Gamasutra Interviews LucasArts President

Gamesutra has an interview with LucasArts President Darrell Rodriguez "On 2010 And Beyond". They talk about all kinds of games-related LucasArts things, but there are a few bit about The Old Republic as well, which I'll quote here:

You've worked with some obviously strong partners to bring some of the Star Wars game in recent years, like Krome. Do you hope to continue those relationships or are you staffing up to sort of bring back control of your products in-house?

[Darrell Rodriguez]: We're doing both. So, we're definitely growing internally, like I mentioned. And we'll also have phenomenal partnerships. We've got a great partnership with BioWare on The Old Republic, one of the best partnerships that I've personally worked with. I love working with Ray on a personal level, Ray and Greg, and we'll continue to look for those opportunities.

How closely do you work with BioWare? They have a very robust creative process that they're bringing to the project. Is it more approvals, or do you support them when they have questions about the lore, that kind of stuff?

DR: We work with them very closely. We work with them very closely on marketing, on the voiceover, on content in the game. BioWare, yes, they are brilliant at what they do, and they've got a great team and a great process, but it's much more than approvals. There's a great back and forth and great communication.

Unlike most MMOs, it's going to be a deeply story-driven one, so I would imagine that it's just a very important process to make sure that it stays consistent with the established parameters of the universe, right?

DR: Yeah. And that's the beauty of the Star Wars universe, that it's infinite. We can look at different timeframes within the Star Wars universe, which is what the Old Republic was.

Do you have people on site at BioWare Austin, or is it more of a conference call kind of situation? How does it work?

DR: There's a lot of frequent flyer miles, back and forth between both teams. Honestly, BioWare's here today. They're here today. We're reviewing a lot of stuff. The game is looking phenomenal. I'm actually extremely pleased with how it's coming out.

Nothing really new there, but perhaps nice to see a bit about how the relationship between BioWare and LucasArts is.

Though the other questions aren't directly related to The Old Republic, follow the link for the entire interview if you're interested.


[link] to interview with Darrell Rodriguez at Gamasutra.