Star Wars The Force Unleashed, LucasArts' first current-gen adventure in the post - Hayden Christensen saga, has been slowly lifting its curtain over the past few months as we've gotten word on a release date and more. The Wii version's Duel Mode has been getting its fair shar of press lately, and the PSP/DS's wi-fi play is sure to notice soon; but the multiplayer component for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions (which was pseudo-confirmed nearly a year ago), has been on media blackout.

If what a LucasArt's PR rep is saying is true, there's a reason why: it doesn't exist. Speaking to Total Video Games, Adam Khan (great Jedi name, by the way), senior PR manager for LucasArts said that due to the fact that the Wii and handheld versions of The Force Unleashed have some sort of head-to-head offerings, the Euphoria-based Jedi experience on the HD consoles will be missing out.

To be specific, there's no multiplayer in the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, because there is on the Wii, PSP, and DS. As far as specific reasons are concerned, we don't really like to get into the reasons why we don't do things because I don't think there's really a satisfactory answer that people would really be happy with. So, there isn't multiplayer and that's kind of how it is...

I'm sorry...WHAT? Does that make sense to anyone else? There's no multiplayer on PS3/360 because it exists on the other platforms? That might sound ridiculously stupid to some, and that's because it truly is. I can understand there not being an online component to the game if it's because of the technology (the game uses a combination of Euphoria, Digital Molecular Matter and Havok), but because it just simply wasn't developed out right...even though it was already sorta kinda announced (and fully hinted at)? Let's hope that this was some misunderstood statement, and clarification arrives soon, or I sense that quite a few sales for The Force Unleashed were just lost. Either that, or LucasArts is really hoping people will buy this game twice. 

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majorbromly said:

Wow, not even coop? It's not as if it's a deep emotional game like Bioshock. It's freakin Star Wars.

May 15, 2008

CooperativePeon said:

Wha, wha, what!? No multi player on the consoles that are more conducive for online multi player gaming? I guess Nintendo dug deep in their wallets to get this kind of online exclusivity.

May 15, 2008

furio311 said:

nintendo didn't need to pay anything. This is a way to get the hardcore to buy both versions of the game. You want to have control of the lightsaber with your wii controller and online play and additional levels, buy the wii version. You want HI Def buy ps3/xbox360 version Another game recently announced different versions for the xbox360/ps3 and the wii/ps2 versions. I don't remeber what game it was, it was talked about on allgames podcast in the past week...and it was believed it was to get consumers to buy both versions.

May 15, 2008

CooperativePeon said:

I'm not sure if I agree Furio. Most consumers, if they purchase the game at all, will only purchase one version. Since they are not pursuing online abilities with PS3 or 360, they are limiting the sales to these platforms. I'm sure Star Wars titles will still sell, but this action my limit the titles potential. The developer/publisher is not interested in hardware sales, so only placing online for one hardware (or company of hardware) does not seem to be their best interest. On a smaller budget title, I can see this being a resources issue; but, this shouldn't be the case in a LucasArts title.

May 15, 2008

Phil said:

The issue here is not that LucasArts may or may not be secretly wanting to push extra copies...it's that the multiplayer component for the PS3/360 version was already confirmed to be intact more than a year ago when the game was announced. Way before the Wii/PSP/DS versions were even talked about. Couple that with the fact that they've said both jack and shit about it since then...something happened.

May 15, 2008

furio311 said:

well what is your speculation that something happened? Do you feel nintendo coughed up money, or that they ran into problems running it on next gen online with the the high end graphics, framerate and good net code running smoothly.

May 15, 2008

Phil said:

To be honest....I really don't think Nintendo has enough money to convince a developer to ONLY make an online multiplayer mode for the Wii and DS, over what they could do on PSN and Xbox Live. Most multi-platform developers would tilt their heads and laugh at that notion. As for the PSP version....go figure. All versions outside of the "next-gen" ones aren't being done by LucasArts anyway...so that's irrelavent. I haven't got the slightest clue what happened. But I've got some emails floating around so hopefully I'll get an answer or two.

May 15, 2008

CooperativePeon said:

Detective SempraFi is on the case!

May 15, 2008

furio311 said:

good news semper

May 15, 2008

placenta said:

honestly i don't think multiplayer would have made a difference in this game. take assassin's creed for example wow no it didn't get the best reviews it's a single player story could they have done multiplayer sure. would it feel tacked on most likely. a game like this i want a good story and fight mechanics not a wanna be soul calibur or if you've actually looked at the wii multiplayer appears to be nothing more than a masters of terras kasi. yea that was a great game wasn't it.

May 15, 2008

Bionic92 said:

I don't think multi would have worked with this game. It probably would have been just a last minute thing and been rushed.

May 15, 2008