Disney Shuts Down LucasArts, Cancels Star Wars 1313 And Star Wars: First Assault

[natr0n]

Disney has laid off the staff of LucasArts and cancelled all current projects.

Staff were informed of the shutdown this morning, according to a reliable Kotaku source. Some 150 people were laid off, and both of the studio's current projects—Star Wars: First Assault and Star Wars 1313—were cancelled. Disney will still use the LucasArts name to license games, but the studio is no more.

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.

http://kotaku.com/disney-shuts-down-lucasarts-468473749

 

[Norton]

Really miss the old Jedi Knight-Dark Forces II and similar games... guess we'll never see anything else from that series now

 

[yogurt_21]

article notes the most successful games in the past decade from Lucas Arts were externally developed. Doesn't make sense to keep a studio live who only develops flops while the name itself when farmed out is successful. Why not just get rid of the studio and merely farm out? Makes sense to me.

 

[Xzibit]

Makes sense. Disney likes to cater to broader audience spanning several demos. Those games were aimed at a specific target in the Star Wars universe and werent going to parallel the upcoming movies.

They are better dumping the licenses to studios rather then taking a hit financially more then they have already.

Just look at whats happened to Star Wars The Clone Wars series. Its shutdown/cancelled and probaly be revived on a Disney Network, ABC, ABC Family instead of a Time Warner Network.

 

[ogharaei]

Disney has laid off the staff of LucasArts and cancelled all current projects.

Staff were informed of the shutdown this morning, according to a reliable Kotaku source. Some 150 people were laid off, and both of the studio's current projects—Star Wars: First Assault and Star Wars 1313—were cancelled. Disney will still use the LucasArts name to license games, but the studio is no more.

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.

http://kotaku.com/disney-shuts-down-lucasarts-468473749

Disney strikes again? I thought George Lucas made the job security of his staff one of many conditions under which he sold everything off to Disney?

 

[Xzibit]

Disney strikes again? I thought George Lucas made the job security of his staff one of many conditions under which he sold everything off to Disney?

I'm sure they were offered a job at Disney resorts.

 

[Frick]

Really miss the old Jedi Knight-Dark Forces II and similar games... guess we'll never see anything else from that series now

As others have said Lucasarts are not very good at games anymore themselves. Played Jedi outcast and academy? Excellent games, not made by lucas. Heres hoping for a new Jedi Knight.

 

[Norton]

As others have said Lucasarts are not very good at games anymore themselves. Played Jedi outcast and academy? Excellent games, not made by lucas. Heres hoping for a new Jedi Knight.

Enjoyed them all from the original Doom-esque Dark Forces thru Jedi Academy.... would be great imho if another developer brings Kyle Katarn back for another round

 

[H82LUZ73]

Lucas Arts made a pretty good western called Outlaws i think....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlaws_%281997_video_game%29 Was a fun non Star Wars game from them.Some game play footage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPCXwbkSlp0 Real shame Disney shut them down....Any word if they will cancel the movies also?

 

[Widjaja]

Last good game I remember from Lucasarts was Secret of Monkey Island.

 

[manofthem]

Enjoyed them all from the original Doom-esque Dark Forces thru Jedi Academy.... would be great imho if another developer brings Kyle Katarn back for another round

I like Kyle in Jedi Outcast and wouldn't mind seeing him again, and I also liked Jedi Academy. I really would like see another game along those lines.

 

[Xzibit]

Lucas Arts made a pretty good western called Outlaws i think....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlaws_%281997_video_game%29 Was a fun non Star Wars game from them.Some game play footage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPCXwbkSlp0 Real shame Disney shut them down....Any word if they will cancel the movies also?

I beleive that was part of the deal. Lucas didnt want the movies but Disney wanted a Series of movies much like Pirates of the Carribean and what its doing with Marvel. Lucas just had it with the response the first 3 movies had (not the first 3 original)

Lucas has been given control away the buy out with Disney just made it official for Kathleen Kennedy to be in-charge. Lucas will still be consulted on the process.

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

I first read this (saw elsewhere) as LucasFilm lol and had remind myself it was now April 3rd.

Yeah...never nice to see lost jobs but certainly no great loss to the gaming or the Star Wars fan communities, to be frank.

 

[remixedcat]

Last good game I remember from Lucasarts was Secret of Monkey Island.

