Del Rey resurrecting classic STAR WARS novels with new art and audio editions

Del Rey is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Lucasfilm by launching Star Wars: The Essential Legends Collection, a reprint of classic novels from the old Star Wars Expanded Universe line with new artwork and new audio editions.

The first three books in the range are Heir to the Empire (1991) by Timothy Zahn, Shatterpoint (2003) by Matthew Stover and Path of Destruction (2006) by Drew Karpyshyn.

Heir to the Empire was hugely important as the first Star Wars novel to launch the Expanded Universe fiction line (although a number of 1970s and 1980s-published novels were later retconned and in some cases rewritten into the line). The novel, set five years after the events of Return of the Jedi, introduced the iconic characters of Grand Admiral Thrawn and Mara Jade, the Emperor's Hand, and introduced factions and ideas such as the New Republic and the city-planet of Coruscant. It was the first novel in The Thrawn Trilogy. The new cover art is by Tracie Ching.

Shatterpoint, sometimes cited as the best-ever stand-alone Star Wars novel, focuses on the character of Mace Windu and sees him tracking down his missing former padawan shortly after the outbreak of the Clone Wars. The novel was highly praised for giving more texture and depth to Windu than his fleeting appearances in the prequel trilogy films. The new cover art is by Jeff Manning, with a brand-new, unabridged audio adaptation by Sullivan Jones.

Path of Destruction, the first book in the Darth Bane series, tells the story of Darth Bane, the Sith Lord who restructured and reorganised the Sith following millennia of defeats into their later "Rule of Two" incarnation. The cover art is by Simon Goinard.

The three books will be published on June 15th. It is unclear if more books will be added to the range.

Wizards of the Coast hires ex-BioWare alums to found new video game studio

Wizards of the Coast and their parent company Hasbro have established a new video games studio, Archetype Entertainment. The have gone all in on recruiting former BioWare stalwarts to work at the studio, which will focus on single-player computer roleplaying games.

In the initial setup phase they recruited James Ohlen, the creative director and lead designer on Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Dragon Age: Origins and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, along with Chad Robertson, the former BioWare Austin studio director (where he worked on The Old Republic and Anthem) and technology engineer at Mythic Entertainment.

The latest recruit is the highest-profile: Drew Karpyshyn is one of the best-known writers in the video game business, having worked on Baldur's Gate II and its expansion, Neverwinter Nights and its expansions, Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2. Controversially, despite taking the narrative lead on the first two games in the trilogy, Karpyshyn was pulled from working on Mass Effect 3 to work on online game The Old Republic instead, something some fans have criticised given the badly-regarded direction Mass Effect 3 took at the end. Karpyshyn also worked on Anthem, but left BioWare during the process, citing a dislike of how corporate the company had become and its shifting focus away from single-player, character-focused RPGs to open-world and multiplayer designs, which he felt did not fit BioWare's history or focus.

The team at Archetype are, surprisingly, not working on any of Hasbro/WotC's existing IPs like Transformers, Dungeons & Dragons or Magic: The Gathering. Instead, they are developing an all-new science fiction CRPG with a focus on choices and consequences.