[jjacob]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/17/te...in&oref=slogin

An excerpt of the article (click on the link for more):

SAN FRANCISCO — In September 2004, Jim Ward met with the director George Lucas at his office at Skywalker Ranch near here. At the time, LucasArts, the video game company created by Mr. Lucas in 1982 and run by Mr. Ward, was in disarray. The division was making too many mediocre "Star Wars" games, it was rife with internal rivalries and it was in such lackluster financial shape that bonuses for employees were scrapped that year.


Mr. Ward, a veteran Lucasfilm marketing executive who had been named president of LucasArts only four months earlier, was there to present Mr. Lucas with a business plan, but he had a few questions of his own. Most important, did Mr. Lucas have the desire to turn LucasArts into one of the top five video game publishers? Indeed, Mr. Lucas said, he did.
"We can do this ourselves," Mr. Ward recalled Mr. Lucas telling him. "We will put our resources behind this."

LucasArts is not No. 5 yet. But last year it ranked No. 8 in sales, up from No. 13 a year earlier, according to the NPD Group. And, Mr. Ward, 46, is being credited with a turnaround. While No. 8 may seem low in an industry obsessed with No. 1, LucasArts got there selling a fraction of the games its competitors did.

The success was buoyed by two new "Star Wars" games, Star Wars Battlefront II and Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith, which were the second- and third-top-selling games last year, after Madden N.F.L. 2006, according to NPD. And LucasArts had a hit with Mercenaries, a war game published by LucasArts and developed by Pandemic Studios that became the best seller based on a new property. And there are more non-"Star Wars" games on the way, including one based on the Indiana Jones character.

Analysts and others in the industry agree it is a promising turn for LucasArts and, in particular, Mr. Ward. But his most challenging days may be ahead. The video game industry has been in the doldrums for months; video game sales are lagging as consumers wait to buy the next generation of consoles, including the PlayStation 3.

And perhaps most important, Mr. Lucas has no plans to make any more "Star Wars" movies. That means LucasArts will have to work that much harder to come up with ideas of its own. "We are not the 'Star Wars' game company," said Micheline Chau, president of Lucasfilm. "And Jim knows what he has to do."

While the games division makes up about 25 percent of overall revenue for Lucasfilm, Ms. Chau said, it accounts for only 10 percent of the company's operating profit. This is why one of Mr. Ward's main goals is to create original franchises.

"The 'Star Wars' brand is a massive advantage, but they are going to have to market new innovation," said John Riccitiello, a partner at the video game investor Elevation Partners, who has known Mr. Ward for several years. "It's early. It may take another five years for their story to develop, but it is going to be interesting."

Looks like LA has finally embraced the idea of exploiting every possible aspect of Star Wars for all eternity Perhaps I'm wrong, but I doubt this will be much more than a mediocre "action-adventure".

edit: oh and the Darth Vader bit for you lazy people

Their excitement was palpable on a recent afternoon, when Mr. Ward, Mr. Hirschmann and Haden Blackman, the project leader of a forthcoming "Star Wars" game, reviewed all of the company's recent projects. Mr. Blackman outlined a new storyline that delved deeper into Darth Vader's history.
Mr. Hirschmann later demonstrated a test game, shouting and jumping each time a storm trooper tumbled onscreen, the character barely catching his fingers on the pixel ledge. And he gleefully explained how researchers had tracked down images of San Francisco buildings from 1915 for the future Indiana Jones game.