Same

 

[TheMailMan78]

Disney tends to be a bunch of Assh#!es. You should see how they threat their artists. If Walt was still alive today he would burn down Disneyland.

 

[Emperor_Piehead]

I am to young for the good era of star wars but i played the crap out of battlefront 2 and read a few of the novels

 

[Easy Rhino]

LucasArts made terrible games because George Lucas has no idea what he is doing. Just look at SW1-3.

 

[Frick]

Last good game I remember from Lucasarts was Secret of Monkey Island.

Same

Which would mean you dont like the sequels or what is usually considered the granddaddy of adventure games: Grim Fandango. Also Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle or Jedi Knight. Either both of you have very VERY strange tastes or you didn't think it through. Even Republic Commando was made by them, and that was a surprisingly good game.

I mean liking EMI but not MI2? That just does not make any sense to me.

LucasArts made terrible games because George Lucas has no idea what he is doing. Just look at SW1-3.

Oh god stop it. You really have no idea what you're talking about.

 

[remixedcat]

Also in other news Lucasfilm THX isn't even by Lucasfilm anymore as well... Creative owns most of it.... LOL

 

[Animalpak]

Just remember one game about Lucas Arts was for Nintendo 64...

 

[remixedcat]

Star Wars Ep 1 pod racer FTW!!!

 

[Frick]

Star Wars Ep 1 pod racer FTW!!!

That was seriously a good game. One of the few racing games I could get in to, for some reason.

 

[Norton]

Star Wars Ep 1 pod racer FTW!!!

Game was better than the movie!

 

[xenocide]

"If there's one thing Star Wars fans hate, it's Star Wars."

I always remember that quote when stuff like this comes up, and people blame George Lucas or Disney or any number of people. I'll definitely say I adore the Star Wars Universe and its lore, but the actual movies are all pretty lack luster; Episode 1 was an action fest with annoying characters and some weak acting (Anakin kid and Jar Jar Douche) with a somewhat nonsense plot, Episode 2 was drawn out and convoluted but at least improved on some aspects of Episode 1, Episode 3 featured Hayden Christensen being decent and whiny as well as some really awful plot holes, Episode 4 was a really generic plot with boring lightsaber battles, Episode 5 was probably the best movie in the series, and Episode 6 was clearly a crash grab--between the ridiculous plot and the stupid Ewoks there is no denying it was quite literally a film made entirely out of greed.

Star Wars as films are basically 3 antiquated movies that were once cutting edge, one of which was a clear cash grab, and 3 newer movies that look a lot nicer and are more action oriented, with one that has some insufferable characters. I'd say it's about a draw.

Now, as for LucasArts, they haven't made anything good since the 90's, so seeing them shut down to re-allocate resources to developers that are actually capable of making good games, is a godsend in my mind.

 

[Frick]

"If there's one thing Star Wars fans hate, it's Star Wars."

I always remember that quote when stuff like this comes up, and people blame George Lucas or Disney or any number of people. I'll definitely say I adore the Star Wars Universe and its lore, but the actual movies are all pretty lack luster; Episode 1 was an action fest with annoying characters and some weak acting (Anakin kid and Jar Jar Douche) with a somewhat nonsense plot, Episode 2 was drawn out and convoluted but at least improved on some aspects of Episode 1, Episode 3 featured Hayden Christensen being decent and whiny as well as some really awful plot holes, Episode 4 was a really generic plot with boring lightsaber battles, Episode 5 was probably the best movie in the series, and Episode 6 was clearly a crash grab--between the ridiculous plot and the stupid Ewoks there is no denying it was quite literally a film made entirely out of greed.

Star Wars as films are basically 3 antiquated movies that were once cutting edge, one of which was a clear cash grab, and 3 newer movies that look a lot nicer and are more action oriented, with one that has some insufferable characters. I'd say it's about a draw.

Now, as for LucasArts, they haven't made anything good since the 90's, so seeing them shut down to re-allocate resources to developers that are actually capable of making good games, is a godsend in my mind.

Very sensible comment. The old movies were ground breaking in their day (at least A New Hope), but I have never understood why the new movies are so trashed by people. It feels like people "hate" them because they are supposed to somehow. When I ask why they hate them I rarely get clear answers, only mutterings about special effects. Which doesn't make sense.