Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
When "Rogue Squadron" was released in early December 1998, the title's Nintendo 64 incarnation was the second-highest-selling video game for the first half of the month (behind Nintendo's "") and the holiday season. PC Data, which tracked sales in the United States, reported that "Rogue Squadron" sold 584,337 units and earned $29.3 million in revenue by the end of 1998. This made it the country's ninth-best-selling Nintendo 64 release of the year. Delayed until after Christmas in the United Kingdom, the game was released mid-January and debuted as the second-best-selling game of the month, ahead of "Ocarina of Time". In August 1999, Nintendo added the title to its best-selling Player's Choice collection, while the PC version was re-released as a part of the "LucasArts Archive" Series in May 2001. "Rogue Squadron"'s retail success was not anticipated by the game's producer Julian Eggebrecht, who said that the game sold "about 100 times better than anybody expected". The Nintendo 64 version sold over 1 million copies in the United States, and over 44,000 in Japan.
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
During the early stages of development, the designers at LucasArts were inspired by "Rogue Squadron" and later "", a series of books and comic books set during the years of the original film trilogy. They began developing the story and gameplay with a similar setting that would include characters from the films participating in new, original missions using Factor 5's terrain map engine as the base. In May 1998, a demo of the game was displayed at E3, but the game was so incomplete at the time that Tosti considered it a tech demo. It rendered a basic heightmap and an immobile AT-AT model, while TIE fighters lacking artificial intelligence flew and fired in a predetermined path. When "playing" the demo for audiences, Tosti followed a very specific flight path of his own to give the illusion that he was actually battling with the TIEs. Despite the demo's barebones presentation, response from gamers was largely positive.