Telltale Vs Lucas

edited March 2007 in General Chat
March 2004, the famous anticipated sequel to the Sam & Max Hit the Road was cancelled by Lucasarts for good, and all other adventure game plans have been put on hold until further notice. A late comment came from Lucas officials late last year saying they will get back to the adventure games in 2015!

Fans went mad, petitions started on the internet, and even the Lucas employees who were working on the game felt frustrated. A group of the employees heard the cries, quit Lucas and started what's called today Telltale games back in June 2004. They have managed to acquire the license for the abandoned Sam & Max and already released two episodes which were well accepted by the fans.

Now, and after 3 years and a half, I thought of making this comparison between the small Telltale, and the Star Wars fueled Lucasarts. The first thing I tried was how often people Google for one over the other by using Google Trends.

telltale_vs_lucas_trends.gif

Lucas are still in the lead, but as it is properly called Trend, you can see end of 2006 how Telltale closed up on Lucasarts. This was when Sam & Max Ep. 1 was released. A clear message from the fans to Lucas I suppose. Also, you can see below the difference from Alexa for Reach and Rank:

telltale_vs_lucas_alexa_reach.gif

telltale_vs_lucas_alexa_rank.gif


Daily Reach has still a huge gap between the two, though at every Sam & Max release this gap gets a lot smaller. If we look at Ranking it gets much more interesting. At Nov and Jan, when the two Sam & Max episodes were released, the 3 1/2 years old company, living on the forgotten and leftovers of Lucasarts beats Lucas in ranking! Now that Lucas are out of new Star Wars movies, and Telltale still gathering up their forces, there could be a real turn in situation here. I don't believe Lucas will start losing, no. But their sales may get affected now without new Star Wars fresh movies coming, and may really consider appealing back to the fans they turned their back to.

On the other, I take off my hat and salute all the people at Telltale for their continuous and hard working efforts that really seem to be paying off. They have won the fans heart and loyalty in a way that with every release, we customers face serious issues launching the game, and can still feel the sense of humor between fans and the company. How could a company like this fall I wonder?

And before someone sues me for copying it from another source, this is from my blog but I wanted to save people the trip back and forth.

Comments

  • edited January 2007
    Ha, very nice!
  • edited January 2007
    great analysis! :) :)
  • MatMat
    edited January 2007
    lucasarts really lost on this one. it used to publish the best adventure games out there... (maniac mansion, zak mckraken, sam & max, the dig etc)

    today lucasarts is only making big buck$$$ by squeezing out their favorite franchise. shame shame
  • edited January 2007
    Coming to a PC near you! Star Wars (TM) backgammon! Buy now and get a FREE copy of Star Wars (TM) snakes and ladders for the kids!
  • edited January 2007
    I remember star wars chess when I was a kid if that counts.
  • edited January 2007
    Star wars monopoly ruled.
  • edited January 2007
    Oh yeah, I have the Attack of the Clones Monopoly as well... the Force bit was nice, but it couldn't prevent a boring game from ending up being boring after a while...
  • edited February 2007
    It's really sad, Lucasarts made me so happy for years, now all they'll put out is Star Wars games, I like Star Wars, but it's getting frustrating, I was endlessly happy to hear about Sam and Max coming out, now I hope and prey every day that Telltale can get ahold of Monkey Island, Full Throttle, and Grim Fandango.
  • edited February 2007
    Silly Bob wrote: »
    now I hope and prey every day that Telltale can get ahold of Monkey Island, Full Throttle, and Grim Fandango.
    How awesome would that be?!
  • edited February 2007
    I just dread to think that LucasArts might make a Monkey Island / Star Wars crossover to squeeze all they can from the franchise.
  • JakeJake Telltale Alumni
    edited February 2007
    I'd play that.

    I'd cry myself to sleep at night while biting down on my closed fist to stem off the tears, but I'd play it.
  • edited February 2007
    Star Wars Galaxies: Scabb Island encounters
  • edited February 2007
    Insult lightsaber duels
  • edited February 2007
    I have nowhere better to post this.
  • edited March 2007
    Silly Bob wrote: »
    It's really sad, Lucasarts made me so happy for years, now all they'll put out is Star Wars games, I like Star Wars, but it's getting frustrating, I was endlessly happy to hear about Sam and Max coming out, now I hope and prey every day that Telltale can get ahold of Monkey Island, Full Throttle, and Grim Fandango.

    I could pay at least a hundred bucks for a new Grim Fandango^^
  • edited March 2007
    numble wrote: »
    Insult lightsaber duels

    Dark Chuck: I... am you father Threepwood.

    Guybrush Skywalker: How appropriate. You fight like a cow.

    But at least its Monkey Island, kind of...
  • edited March 2007
    I think it`s sad... Lucas arts made quite some great titles in the DOS age.
    But they don`t seem to want add any stories with great epicness. They just keep beating on one single dead cow in hopes it`ll still give milk... They should at least get a new cow, or revive the old carcass..

    Starwars was great at it`s first 3 titles, nothing could beat that. But then.. well, the last 3 movies were full of special effects but still felt like a ripoff... except maybe the first of the 3.

    I wonder why they don`t make at least RPG`s anymore. I mean, a game with a story `n such.
    Sam&Max doesn`t have much of a story, but the game`s hillarious and it`s more the story`s presentation that makes it epic. It`s not hard to make a short story long, it`s harder to do it while keeping it grande. I respect that.

    I`m wondering, will TellTale also try to revive Day of the Tentacle?
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