Haden Blackman, executive producer and writer of The Force Unleashed and The Force Unleashed 2, resigned from Lucasarts yesterday. He had been at the company for thirteen years.
Judging from a brief statement given to the press, Blackman and Lucas' parting is amicable:
"I've had a fantastic time working with the team at Lucasfilm and am really grateful for their ongoing support," Blackman said in a brief statement.
"While the decision to leave LucasArts did not happen overnight or come easily, I really feel that now is the best time for me to move on and explore new creative challenges and I look forward to the next phase of my career.
The departure won't affect development of tentpole release Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2. The game is still slated to come out in October, and still features Boba Fett:
Blackman will join other recent top LucasArts execs like ex-president Darrell Rodriguez who recently left the company for greener pastures back in May. The frustrating thing about executive employment shuffling is that "fans" will probably never get the real stories of what's going on behind those boardroom doors. These suit-dudes are way too smart/cagey to go blabbing their internal secrets to mere mortals.
Comments
Displaying 1–12 of 12
Tim_1138
So we know this for sure, TFU 2 will have just as awesome of a story as the first, and the probable third will either have a terrible story, or Blackman has already written and they will butcher that.
Variand
Great... That means that Julio Torres is now in charge of TFU2. People will remember him as the Project lead for Tatooine and Hoth mission DLC Fails. And his main claim to fame, the Epic and Complete raping of the Star Wars Galaxies game.
I hate that guy, and after he cost LA tons of money in monthly subscriptions with SWG, why would they let him continue to touch high dollar games like TFU series?
hathur
That was a..... poorly.... written headline.
starwarsfans
I would speculate that if there is someone resigning from LucasArts, there is room for 1 more person there. I would like to offer my services to LucasArts to support the release of The Force Unleashed 2, and other future releases of other products. I am a Senior QA Analyst with 14 years of Software Testing experience. Best Wishes to Mr. Blackman and his future endeavors.
macross2012
Sounds like the company wrote this letter. Why would you leave an amazing job like this..
LIES
Dufase
I dont believe he resigned. TFU was his dream! His baby! he got a frickin award from the first game and heavily implied a third! Why would he back out right in the middle of it all? He got laid off, or got pissed at the new president! Nobody ever leaves right before your big dream is about to come true!
GreedyMcNasty
Sorry about that MR.BLACKMAN. Good luck in finding another company to futher your .........?
Maybe you can start your own company and make games that look and feel like star wars but have the blood and gore of MK.....wait never mind Gears 3 has got that covered.
well good luck.
Dirtyj78
Smart move for him I think- I don't care what others say but SW:TFU was a great game and now he is going to have credit on a great sequel. He's done the SW think and done it well, now he needs to move on to somewhere else where he can do other great things cause lets face it- SW is Lucasarts only cash cow and they are going to milk it forever.
Completist
@ Prax
Win. :)
Prax150
Lucasarts fired a blackman? RACIST!
Why13
Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy???
Completist
That truly sucks. But good luck in your future endevours, Mr Blackman.
Displaying 1–12 of 12
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