the planet’s surface. You play a bounty hunter in this very dark world, filled with bizarre but memorable characters, an incredible city brought to life by its crime, and the bizarre depth of the world you play your role in.
But Star Wars 1313 is a big game. It’s clearly not established to be a smaller, short play through, nor is it just a blip in the Star Wars franchise. Which is what has us worried.
It’s been about six months since we’ve heard anything concrete about the game, and while that’s not super unusual from a typically secretive company like LucasArts, we can’t help but wonder of the game’s fate. Will it be pushed back to the next generation of consoles or will development continue and the game will be released on our current-gen systems even though the new ones will be out by the time we get to play it? We’re expecting the latter, actually, and while that might push development even longer, we don’t want to see the game disappoint.
Gameplay in 1313 looks absolutely phenomenal. In addition to cover mechanics a la Gears of War and physical takedowns a la Splinter Cell Conviction, we see not only massive force jumps, but also incredible depth in weapon style. This already looks like a next-gen game, so maybe the jump won’t take as long as we think.
We’d say that we expect Star Wars 1313 to show its face at E3 this year, but for some reason, we just don’t see it happening. It won’t be another behind closed doors event if it does show up. It’s either full blaze ahead, or hiding away at LucasArts HQ while the rest of the gaming world is in LA. We’re not sure why, but we expect the game to peek out much later in the year, if not until 2014. We know the game is called 1313 which could have signalled a release date of March 1st, 2013 (1/3/13), but let’s be real people; not happening.
Until more information about Star Wars 1313 does come to the surface (see what we did there?), take a look at the trailer setting the mood for the world you’ll play in below. When it does launch, expect it on Microsoft’s and Sony’s platform (whether current- or next-gen), as well as PC, though nothing has been confirmed as yet.