In what would appear to be a response to former Free Radical head Steve Ellis' claims that Star Wars: Battlefront III was 99% finished when it was cancelled by publisher LucasArts - an anonymous former LucasArts employee had some rather harsh remarks about the development at Free Radical Design, describing their practices as resembling "Ponzi schemes".
What really went down during this time at Free Radical Designs is hard to tell, but they were obviously struggling when developing Haze - and it's not unreasonable to assume the development on Star Wars: Battlefront III suffered as a result. In fact, it is highly likely. However, what the LucasArts source is describing sounds a lot like embezzlement.
Below are some choice comments by the anonymous source:
"In December 2007, Free Radical still did not have simple AI working in levels. For much of 2007, Xbox 360 builds simply did not work. Initially, Free Radical claimed it was a US/UK kit difference, but when we asked to FedEx one of their working machines to the US for a build review, they declined."
"At this point [in 2007 with Haze slipping, Battlefront III in development and Timesplitters 4 being pitched] , I felt that Free Radical was akin to a Ponzi scheme where time and budget from the next game was being used to finish the previous, late, title."
"The quality of the game [Haze] was extremely alarming to us. Free Radical insisted that the delays were to ensure the game was a gem with 85+ review, but that was very clearly not the case."
"The failure of Battlefront III was tragic for everyone involved, not least the fans. There's a lot of blame to go around and many different perspectives. I won't though let Steve Ellis whitewash the part that he and Free Radical played. I'd suggest that everyone keep this as something tragic to muse over with a beer rather than throwing stones in public."
Steve Ellis sticks by his previous claims that Star Wars: Battlefront III was near complete when cancelled (with only 3-4 weeks of critical bug removing left) in a statement to Gamespot.
The full report, including Steve Ellis' response to these later claims can be found over at Gamespot. The truth probably lies somewhere in between...