(re: Sam and Max 2 Cancelled – Ken Comments?)
With Sam and Max 2 I figure it went like this: they would have been able to finish development in a few months as scheduled at no great cost and the game would have been profitable. However, Star Wars games, even bad ones, are more profitable. From a short-term financial perspective Lucasarts made the right decision in shifting all of that labor over to a more profitable Star Wars game (which is what I assume happened – nobody was laid off). Obviously though the fan backlash has been huge…we’ll see how much longer people will keep buying any crap Star Wars game.
I’m actually a bit upset that Lucasarts published Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, which got and still gets rave reviews. I’m going to wind up buying it soon, and wish it wasn’t them who put it out (development wasn’t done by them though).