Disney Shuts Down LucasArts, Cancels Star Wars 1313 And Star Wars: First Assault
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.
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.
I'm less upset about 1313 but the legacy that was LucasArts is officially dead.
Some of you may not remember a good Star Wars game, but there was a time that they existed and LucasArts made them.
But LucasArts was more than Star Wars they made beautiful looking, funny, imaginative games that defined genres and inspired millions.
LucasArts however somehow lost its magic. I always hoped that they would come back somehow. I was really hoping Disney would inject some much needed fairy dust to bring it all back and pump out something like Full Throttle 2, or an update to the X-Wing or Tie Fighter games.
But although I'm sad about LucasArts being shelled out and turned to a label there is some hope. Maybe there will finally be good Star Wars games instead of something half baked, buggy, and the outright retarded titles we've been getting for the past few years.
Good-bye old friend. Thank you for my childhood. I only hope Walt will treat you well in the afterlife
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