Anthony Reed reveals that LucasArts and Transmission Games were well on the way to doing a remake of the dogfighting classic.

Currently the CEO of the Game Developers Association of Australia, Anthony Reed has a long and quite incredible history within the video games industry, working with Sega, Interplay, Virgin Interactive and more in a career quickly approaching 30 years. During that journey, he spent four years with Melbourne developer Transmission Games, where he was marketing director when it closed down in 2009.

During a recent interview on theGamehugs podcast with Guy "Yug" Blomberg - content manager at PAX Australia - Reed discussed in detail the demise of Transmission Games. And by the sounds of it, the developer was close to working on a title that would have made many Star Wars fans very happy before its doors shut. As it turned out, the developer’s final game would be Heroes Over Europe for PS3, 360 and PC, a WWII dogfighter and a sequel to Heroes of the Pacific that further refined the team’s flight combat chops. Yet that game had caught the attention of LucasArts.

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During the interview (read the transcript below), Reed reveals that Transmission Games and LucasArts were deep in conversation about doing a remake of the classic Star Wars dogfighter, X-Wing vs. TIE-Fighter. Released on PC in 1997, it was developed by Totally Games and is fondly remembered for doing a stellar job of making players feel like they were battling between the stars in a galaxy far, far away. It was also something of a pioneer for online multiplayer experiences that weren’t an FPS.

It remains unexplained what the “something terrible” was that led to the remake being cancelled, but it wasn’t alone on the chopping block. It was around this time that LucasArts also cancelled a promising looking, and reasonably far into development, Indiana Jones game – yet inexplicitly greenlit Kinect Star Wars. As it is, gamers can only lament the loss of what would have been a warmly received remake of a cult classic. And Disney, if you are reading this, it’s not too late for X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter HD!