LucasArts Rumor #2: Monkey Island 2 SE

It's been a while since I last posted a rumor mill article, and surprisingly I hadn't yet posted about what is probably the biggest rumor going around. That rumor involves LucasArts creating a special edition of Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge in the same vein as their Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition.

The rumor is beginning to pick up steam, with the release of issue 70 of the UK magazine Retro Gamer. This month's magazine has a Monkey Island cover, a retrospective on the series, and new interviews with Ron Gilbert, Dave Grossman, and Steve Purcell.

Even more exciting is that inside the article, Retrogames wrote this tidbit about future special editions:

As for the future, that will depend on how the current projects perform. But with The Secret of Monkey Island topping the Steam and XBLA charts, and Tales proving to be Telltale's most popular game in its history, we're confident that the story hasn't finished yet. Monkey Island 2 Special Edition is inevitable, and we're told by our friends at LucasArts that next March might be a special month for fans.

I'd also like to point out that not only has the Monkey Island SE been performing well on Xbox 350 and PC, but that it has also been selling well for the iPhone.

Another quote that hints towards a Monkey Island SE release comes from the ever helpful Laserschwart in the Mixnmojo post about this rumor. Retro Gamer contacted Laserschwart to get his permission to use his cleaned up version of the Monkey Island 2 artwork. Laserschwart had this to say about Retro Gamer's comments about his request:

Interesting side note: The Retro Gamer guys told me that when they went to get the okay from LucasArts to use the MI2-artwork, LucasArts was actually concerned about that, because - as they put it - "they haven't released Monkey Island 2 yet". Sounds like it's going to get a definite re-release... question is: will it be an SE?

As to the power of this rumor, I'd have to agree with Retro Gamer's comments that a special edition of Monkey Island 2 is inevitable. Whether the March timeframe is accurate or not remains to be seen, but it's pretty clear we'll be seeing a high resolution presentation of Guybrush's second adventure some time in the near future.