Free Radical dev responds to Battlefront III allegations

Former Free Radical co-founder Steve Ellis wants to set the record straight about the canned Star Wars: Battlefront III and its role in his studio’s collapse.

Last week Ellis said Star Wars: Battlefront III was “99 per cent finished”, in an interview with Now Gamer.

A former LucasArts employee who wished to remain anonymous then told GameSpot the failure of Star Wars: Battlefront III was largely due to mismanagement at Free Radical.

“This 99 per cent complete stuff is just bullsh*t,” the ex-employee said. “A generous estimate would be 75 per cent of a mediocre game.”

The ex-employee also claimed the developer took resources away from the first half of Battlefront III’s development to finish Haze, which was released in 2008 and was unable to make certain deadlines.

Now Ellis has released a statement to GameSpot in response to those claims. He admitted that Free Radical was “not perfect” and made mistakes, but asserted that “third-parties had a hand in our failure”.

He said it was “nonsense” that he tried to cover-up the part that he played in Battlefront III’s failure. He also denied the source’s allegation that Free Radical was, at a time, akin to a Ponzi scheme.

Ellis said when Haze was delayed, publisher Ubisoft increased its budget for the extra development time, and hence it was not necessary to use LucasArts funds to develop Haze or any consequent title.

Read Ellis’ full statement on GameSpot.