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As of this morning, Disney has completely shut down LucasArts and canceled all internal projects including Star Wars 1313 and Star Wars: First Assault.
Disney released the following statement:
"After evaluating our position in the games market, we've decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimizing the company's risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games. As a result of this change, we've had layoffs across the organization. We are incredibly appreciative and proud of the talented teams who have been developing our new titles."
The closure effected around 150 LucasArts employees and buried the memories of those who remember LucasArts as a powerhouse developer in the late 80's early 90's. LucasArts has had a hard time finding its way recently, and after being acquired by Disney in the recent Star Wars deal there have been rumerations that the development studio was on shaky ground. I've written myself that though Disney was happy with its purchase of the Star Wars IP, they probably wanted little to do with the risky and convoluted video games market.
This is truly the end to an era. Our best wishes go out to all those affected.
Update: 11:14am
Speaking to Game Informer, a LucasArts representative has stated that there is still a possibility that outside publishing may be brought in to complete ongoing projects like Star Wars 1313.
"It is worth noting that we are looking for proven external partners who can help us provide video games to our fans. We still believe in the video game industry, we still will provide Star Wars games, we're just looking at different models rather than internal production... They're evaluating everything. There's always a possibility that it [Star Wars 1313] can still come out via licensing."
Comments
11 years, 7 months ago
Aww thats a shame. I always looked forward to a time when Lucas arts reclaimed their gaming throne! :(
11 years, 7 months ago
And thus Star Wars 1313 goes down in history as one of those games that looked so great, but will never come out.
I'm not a huge fan of Star Wars or LucasArts games but this is still sad news.
11 years, 7 months ago
Does this mean no more monkey island games? Man I'm bummed out, hope those workers find work soon.
11 years, 7 months ago
"we've decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model"
So what does this mean really? Disney still owns all the IPs, they'll be just using outside studios for development, correct?
11 years, 7 months ago
YOU SHOULD'VE MADE THAT WII LIGHTSABER GAME.
11 years, 7 months ago
This was my biggest fear when I heard that Disney bought out Star Wars. With the all the recent news lately I almost expected it but it's still shocking to hear it actually happened. Really sucky news this is.
11 years, 7 months ago
"while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games."
If "quality" means less of the Kinect dancing and force-hand waving I'm kind of for this decision.
It sucks to see 1313, and more importantly all of the jobs gone. There was a lot of video game history with LucasArts. Maybe there are more Lego Star Wars-esque titles on the way... By unfortunate effect this also probably means more "Star Wars: Kinect Lightsaber Duels" (now with more voice commands!) getting easily licensed out because it's a trendy way to make a quick buck (see Wii shovelware).
11 years, 7 months ago
If Lucasarts was still as talented as they were back in the day, this might have meant something.