Earlier today we posted the news that due to a license agreement expiring between THQ Wireless and Star Wars IP owners LucasArts, the iOS title Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner [$2.99] would no longer be available in the App Store after the end of this month. This also led to strong speculation that all THQ published Star Wars games would need to be removed as well.
We got this information from Kotaku, who since posting their original story had sent word out to all parties involved for further clarification. Earlier today they received confirmation from THQ that indeed all Star Wars games would be getting pulled, then just a few short hours later they were told the exact opposite. In a response email sent to Kotaku, a THQ Wireless spokesperson stated “All Star Wars apps will be available until further notice”.
Personally, that response doesn’t strike a ton of confidence in me that the Star Wars apps won’t be pulled sometime in the future. But for now, it seems that they’re safe. Josh Shabtai of Vertigore, the studio that created Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner, is trying to push forward with his planned updates for the game which include an iPad 2 optimized version (the game doesn’t currently work properly on that device) and a Battle for Endor expansion. Vertigore is currently waiting to find out if they’ll be able to release these updates.
Likely after this story made its way around the ‘net THQ realized that there could potentially be some bad PR fallout from pulling those games, so have tentatively struck a deal with LucasArts to keep them around. Kotaku is currently awaiting an official response from the LucasArts folks, so I guess this could still all take a turn for the worse should they decide against this latest turn of events. We’ll keep you updated if we find out any new information on this situation.
[via Kotaku]
