Disney shuts down LucasArts

[Quadstriker]

From Destructoid

"Disney has today announced that it's decided to close down LucasArts as a game studio, transitioning it into a "licensing model." This effectively means that LucasArts is dead, likely to exist as little more than a legacy name for externally developed Star Wars titles. A round of layoffs has been had as a result.

"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," claims the company. "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."


Sadface. Star Wars 1313 and First Assault both go up in smoke here.

[Capt_redshirt]

While its true disney shut down LucasArts it doesn't mean the games are gone for good they have been "shelved" This happens alot when companies buy out other companies... I don't know for certain but Disney will evaluate what will and won't work and activate some of those games into production again...

[Quadstriker]

kotaku.com

"Publicly, Disney is saying their current games could be licensed out to a different publisher or developer, but according to our source, that's unlikely. Our source says Lucas has pursued the option for "one or both games," but nothing happened. "With the teams now basically being dispersed I think both games are effectively dead forever," our source said.

A second source also told Kotaku this afternoon that the chances of Lucas licensing out 1313 are very slim. The odds are "effectively zero," the source said."

[BrerGnat]

My BIL's brother just got laid off from LucasArts. He was working on Star Wars Detours. I'm sort of shocked about this, frankly. Disney could have taken all that talent at Lucas Arts and used it, but instead they just let all those people go. Bad move.

[Tekneek]

This is why we should always temper our enthusiasm when these deals happen. Shopping out the titles just wouldn't be the same experience anyway. It didn't take long for Disney to start destroying what Lucas created. There will be more of this.

[Quadstriker]

Shopping out the titles just wouldn't be the same experience anyway.

They've been licencing out titles for years with great success. KOTOR anyone?

[Tekneek]

They've been licencing out titles for years with great success. KOTOR anyone?

No difference for those, but I've enjoyed internally developed software and games more over the years. Licensing is just a content deal.

[DizneyRox]

No difference for those, but I've enjoyed internally developed software and games more over the years. Licensing is just a content deal.
Licensing is a low risk money maker (for Disney). Think Children's Place/TDS fiasco... Didn't work out well for Hoop Retail, but Disney didn't suffer not one bit. They sold off an under performing property that put a drain on the buyers, collected licensing fees for a few years, and then bought it back for practically nothing. Winner winner chicken dinner!

[Quadstriker]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LucasArts_games

Looks like everything half-decent has been licensed for years.