Josh Shabtai: THQ's Star Wars licence expiring

Vertigore Games' Josh Shabtai has said that Falcon Gunner, the augmented reality iOS title which his studio developed for THQ, is to be pulled from the App Store as a result of the end of a licensing agreement between THQ and Lucasfilm.

Writing on his personal blog, Shabtai revealed that Thursday, March 31 would be the last day to buy the app, due to a winding down of the licensing agreement. He also intimated that he believed this could be the case for all Star Wars titles across iOS devices.

"I wish it were up to us," writes Shabtai, "but unfortunately, our license to make Star Wars games was predicated on our amazing publisher THQ Wireless' arrangement with the Lucasfilm folks, and that seems to be winding down. (At the risk of speaking for other developers, it sounds like this may also be the case across the board for all Star Wars iOS games.)

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't sad. Especially when I knew what we had planned: An awesome iPad 2 version. An Android version. Visual interaction in AR mode."

Elsewhere in his posting, Shabtai also suggests that at least one of the Vertigore titles which has recently passed the Apple submission criteria will be in 3D.

"I cannot wait for people to get their hands on these new games," he writes, in reference to an earlier point. "Five words: stereoscopic 3D on an iPhone."