Disney closes LucasArts

Quote :

Disney is closing its LucasArts game publishing arm. Game Informer has learned.

A representative confirmed the news with 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.”

Still developing……

Source: VG247

Swamp Thing wrote:

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. Hypothetically, the company could license First Assault or 1313 to a different developer, but those would be different games entirely.

“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," Disney said in a statement. "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.”

This comes after weeks and months of rumors involving the studio, which was acquired by Disney last fall. In September, LucasArts put a freeze on all hiring and product announcements, which many staff saw as the beginning of the end. Today, it's official: the longrunning studio is no more.

The company was acquired as part of a mega-merger last year where Disney acquired LucasFilm and its sibling company from Lucas. Maniac Mansion, one of LucasArts' first self-published titles, introduced the "SCUMM" game engine driving several well known point-and-click adventure titles the company published into the 1990s. The Secret of Monkey Island, created by Ron Gilbert and co-written by Tim Schafer (both now at Double Fine), is one of the publisher's best-known graphical adventures using the engine.

The publisher's apogee was certainly in the 1990s, when a wave ofStar Wars-themed titles for the PC—such as Dark Forces, X-Wingand Rebel Assault—were supplemented by games like the strategy titleAfterlife, the Sam & Max series, and Schafer's Full Throttle.

In the 2000s, the company became more reliant on its Star Warsproducts and licenses sold to other developers as new efforts likeFracture failed to take hold. The decade's most notable successes—Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Star Wars: Battlefrontwere both externally developed, by BioWare and Pandemic Studios, respectively. LucasArts' last title to see mainstream success was 2008'sStar Wars: The Force Unleashed. A 2010 sequel didn't live up to expectations. The last game published by LucasArts was Kinect Star Wars for the Xbox 360 last year, a game widely panned by critics.

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

They said nothing would happen to Marvel and it would have no effect. IT HAPPENED.
AND NOW THIS SHIT? FUCK U DISNEY

http://nooooooooooooooo.com/

thats too bad. 1313 looked really good.

Goodbye Monkey Island and Grim Fandango

oh man how could i forget these guys made Monkey Island..... now i'm even more sad....

Can't say I really care, to be honest.

Orion wrote:

oh man how could i forget these guys made Monkey Island..... now i'm even more sad....

Recognize that bloke at the table?

I never really cared for the LucasArts games (Except Monkey Island), but how absurd.

Really now.

Closing an exceptionally great studio is mind-boggling.

Fuck off Disney. SW 1313 had amazing graphics and could have been a pretty good game dealing with Boba Fett. Instead, this happens.

Sawed-Off_Orc wrote:

Orion wrote:

oh man how could i forget these guys made Monkey Island..... now i'm even more sad....

Recognize that bloke at the table?

dude from grim fandago..? i bought that game but never played it...

Yeah, Manny Calavera. Argh dude! Play it already. It will change your life forever. After completing that game you are just sitting in awe like "oh my god, that was beautiful".